This Baked Fish recipe comes with a Lemon Cream Sauce and is made in ONE baking dish! Yup, just throw it all in one pan, bake it, and you end up with a tender juicy fish in a creamy lemon sauce. The the juices of the fish mingles in with the sauce while it’s baking, as if made from the best fish stock!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Baked Fish
If the idea of baked fish conjures up the words pale, colourless and bland, then this one’s going to be a game changer for you!!
It’s an effortless 15 minute recipe one pan recipe where fish is baked with a creamy lemon sauce. It’s the sort of recipe you can make no matter how hectic your household is, or on a lazy Sunday night because it’s this easy:
Mix butter, cream, garlic, mustard and lemon;
Pour over fish; and
Bake – no flipping required.
And out comes this – tender baked fish fillets with a beautiful lemon cream sauce that’s perfect with fish!
This recipe will work for most fish, but is especially great for white fish fillets
When you bake fish, you just can’t get colour on it like you can with pan frying, and this means loss of flavour. So I like to either have a flavoured crumb, like I do for my other Emergency Fish recipe, Parmesan Crusted Fish (10 minutes, no messy dredging!) or a Sauce.
The Lemon Cream Sauce for Fish
This recipe really is all about that Lemon Cream Sauce for fish which is made in the same pan while the fish is baking. It’s a simple sauce which actually tastes pretty unimpressive when you first mix it up.
But once it’s baked and the fish juices mix in with it, it transforms into an incredible sauce. It’s basically like making a sauce with real homemade fish stock – just like fine dining restaurants do!
What this tastes like
The recipe name implies that the sauce is rich but actually, it is not! I describe it as kind of light and fresh, yet a bit creamy. You will be thankful there is a decent amount of sauce because it’s perfect for mopping up with bread or spooning over mashed potato!
What you need
Not very much!
White Fish fillet – any fairly flat white fish fillet is fine here, about 2 cm/ 4/5 ” thick or less. Any thicker, and the fish will take longer to bake which will thicken the sauce too much so you’ll need to thin it with a splash of water.
Escallot/French onion – those small onions, they’re more delicate than normal onions so they work well in a quick fish recipe like this. Use the white part of green onions as a sub, or really finely minced normal onion.
Dijon Mustard – sauce thickener. Can sub with other non seedy mustards.
Garlic – goes in almost everything in my world!
Cream – use heavy / thickened cream if you can, to help with sauce consistency. Low cal sub – evaporated milk. It’s not quite the same, but I’ve been known to use it when I’m trying to be “healthier” 😂
Butter – there is no substitute! 😂
Lemon – lime would work in an emergency situation. Sub: 1/3 cup white wine simmered to reduce to 2 tbsp, use in place of lemon in recipe.
Really QUICK Baked Fish Fillets
I say this is a quick recipe – and I mean it. It takes longer to heat up the oven than it does to prepare this recipe! Watch the video and see!
Dinner on the table in just 15 minutes. Tender, juicy fish with a creamy lemon sauce. A really fantastic way to make baked fish – it’s so, so good! – Nagi x
Try these on the side:
Everyday Cabbage Salad, big juicy Greek Salad
Fresh Garden Salad with Balsamic Dressing, French Dressing or Italian Dressing
Potatoes au Gratin, Easy Creamy Potato Casserole or Mini Potato Gratin Stacks
And more fish recipes:
Watch how to make it
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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Baked Fish with Lemon Cream Sauce (One Baking Dish!)
Ingredients
- 4 x 150- 180g / 5 – 6 oz fish fillets , about 1.5cm / 1/2″ thick, skinless and boneless (Note 1)
- 50g / 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup cream, heavy / thickened (See Note 2 for sub options)
- 1 – 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- Salt & pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp eschallots (French onion) , finely chopped (Note 3)
- Fresh parsley and lemon slices , to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F (all oven types).
- Place fish in a baking dish – ensure the fish isn’t crammed in too snugly. See video or photos in post. Sprinkle both sides of fish with salt and pepper.
