Deep Fried Scallops with a Bread Crumb. The Scallops get coated in Seasoned Flour, Dipped into the Egg Mixture and then coated again but with Bread Crumbs.

Scallops

When Deep Frying Scallops I usually just get the Frozen Bay Scallops which are much smaller than Sea Scallops.

If using Fresh, just crack the Shell open. Clean out the insides, reserving a fairly decent size Scallop meat, and remove the small white side muscle -this will cook very tough. You can choose to cut this in half or quarters giving you smaller bits of meat just the like the Frozen Bay Scallops or batter this whole and deep-fry a bit longer.

My preference for deep-fried scallops is to have them in smaller chunks, so the Bay Scallops works for me quite nicely or the Big Bag of Frozen small Scallops you can pick up at the grocery store. I use the larger whole ones for searing. The Frozen Bag of Hokkaido Scallops pictured below.

You can also batter the larger ones. Just fry them a bit longer. You may want to drop the temp down slightly so that you don’t brown them too much from the extra minute or so of cooking.

Seasoned Flour

Use which ever seasoning you want in the Seasoned Flour – The standard one works nicely, or directly on the Scallops, usually Salt & Pepper.

Old Bay, Creole, Cajun, Herbamare are other premade seasoning that can be added as the seasoning for Seasoned Flour.

Egg Wash

The Egg wash is a standard wash. One Egg and 1 Tablespoons of Water or Milk. You can also add a bit of Hondashi for extra flavor.

The Scallops get dipped in this after being coated in the Seasoned Flour mix.

Breading Batter

JAH Seasoned Flour with the addition of Bread Crumbs. In a Standard Breading Station. One bowl with Seasoned Flour, another with the Egg Mixture, and another for Breadcrumbs.

However, if you want crunchy deep-fried Scallops then dip them into JAH Deep Fry Batter and cook or Dip in the Deep Fry Batter then coat with either breadcrumbs or Panko Flakes.

For me, the Bread Crumbs is desired in the Scallops. This allows me to have a slightly different batter and texture across various deep-fried food items that come together really nice for a Deep Fried Seafood Platter.

• Fish (Crunchy Wet batter)
• Clams (Seasoned Flour Breading)
• Shrimp (Seasoned Flour Breading with Panko)
• Scallops (Seasoned Flour Breading with Bread Crumbs).

Deep Fried Scallops Preparation

Take out 1 lbs of Scallops from the Bag of Frozen Bay Scallops and let thaw.

Allow the Scallops to defrost and come to room temp, dump out any excess water. If they are the larger ones, you may want to half or quarter them.

Coat in Seasoned Flour. I use a Spider to scoop out the Scallops and shake to get rid of any excess flour before placing them into the Egg Mixture and finally bread crumbs.

TIP: Top get rid of fishy smells with seafood, sprinkle with a bit of sugar directly on the meat.

Deep Frying

The General rule for deep-frying anything, is deep fry until the steam is gone, as water retention in the meat will cause a soggy exterior.

There are a few things to consider such as whether the food is at room temp, frozen or anywhere in between which drops the Oil Temp when initially placed in and How much of the food is being placed into the Deep fryer at once.

If the Oil drops too much in heat, it won’t be hot enough to evaporate the excess water efficiently. In this case, removing the food and allowing the Oil to come back to temp before placing the food back in is often used to remedy this. Deep Frying at higher temps is also used to account for the drop in heat.

Cold foods will drop the oil temp significantly. Which is why I do fries in three stages to allow the Oil to come back to temp.

When you place the scallops into the basket. Lower the basket and wait a few seconds before giving the basket a shake to loosen the scallops.

Preheat the Oil to 350 F – 375 F and Deep Fry until no more steam escapes. Just as the steam stops, take them out, there may be a few wisps of steam and that’s fine. Anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes depending on size.

Scallops come in a variety of sizes and therefore affect cook times. The smaller ones I do about 2 minutes. The larger size I do about 3–4 minutes. The true tell for me is just as the Steam stops evaporating, take them out, no matter the size of the scallops. The Scallops should be golden crisp, white in the middle and tender.