This quick-cooking Potato Crusted Fish is one of our favorite instant potato recipes and one of the easiest Lenten dinner ideas.

The first time I made potato crusted fish we were actually in the mood for fish tacos, but had no tortillas. We had used the last of them the week before when I made my wife and daughter some Venison Carnitas Tacos.

If you’re like me, you don’t want to waste time with yet another trip to the grocery store with a kid in tow, so you improvise with what you have. I scoured our pantry for ideas and found a box of instant mashed potatoes leftover from one of my solo backcountry hunting trips.

Most of the recipes I create are like that. I cook seasonally with what is available in our backyard garden, the woods, or lakes and rivers. But when it’s a freezing cold night in North Dakota, sometimes you just gotta go with some fish from the freezer and some instant potatoes in the cupboard.

If you want to use this Potato Crusted Fish recipe when you are looking for Lenten dinner ideas, you can choose your favorite vegetable as a side dish to go along with this instant potato recipe—or throw them on a tortilla and enjoy some fish tacos.

How To Make Potato Crusted Fish

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Take your fish out 15 minutes before cooking. Pat the fish fillets dry with paper towels, then sprinkle both sides of each fillet with the salt and black pepper.

3. Put flour in a shallow dish. Combine instant potatoes and Old Bay seasoning in another shallow dish. Combine milk and egg in a third shallow dish.

4. Dredge fish fillets in the flour, then egg/milk, and then instant potatoes.

5. Melt butter and olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side until golden brown and internal temp is the recommended 145 degrees F. If the outside of the fish is nice and golden brown, but the internal temp isn’t quite to 145 degrees F, place the fish on a rimmed baking sheet and in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 3 minutes until done. Don’t overcook the fish or it will dry out!

6. Like most Lent dinner ideas, it’s important to keep the dish simple. The girls love eating this potato crusted fish with some roasted asparagus. But you can choose to pair it with your favorite vegetable side dish.

You’ll find more recipes to prepare using the meat and fish that you’ve harvested yourself in every issue of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.