Abstract: In order to meet consumers' demand for delicious fish soup products, and improve the utilization value of Channa argus processing by-products, we prepared the fish head soup by spray drying method using C. argus head soup as raw material and maltodextrin as a drying aid. The optimization of spray drying technology was carried out by analyzing the water mass fraction, color, solubility, bulk density, time of punching and viscosity of dry powder. The results show that maltodextrin could increase the spray drying rate, powder brightness and solubility effectively, and improve the adhesive condition. With the maltodextrin addition amount of 15 g·L ^{− 1}, spray drying inlet temperature of 170 ℃ and feeding speed of 6 mL·min ^{− 1}, the spray effect and product quality were the best. The prepared fish head soup powder contained low water content, large packing density, high solubility, low moisture absorption and uniform particle size. In conclusion, spray drying method can be used as a preparation method for fish head soup.