A simple pan fried fish could turn out as a disaster with the wrong technique or old nonstick pan. If you’ve never experienced your fish sticking and breaking apart while cooking, call yourself lucky! It has happened to me several times, ruining my dinners at home, and if I recall correctly, it was always because of a shitty nonstick pan!

Our kitchen is completely done with nonstick pans now. We’ve “broken” one too many with our heavy, high heat cooking and lack of hand washing (we throw it in the dishwasher instead) over the years. I believe I’ve truly tried enough and spent enough money to figure out nonstick pans are not for me. They are gonna be great for cutesy pancakes in the morning on some weekends though, but not at the rate we cook at home.

Why Stainless Steel?

I like recommending stainless steel pans because they are largely affordable, and even if you bought a pricey one, it’s gonna last a long time so no worries! There are other popular alternatives such as cast iron and carbon steel cookware, but I don’t enjoy using them on a daily basis due to their heavy weight. We own expensive cast iron cookware as well, and they are amazing. The low end ones we’ve tried rusted and performed badly!

In case you missed our How To Use a Stainless Steel Pan Guide,

Here’s a quick 101 -

Heat the pan when it’s empty
Every pan will need a different amount of time, but once you figure it out (e.g. 5 minutes), it’ll always work the same for you
From my experience, the larger the pan, the longer it’ll take. It also takes about 1 minute faster if you’re using a gas stove. On my induction, it takes anywhere between 4 - 6 minutes, depending on the pan I use.
With experience, or if you’re highly aware in the kitchen, there is actually a smell to a proper heated pan.
Add oil once the pan is sufficiently hot. I like adding enough to spread and cover the entire surface.
You will observe that the oil will form waves/ripples. If your oil smokes up immediately, your pan is too hot. But if you use a high smoke point oil like avocado oil, this shouldn’t be an issue!
Again, if you’re highly aware in the kitchen, there is a smell to proper heated oil as well.
Now you can cook anything in your stainless steel pan!

Now, I won’t sugarcoat this: Depending on how savvy you are in the kitchen, this learning curve might be steep and you may have to go through some rounds of trial and error. But science has proven that your stainless steel pan will have a nonstick surface once it’s sufficiently hot.

Also, honestly speaking…

Depending on what you’re cooking, there is bound to be some sticking! But if half your food is stuck, you’re probably doing it wrong. Practice makes perfect~

If my tips are not helpful for you, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube:) That’s how I got started and figured out what worked for me & my pans. I didn’t magically get it right the first time either, we all start somewhere! Being able to work stainless steel cookware effortlessly is one of my greatest achievements in the kitchen, I feel like a professional chef haha!

Stainless Steel Pans I Use At Home

Onto Pan Frying Fish

I learnt how to pan fry fish from watching my mom cook as a kid. I remember all the steps at my fingertips because fish was my dad’s favourite protein, there must be fish on the dinner table every night!

The secret to achieving a crispy exterior is in the preparation:

Dry the fish completely, be super thorough at this step. There shouldn’t be any moisture left on your paper towel once you’re done.
I like adding salt to the fish before coating it with flour, think of this as the foundational seasoning.
Coat all surfaces of the fish with rice flour. Corn or plain flour will work too, but I like rice flour best! Don’t miss any spot and make sure it’s an even coating all around so it cooks beautifully.
If you did not do a thorough drying job in the first step, the flour will not coat properly.
Also do not coat the fish and leave them hanging for a long time. I like coating and frying them immediately. This means your pan and oil should be ready to go once you’re done coating your fish.
Add the fish gently to the pan and just let it cook. Do not move it, do not try to check on it by flipping it at least for a few minutes.
After a few minutes, use a fish spatula to flip it. You might need another utensil or your hand as support.
Remember to cook all surfaces so the entire exterior is able to achieve a beautiful golden brown colour. You may need tongs to hold the fish on some sides.
I like resting the freshly fried fish on a cooling rack and then adding more seasoning immediately while the fish is sizzling. If you’re just looking to serve a basic pan fried fish, adding more salt and some pepper is enough. I like mixing things up by adding different spice blends (e.g. gochugaru, togarashi, chilli lime seasoning, etc)
Pan fried is best served fresh! If you’re making it in advance, air frying or reheating in the oven with fan will crisp it up again, even if it was from the fridge:)

Things I Used In My Instagram Reel

Benefits of Stainless Steel Pans

I started getting into stainless steel pans because I learnt from multiple sources that we might be ingesting nonstick coating from nonstick pans.

I believe some of us are not using nonstick pans correctly. They actually have to be treated with so much care & consideration. Your heat setting should be no higher than medium and I find that very limiting.

I disliked the idea of potentially ingesting chemicals and also grew very tired of buying a new nonstick pan every 6 months. The rate we replaced our pans may not be representative for others, but I’m pretty sure most households would have to replace their nonstick pans at some point. As for stainless steel, there is no coating and it is fantastic for high heat cooking, so it’s truly a no-brainer to get on it.

It’s light, easy to maintain and pretty much never wears out.

How To Clean Stainless Steel Cookware

There is NO NEED for scrubbing your stainless steel pans or pots if there are food bits stuck. All you have to do is to add some water and let it boil for a few minutes. Use your spatula to scrape off everything, it should be really easy. Thereafter, you can lightly scrub your pot or pan and it should be as good as new!

I’ll recommend this stainless steel scrubber:

It can be used infinitely, just like your stainless steel cookware.