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!!
Brilliant, basic white fish fillets from freezer transformed in to loveliness. I chucked in some mushrooms and capers and used coriander rather than parsley, still worked really well.
Made this for dinner tonight because I was tired and wanted to cook something quick….OMG, soooo delicious! My whole family said “make sure that goes straight to your keeper book”
I used Moses Snapper, seriously tasted just like an expensive restaurant dish. Thank you for the recipe!
The fish was so yummy in the sauce – picky husband approved! I used basa fillets and it was so quick and easy to make. We served with plain rice to go with the yummy sauce and baked crispy broccoli. Thank you Nagi!!
Oh my word ..,,,made this dish tonight, my husband and I both loved it, simple and very tasty. Will make it again
Oh.my.goodness.
I made this and served it with brown rice to soak up all that yummy sauce.
This will be a staple now. So easy and so perfectly tasty.
All your recipes are spot on.
Such a great recipe!! The sauce was not too rich, it had a lovely freshness to it with the lemon juice. I will be using it again for sure, thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Would this work with halibut or Chilean Sea bass?
One of my favorite! so easy yet tasty! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!
This recipe is just, wow, absolutely delicious! I was expecting something tasty, but the balance of flavours was exceptional. Definitely going on my list of favourite things to do with a piece of fish.
Omg so bomb I’m licking my bowl. I used tilapia and realized I only had half and half rather then cream, can only imagine how much better it is with cream!! Love love love, making this often. Paired over rice and green beans. Poured sauce on everythingggggg.
I will like to try this.
Great recipe! I was leery about the Dijon mustard’s influence over the flavor of the sauce. I was very pleasantly surprised how beautifully all the flavors came together. And as described, the sauce would be perfect to dip bread into. I also think that it would also be great to serve on top of a bed of rice or angel hair pasta.
I do prefer a thicker, more coating sauce, so next time I am going to try to add a cornstarch slurry to the sauce blend.
Thanks Nagi!!!
For thickening, I use instant mashed potatoes (also known here as potato flakes). Unless you wan to enhance the flavor, I would use plain flakes. Otherwise I use appropriately flavored (sour cream and onion, four cheese, etc.) to enhance whatever flavors my dish has or needs). Unlike flour, the un-flavored potato flakes have no detectable flavor in the finished dish, and are quicker to thicken and easier to control.
Made this for supper tonight & it was yummy!!! Super easy.
Hi Nagi,
Can i sub the fish for chicken? 😅
I’ve MOSTLY used this with chicken and just cook it stovetop…it’s absolutely delicious
I did it yesterday and was great, excellent flavors, the winner!!
This recipe, like all of Nagi’s recipes was delicious. I only use this website for cooking ideas. This is the first one though that i’m not sure if I will make again. Despite it being very tasty, i felt that the cream or the dijon were a little bit overpowering/ heavy for the fish. Maybe less mustard next time? I used basa fillets and it came out so soft and tender. Good cook time. Overall a good recipe though. Maybe reduce the mustard or use lite cream if that works with this recipe?
Can I cover this to cook in the oven?
Hello Nagi!
I love your website and have tried several of your recipes, the oven baked chicken and rice is one of my family’s all time favorite dinner.
I just came across this fish recipe since I am trying to make a fish dish for a friend who is very ill and is on a strict diet. She needs to avoid dairy and needs good oils, like olive oil. Can I use olive oil instead of the butter in the recipe and would the dish still turn out ok?
Hi Hw – sorry but without the butter and cream you won’t get the creamy sauce! N x
You can sub vegan butter instead of butter and oat cooking cream instead of regular cream and it turns out amazing. I’m dairy free and am always subbing for dairy free options.
Oh my Nagi!! This looks absolutely amazing!! I would like to make this for one of the dishes for this Christmas. It would be for about 18 people. Any idea on how many filets/trays I would need 😆🙃
Hi Megan – just use the scaling bar at the top of my recipes to change the number of servings! N x
Tried this recipe yesterday and it is a winner! Definitely going to feature it more in the menu. My guests felt.. Fancy just eating it. 😂 Fish was tasty and creamy. Thank you Nagi!
I don’t know why I saw basa as bass😔. Will bass work? I already bought it! Plan on making it Monday.