Not sure how you are breading, but for oysters I would dip in egg-wash, then flour, egg again, then the breading.

I don't know anything about oysters per se, but usually isn't coating falling off a sign that the pan or oil isn't hot enough yet?

Also, maybe I'm stating the obvious, but make sure they are patted dry before breading them.

Zatarain's makes an outstanding prepackaged seafood breading mix that works perfectly. No eggwash is needed and all you have to do is shake your oysters in a bag of it. I'm pretty sure that the mix is just seasoned fine ground corn meal.

No worries. I figured out what you're doing wrong: Cooking the oysters!

But in all seriousness, if you MUST cook them (ill-advised), follow SOP:
0. Do not rinse. Use the natural liquor as the first coat.
1. Dust oyster with flour
2. Dunk floured oyster in egg
3. Roll floured/egged oyster in bread crumbs
4. Toss it in your very hot (375F) oil.
4b. Take it out before long -- just enough for golden perfection.

Agreed with others- you're breading them in breadcrumbs or panko. Fried oysters are almost always a flour, egg, flour breading. Non Sequor's rec for the Zattarains fish fry is a good one, but do the egg wash and repeat breading, not the shake and bake thing.

Make sure the oil is hot. Oysters don't take much time at all to cook. Don't rinse the juices off. Just coat well in a mixture of corn meal and your favorite spices. The wet/dry/wet/dry stuff is overkill. Having worked in a popular Gulf Coast restaurant that always had great reviews on our fried oysters (and poboys), this is how we ALWAYS did it.

Aimee, thanks for posting. I LOVE fried oysters. Here in the Detroit area there aren't a lot of restraunts that serve them. Although I find higher end places, even when they're not on the menu will make them for you. I've never made them but you have inspired me. I like DIRTYNERD's suggestion very much.

I fry oysters all the time in a restaurant in New Orleans. Batter them in corn flour ONLY. Enjoy!!

Dry them, make sure your oil is hot enough, and instead of panko/breadcrumbs grind risotto rice to a flour consistency and use that as your breading.

Hi Aimee,

Be sure to dust the oysters in flour first. The breadcrumbs need the egg and the egg needs the flour. Without the flour coating, the egg will not stick to the oysters which leads to the crumb coating coming off when you fry them.

I agree with Dirtynerd: my mom always just does fine cornmeal with salt and pepper and a quick fry in really hot oil. Always works. No double dipping, liquor as the stick factor.

My wife's 101 yr old grandmother makes the best fried oysters outside of a Japanese restaurant. She usually gets a quart of shucked selects; thumb sized oysters (Maryland & PA upper Chesapeake bay area most supermarkets have this in the refrigerated case in glass jars), puts them in a colander to drain for at least 15 minutes and pat gently dry with paper towels. A dusting of well seasoned flour, egg wash and coarsely crushed Ritz crackers. Saute in butter, med heat. The only argument in the family is whether or not to rinse the oysters in the colander or not, since its already drained, and patted dry. My mother-in-law thinks that rinsing removes more of the 'slime' (her words).

I actually posted a fried oyster recipe. I just used egg wash and panko and make sure the oil is really hot (375º)