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!!
Cris says
This recipe is soooo delicious!!! Silly story…I dreamt about a fish in lemon cream sauce that I put on …macaroni…when I winked up I had to find a recipe and this is exactly it! I even made macaroni and macaroni cod in parm and lil heavy cream then put fish and sauce on top and baked 12 min…it was so good! No clue where that crazy foodie dream came from but so glad it led me to this recipe!!
Cris says
Well I should have read that before I sent it…needs editing…sorry!
Tara says
The simplest sauces make miracles. This was divine. Thank you!
Amanda says
I made this last night dairy free, with coconut cream and nuttelex as the subs. Still tasted amazing and my dairy-eating friend enjoyed it too. Thanks Nagi 🙂
Gayoung kim says
The best fish recipe I have ever had! I am going to stick on this recipe from now on…. Easy, quick and… Taste is amazing ❤️❤️❤️
Kylie says
I cooked this for my dad who has problems swallowing food. It was so soft and fall apart he said it’s the best thing he’s eaten in ages and so tasty!
I then used the leftover sauce with some cooked pasta, a tin of tuna (I chose chilli style) some capers and chopped baby spinach and put in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Just delicious! Thank you
Blythe says
My entire family loved this dish. So much flavor and super quick and easy to make.
Betsy Pedersen says
What do you think would be the best way to make the sauce on it’s own ?
Taysia says
How is this recipe even real? It was healthy, so easy, so fast and so delicious. Ticked all the boxes! We had it with steamed brocollini and mashed potato and everyone loved it. I am very intimidated by fish but try hard to get more in our diet so this was the perfect recipe given how easy and hands off it is. Will make again and again that’s for sure.
Becca says
Would the addition of Capers or Sundried tomatoes work in this recipe?
Ric says
Disregard my question, sorry, read it 4 times and didn’t see cream goes right in with the rest :/
Ric says
Instructions don’t say when to add cream
Khadija Boyd says
Followed the directions to the letter and my husband and I loved it! It was superb will definitely make this again.
Kate says
Another awesome recipe that got the stamp of approval from my husband. Made exactly as written as served with mash potato and French bistro salad. So good!!!
zoe says
Could I use this sauce recipe with chicken thigh fillets?
Graeme says
Why is your sebsite font color so unreadably pale???
I had to cut’n’paste the recipe into a Word doc just to read it!!
Joan says
This was very good. I used frozen Pollack and didn’t have time to thaw it. I combined the sauce in a saucepan instead of the mocrowave. I served the fish and the sauce over white rice and a side of broccoli. Super good and quick meal! My fussy eater really liked it too!
Esther Joyce says
Goodness me. This recipe converted my I-hate-fish-and-I-will-never-go-near-it-ever kid !! Stupid-easy and such a quick meal to prepare.
Thanks so much!
Jessica says
Yum! So easy to make and tasted amazing! A great recipe to make if you want to impress your dinner guests! Thank you.
Julia Ogden says
So easy – delicious with Orange Roughy. Added a splash of vermouth because that’s how I roll. So good.
Fotini says
I don’t do mustard at all. Can you suggest a replacement or can I leave it out?
Chelsea says
I don’t either, being slightly picky. But seeing it used in so many marinades was like, okay obviously none of these great cooked foods taste like mustard. And it’s true there is no mustard taste at all. Give it a shot. There are a lot of marinades that smell weird that give foods the full spectrum experience.