- Place butter, cream, garlic, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a microwave proof jug or bowl. Microwave in 2 x 30 sec bursts, stirring in between, until melted and smooth.
- Sprinkle fish with shallots, then pour over sauce.
- Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until fish is just cooked. Remove from oven and transfer fish to serving plates. Spoon over sauce, and garnish with parsley and lemon wedges if using.
Recipe Notes:
- salmon (too fatty, sauce splits)
- very thin delicate fish like flounder, Dover Sole
- small whole fish like sardines or mackerel
Nutrition Information:
Originally published October 2016, updated with much needed new photos, brand new video and updated writing. No change to recipe, it’s a firm reader fave that I wouldn’t dare change!
Life of Dozer
Yesterday was a day of experimenting with slow cooked curries. So there was plenty of downtime spent doing THIS!
And from when I originally published this recipe in October 2016:
From a little camping trip last weekend – getting smashed in the waves at beautiful Jimmy’s Beach, NSW Australia. He’s a sucker for punishment, that one. I really have to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t get swept away by a rip!!
I’ve never cooked fish in my house! This turned out fantastic! I had to make changes since we made it on the fly. We used half and half, not cream, brown mustard not Dijon, garlic power, not garlic and used regular onion. It turned out so good and easy! I can only imagine how delicious it is with the correct ingredients!! Great receipt! Fast, easy and delicious!!
This has become a regular. I have added green prawns or marinara mix half way through. Have also doubled the sauce. Great with mash and greens.
OMG! This was so easy to make & so delicious! I would make this for friends & family again for sure – the fish was moist & delicious and the sauce was sublime. I served it with pasta & steamed veggies. Thank you so much for the recipe, Nagi!
Excellent recipe! Thanks for creating and sharing! The sauce is delicious and the hake fish was cooked to perfection!
Please give my previous comment 5 stars as I forgot to before
I made this for my family this Easter. My daughter is dairy free so I made it with coconut cream instead. Delicious, thank you Nagi. xxx
I made this again tonight and it was absolutely fabulous!!!! I hadn’t made it for a while but everyone said can we have it again next week!!!
So delicious, I would proudly make this for guests. I used cod with mashed potatoes and broccoli rab for sides. Great meal!
Made it tonight with thawed snapper. Served it over rice. Got a six stars out of five from snapper loving spouse. Thank you, Nagi!
Oh Nagi Thank-you so much for the most outstanding dishes you present..Love them all and I am going to make this lovely fish dish!!!
A hug to You and Dozer…..
This was a little tart for my taste. I added 2T honey which worked out well. I had to add an extra 10 minutes to cook time to get it to 145 on my meat thermometer. Served over orzo. Delicious with the changes.
Great recipe. I used barramundi. I’ll definitely make this recipe again 👏
I loved this easy recipe! I used it for haddock and baked for 13 minutes. Though there was enough sauce, I’ll double the recipe next time— we put some on mashed potatoes and just plain needed more. My husband said he’d like more lemon, so next time!
This one’s a keeper! For my personal taste I would maybe reduce the lemon juice a little and I added some prawns just because everything is improved by the addition of prawns! But it was so simple, very quick to make and yet impressive enough to serve to friends for dinner – absolutely lovely!
So delicious, and earned raves from dinner guests as well as my husband. Will definitely make this again! Thanks!
I made this last night for dinner and my 11 year old Son asked me to keep this delicious fish in the rotation! Plus the sauce is so divine.
Thank you Nagi, this is definitely a keeper!
OMG! So delicious. It was a definite hit at my house tonight. Sides: Garlic mashed potatoes and sweet corn.
Fantastic. Made it as written with pollock. Couldn’t really be any easier, and we both thought it was absolutely delicious… but that the kids probably wouldn’t like it, so we shouldn’t save any for them!
Happy New Year
Nagi and Dozer
Just baked this fish dish it’s superb !
Thank you
Made this tonight for dinner. So delicious and easy! Was a crowd pleaser everyone loved it. Thanks for your recipes they are always so clear. I bought your book and they are all winners. Thank again x