Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (2024)

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (1)

By: Stacie HassingPosted: 1/16/20

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A childhood favorite gets a healthy makeover. Baked Fish Sticks with Homemade Tartar Sauce are oven-baked and made with real food ingredients. They’re gluten-free, paleo and Whole30-friendly.

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (2)

This post was created in partnership with our friends at King Arthur Flour.

Not your average fish stick.

As I think back to my childhood meals, one meal that comes to my mind consists of fish sticks (from the freezer), peas and carrots (from the freezer) and some kind of fruit (likely from a can). My guess is that this meal might also be familiar to you! So today, I’m sharing a recipe for Baked Fish Sticks. But instead of them coming in a yellow or blue box from the freezer section of the grocery store, I’m making them with real food ingredients. Because that’s how we roll.

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (3)

Made with real food ingredients including King Arthur Almond Flour.

While yes, it’s much easier to buy a box of frozen fish sticks and just pop them in the oven…our mission is to show you that some of our favorite conveniencefoods can be made pretty darn simply with real food ingredients. Ingredients that do the body good. Baked Fish Sticks are made with just a few ingredients including King Arthur Almond Flour and Coconut Flour, whole eggs, seasonings, and white fish fillets. You could also use King Arthur’s NEW Paleo Baking Flour, a perfect blend of almond, cassava, and coconut flour. This recipe is gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, paleo and Whole30-friendly!

King Arthur’s Almond Flour is milled from blanched whole almonds. It has a super fine texture and full of protein, fiber, and good fats. It makes for a fabulous grain-free flour option in everything from scones to muffins to cookies to waffles for a rich, buttery flavor. Almond flour is also a perfect certified gluten-free substitute for bread crumbs in savory dishes like these Baked Fish Sticks.

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (4)

A tasty lunch or dinner option that will bring you back to your childhood days!

A part of my job that gets me excited is choosing some of my favorite childhood meals or comfort foods and giving them a healthy makeover. This isn’t always an easy task to do and some meals/recipes I leave as is because they’re just too good to be messed with, but thanks to King Arthur Flour, I set out on a mission during my maternity leave to create a recipe for Baked Fish Sticks.

You’ll find that this recipe is easy to make, full of protein and healthy fats, and with all of the dipping and dunking, it’s fun for kids to get involved, too. In addition, these Baked Fish Sticks reheat nicely, so leftovers make for a great next day’s meal. I like to reheat them in the oven set at 350ºF to really crisp them up again. For a well-balanced meal, I serve them with a side of veggies (cooked or raw), fresh fruit for lunch or sweet potato fries for dinner and you can’t forget the tartar sauce for dipping. Speaking of tartar sauce…

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (5)

Dip ’em in our easy Homemade Tartar Sauce.

In the recipe below, I also include my Homemade Tartar Sauce recipe. Now like the fish sticks, there are pre-made tartar sauces you can very easily buy from the grocery store, but I will say that making your own is pretty simple to do. Plus, you know exactly what goes into it, and it’s much better tasting in my opinion! With that said, I recommend you take 5 minutes of your time to whip up a batch of Homemade Tartar Sauce.

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (6)

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (7)

Recipe

5 Stars4 Stars3 Stars2 Stars1 Star5 from 2 reviews

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce

Servings: 5-6 servings 1x

Ingredients

For the Fish Sticks:

  • Olive oil or avocado oil cooking spray
  • 1 lb. cod fillets or white fish of choice, cut into 22 1/2 inch long pieces about ~½-¾ inch thick
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 1 cup King Arthur Almond Flour (86g grams)
  • 2 Tbsp. King Arthur Coconut Flour (16 grams)
  • 1½ tsp. garlic powder
  • 1½ tsp. onion powder
  • 1 tsp. sweet or smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • ½ tsp. black pepper

For the Homemade Tartar Sauce:

