Definitely crispy these Great Value Crispy Battered Fish Fillets are. The cooking instructions provided were precise, easy to follow, and worked as described. These taste as good as the name brand products from Mrs. Paul’s and Gorton’s. I really liked them.
You get ten pollock fish fillets per 19-ounce box. Each fillet weighs approximately two ounces, is as long as my right palm, and about as thick as my index finger. They’re wedge-shaped, and the batter is a deep yellow color prior to baking, and a golden-yellow to brown, once baking is complete. The batter coating is not very thick, yet thick enough to supply a healthy crunch. With these, you still get a lot of fish per fillet, and modest breading.
Features, Pros, Advantages, and Benefits
The box is equipped with tabs on the top that allow for re-closing.
This can keep in the freezer for up to a year, although you could extend its life by months by bagging the fillets in zipper seal freezer bags.
Made from whole fish fillets, this battered fish has no fillers, except of course, if you count the crust as a filler. I do not however.
No trans fat here, yet a good source of heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids.
Hot sauce or coctail sauce goes well on this product, as it has no strong flavors for these condiments to clash with. Plus, the batter coating, while not overly thick, is plenty thick to supply an absorbent layer for my favorite hot sauces.
The mild-tasting pollock fish herein, produces no offensively strong fish odors while baking or while frozen in the freezer, in spite of the fact that there’s no inner bag to completely seal the fish. It just offers an easily identified yet meek fish aroma during preparation, that whose who are squeamish about fish will appreciate. The fish itself is a milky white yet translucent color. It looks like light diet fare.
Excellent preparation instructions, that required no tweaking for my taste. As long as your oven is well-calibrated and of reasonable quality, you’ll get the best outcome by following the cooking directions on the box.
Not overly oily or greasy.
Disadvantages, Cons, Problems, and Concerns
Fillets not wrapped in plastic inside the box, which can shorten their life on the freezer shelf. But I ate them all, well before this deadline had passed.
The box is not air-tight. Yet I noticed no taste contamination from other products stored alongside this product in the grocery store freezer.
At 110 calories per fillet, the calorie count seems a little high for fish. No doubt this comes from the oils and flour in the batter. But the good taste provided by the batter makes this weight-control sacrifice well worth it.
The ingredients list is long, and features lots of sodium (300 milligrams per fillet). But on the good side, you get 8 grams of protein, low saturated fat, and high polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.
Like most frozen and breaded fish products, these do not heat well in the microwave oven. You get neither the browning nor the crunch there, that always results in a conventional or convection oven.
These have enriched flour. But for maximum nutritional value overall, I’d prefer unbleached, whole-grain flour.
Cooking Instructions for Battered Fish Fillets
Keep this fish frozen until serving time. Microwave oven preparation is not recommended. Further, fish must reach a temperature of 165 degrees F or higher to kill off all undesirable bacteria and viruses that might be lurking in the flash-frozen fillets.
So, for the conventional oven, here is the recipe that I use, which is not very different from what’s on the package:
- Place oven rack in oven middle.
- Preheat to 425 degrees. This usually takes five to ten minutes in my oven.
- Line a shallow metal baking pan with aluminum foil. This simplifies pan cleanup afterwards.
- Spray the foil with a light coating of high temperature cooking spray, or rub a little high temperature cooking oil over it, such as peanut oil.
- While the oven heats, place the number of fillets you wish to prepare into this pan. But leave an inch or so of gap between the fillets. This makes flipping them less of a chore.
- When the oven hits 425 degrees, put the lined pan, uncovered with the pollock fillets on the middle rack in the oven, shut the door, and let bake.
- Flip fillets after 12 minutes. But be quick about it, as you don’t want to allow too much heat to escape the oven through the open door.
- After 23 to 25 minutes total baking time, or until the bread coating is crunchy and golden brown, remove the pan.
- Allow the sizzling to stop, and then serve immediately..
Ingredients
Pollock, water, vegetable oil (soybean, canola, and / or cottonseed), wheat flour, rice flour, yellow corn flour. Contains less than 2% of the following: Enriched wheat flour (flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), modified corn starch, tapioca dextrin, sugar, salt, leavening (sodium bicarbonate, sodium aluminum phosphate), whey, dextrose, onion powder, corn syrup solids, sodium tripolyphosphate (to retain moisture), spices, soy lecithn, paprika extract (color), xanthan gum, spice extract.
Allergy warning: Contains milk, pollock, wheat, and soy. May contain traces of eggs, crab, shrimp, almonds, coconut, macadamia nuts, pine nuts, and walnuts.
Nutrition Facts
- Serving size: 2 fillets, 106 grams. Servings per container: 5.
- Amount per serving: Calories: 220. Calories from fat: 100.
- Total fat: 11 grams, 17% DV.
- Saturated fat: 2 grams, 10% DV.
- Trans fat: 0 grams.
- Polyunsaturated fat: 7 grams.
- Monounsaturated fat: 2.5 grams.
- Cholesterol: 25 milligrams, 8% DV.
- Sodium: 600 milligrams, 25% DV.
- Potassium: 80 milligrams, 2% DV.
- Total carbohydrate: 22 grams, 7% DV.
- Dietary fiber: 1 gram, 4% DV.
- Sugars: 1 gram.
- Protein: 8 grams.
- Vitamin A: 0% DV.
- Calcium: 2% DV.
- Folic acid: 0% DV.
- Vitamin C: 0% DV.
- Iron: 4% DV.
Our Rating
I’d rate this Great Value fish product at 90 out of 100. These are so good that on occasion, I’ve baked some in the morning for breakfast. Their modest price makes them an economical yet tasty source of protein and fish oils.
Where to Buy Great Value Crispy Battered Fish Fillets
These are sold exclusively at Walmart stores. Look for them in the white box with blue letters, and a picture of the prepared fillets on the front.
References
- Batter on Wikipedia
- Fish Fillets on Wikipedia
- Great Value Brand Website
- Where to Buy Great Value Crispy Battered Fish Fillets
Revision History
- : Adjusted category and tag assignments, fixed typos, and added white space.
- 2012-09-13: Originally published.