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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Loved it. My wife loved it. Added asparagus to the dish too. The lemon complemented the asparagus were nicely. Very easy to prepare.
Great addition! So happy you enjoyed it.
Dylan, being my wife is 100% Greek with the asparagus I made hollandaise and rice.
Omg!! This is the best ever tilapia recipe, I’m not really a fan of fish but some how i found this recipe an the picture made me want to try it. I did an it’s AMAZING!!!! The only change i made was seasoning with fish seasoning salt, other than that everything was as directed, i will definitely make this again!!!
I’m a college student who’s living on their own. I want to tell you how inspiring your recipes have been for me in the most recent weeks. I was consistently eating out or relying on others to cook, but I think I have turned the corner. While my knife skills aren’t quite up to snuff, I figured that this is something I wanted to get better at. THANK YOU FOR BEING AN INSPIRATION!!
Delicious and easy to make. Secret is don’t skimp on anything.
Made this tonight with rice and brussel sprouts. Very good. Stayed true to the recipe only I doubled the sauce ingredients.
Followed the recipe to the tee excellent 12 minutes and it’s ready. My husband who dislikes fish ate it no complaints. Said he would eat it again. So easy !!
That’s great, Stella!
I’ve read some of the comments. Are people really that ignorant?
Great recipe! I used 5 Tbsp of butter so we could have a little extra sauce for our rice. Thanks!
I multiplied this recipe by 3 because we had 12 tilapias. I also added extra lemon juice from fresh squeezed lemons, lemon pepper, and extra garlic. Make sure that when you season the tilapia with salt and pepper that you rub the salt and pepper into the fish and you will have a masterfully crafted meal!
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing.
This was so easy and it came out so juicy..
Perfect to tease.
definitely will be making this again!!
Damn delicious! However, the fat content will induce a heart attack. I reduced the butter and used a high grade EVO to replace it. The dish still tasted DELICIOUS.
Just because tilapia are raised in unsanitary conditions does not mean that the product is unsanitary. Pigs are raised in horrid conditions but everyone loves bacon. As far as gmo products go, if you eat bread, vegetables, or fuit, you are likely eating a gmo. Farm raised tilapia from Asia are not likely a gmo. A gmo is costly to develope. Tilapia is just a fast growing fish that can live and thrive in unfavorable conditions. Conditions typicaly found in under developed countries.
Easy, and tasty.
Best fish ever. I usually don’t care for baked fish but this recipe changed my mind. Absolutely delicious!!!!!!!!!!
If this recipe is followed exactly as instructed you will have the best talapia ever! My grown son hates fish but he really likes this…..he even asked for seconds
Amazing!
Hi I was wondering what I could substitute for garlic? My hubby does not tolerate any type of garlic.
Thanks so much!
You can omit the garlic if you prefer.
Hi,
Thank you for sharing.
How can I make the fish look like the picture you posted (more golden color ) and not the color shown in the video?
Thank you very much!
Sincerely,
Hi! The pictures were taken as the recipe is written. Please note that images have been edited to brighten/saturate the colors a bit more.
Printing a book for us to read before we get to the ingredients and instructions which I haven’t found yet anyway
Did you have a question, Mike? The instructions are here if you still need them. https://damndelicious.net/2016/04/30/baked-lemon-butter-tilapia/print/
Another person in the comments suggested putting the fish under the broiler for a couple minutes to get the color and the crisp.
Was wondering what kind of pan to cook the fish in? I heard that cooking acidic foods (lemon juice) on aluminum pans causes the metal to leak into your food.
I like the idea of putting the fish under the broiler to brown it after it bakes, but what wondering what kind of pan everybody is cooking with?
Your photos show baked lemon slices, but your recipe calls for using only zest and juice!
The lemon slices are simply used for photographic purposes. 🙂
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