  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • 3 Tbsp. finely chopped dill pickles
  • 2 tsp. fresh dill or ¾ tsp. dried dill
  • 1 Tbsp. lemon juice, more to taste
  • ¼ tsp. garlic powder
  • Pinch of black pepper
  • 1 tsp. honey or maple syrup (optional, adds a touch of sweetness. Omit for Whole30)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray parchment with cooking spray.
  2. Prepare the fish. With a paper towel, pat the fish to absorb the liquid and place it on a plate.
  3. In a shallow dish, whisk the eggs.
  4. In another shallow dish, combine the flour, garlic, onion, paprika, salt, and pepper.
  5. Make an assembly line with the ingredients in this order. Fish, egg wash, breading and prepared pan.
  6. Dunk the fish pieces into the egg wash, let excess egg drip off before coating the fish generously with breading – press the breading onto the fish to make sure it sticks and then place on the pan. Repeat until all of the fish is used up.
  7. Spray the breaded fish sticks with a generous amount of cooking spray. This will help them brown and crisp.
  8. Bake for 8 minutes. Flip carefully, spray again with cooking oil and bake for another 5-6 minutes. For extra crisp, broil for 1-2 minutes (watch closely as almond flour burns easily).
  9. While fish sticks are in the oven, make the homemade tartar sauce by combining and mixing all of the tartar sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Place in the fridge until ready to serve.
  10. When fish sticks are done baking, remove from the oven and serve warm with tartar sauce and lemon wedges.

Last Step! Please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive so we can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.

Nutrition Information

  • Serving Size: 1/6 of recipe + 2 Tbsp. Tartar Sauce
  • Calories: 305
  • Fat: 25g
  • Sodium: 900mg
  • Carbohydrate: 7g
  • (Fiber: 3g
  • Sugar: 2g)
  • Protein: 18g

Dietary

© The Real Food Dietitians

Recipe By: Stacie Hassing

I can’t wait for you to give this recipe a try! Comment below if you do. We love hearing from you!

Pin this now & make it later!

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (8)

This post was made possible by our friends at King Arthur Flour. Although we received compensation for this post, the opinions expressed here are – as always – 100% our own. Thank you for supporting the great companies we work with thereby allowing us to continue creating great recipes and content for you.

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (9)

Photo Credit: The photos in this blog post were taken by Jess of Plays Well with Butter.

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (10)

Stacie Hassing

Stacie is a Licensed and Registered Dietitian from rural southern Minnesota where she, her husband and three children reside with their dog. She’s a co-founder of The Real Food RDs and content creator of simple and wholesome recipes. She loves all kinds of fitness and has a passion to inspire as many as she can live a healthier and happier life both in and out of the kitchen - the driving force behind the co-development of the The Real Food RDs brand.

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Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment

  1. Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (13)Callie says

    Is it possible to use a different flour than almond flour? I have a rough time with almond anything

    Reply

    • Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (14)Jessica Beacom says

      We haven’t tested these without the almond flour but typically cassava flour works really well for breading.

      Reply

  2. Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (15)Jennifer Malta says

    what flour can I substitute for almond flour? Can I substitute oatflour? My son is gluten free and can’t have almonds.

    Reply

    • Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (16)Jessica Beacom says

      I think your best option here would be to use cassava flour or a gluten-free 1:1 baking flour.

      Reply

  3. Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (17)Connie says

    If I don’t have coconut or almond flour and not looking to go gluten free, will all purpose or whole wheat flour work?

    Reply

    • Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (18)Stacie Hassing says

      I would suggest using panko bread crumbs! Hope you enjoy this recipe!

      Reply

  4. Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (19)Lena Williams says

    Can you use gf flour

    Reply

    • Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (20)Stacie Hassing says

      We have not tested this recipe with gluten-free flour. If you give it a try, we would love to hear how it turns out for you!

      Reply

  5. Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (21)Meghan says

    Could you air fry?

    Reply

    • Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce - The Real Food Dietitians (22)Stacie Hassing says

      Hey Meghan, we have not tested this recipe in an air fryer. If you give it a try, we would love to hear how it turns out for you!

      Reply

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