Baked Lemon Butter Tilapia
The easiest, most effortless 20 min meal ever from start to finish. And it’s all made in a single pan. Win-win situation here.
Okay, guys. I figured we all needed a little bit of a chicken thigh break.
I clearly love to create a new chicken thigh recipe once a week but we were due for a change. But still, we’re keeping the basics down with the whole lemon-garlic-butter situation.
Because let’s face it. We don’t want to mess with that combination.
So that’s exactly what’s happening here. We’re using budget-friendly tilapia, which cooks in just 10 minutes, drizzled with that butter sauce. It goes right in the oven from start to finish, making your life just that much easier.
You can thank me later.
Baked Lemon Butter Tilapia
Ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more, to taste
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 4 6-ounce tilapia fillets
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9×13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- In a small bowl, whisk together butter, garlic, lemon juice and lemon zest; set aside.
- Season tilapia with salt and pepper, to taste and place onto the prepared baking dish. Drizzle with butter mixture.
- Place into oven and bake until fish flakes easily with a fork, about 10-12 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
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Fantastic fast recipe! The flavor is amazing, I highly recommend
excellent method to cook tilapia
I’m a 63 yr old male and never been a cook. Even I looked good with this recipe. My fish was not fresh. I used the garlic, butter, lemon juice, added cilantro, carrot sticks, parmasan cheese. Oh my word was this good. Thanks
I have never been able to cook fish properly, and have resorted to frozen, breaded fish, always unhappy with how they taste. Saw the reviews for this, made for dinner, and it was heavenly! Best fish dinner I’ve ever made!
Would this work with salmon as well? Do you think the flavors would pair as nicely with salmon?
Delicious and easy. Even my picky teens love it.
We love this recipe. I make it once or sometimes twice a month. I keep frozen cod and tilapia on hand. Great recipe.
Loved it ! Really quick and easy , would defiantly make again .
This recipe is great!! Fish tastes really good!!
Love this recipe. Always loved tilapia but now even more with this recipe. Super easy and quick.
I have frozen fish filets. Do you need to thaw them first?
Yes, I recommend thawing.
This came out juicy and tender – a difficult feat for an often overcooked dish. The extra butter sauce in pan was perfect for drizzle before serving.
I added chopped celery leaves with the parsley prior to cooking. Also, I left the tilapia whole (did not filet).
Yummy recipe, I love talapia!
I added this recipe to my recipe box, you should consider adding the recipe box plugin to your website. Is such an easy way to save recipes you love.
Thanks for the great recipe!
Ingredients are simple and quick to put together. The fish is tender, moist and lemony.
Made this recipe for dinner with rice and broccoli instead of asparagus and we all loved it. Even my son who hates fish ate all of his. Thanks for a great recipe.
I don’t have unsalted butter on hand would regular butter be okay to use?
Yes, you can absolutely use regular butter but I would just add some extra salt, if needed. 🙂
I love this recipe! Between my daughter and I, we’ve made this a few dozen times. It’s a real winner in our family.
I needed a quick recipe for chicken breast (when I realized I didn’t have all the ingredients for a different dish), and because this was a big success with tilapia, I thought I’d give it a try. I don’t suggest you try it yourself. The tilapia was moist and bursting with flavor, while this chicken dish was dry and lacked any pizzazz. Stick with the white fish, and save your breasts for something else.
I dont have butter in hand, would olive oil work?
Didn’t have tilapia but used this recipe for walleye fillets. We eat a lot of fresh caught fish here in Michigan. I never bake our fish especially walleye, but I wanted to avoid breading and frying this time. This is the best baked fish I’ve ever had! Ever! It even tops anything I’ve had in fine restaurants. Paired it with sauteed zucchini and carrot ribbons. Perfection! Thank you!
I just made this for dinner tonight…. Sooooo Good. Will be making this again,again and again….