Baked tilapia is a great beginner’s seafood recipe, especially for those scared of preparing fish. It cooks quickly and can be easily found in the frozen food section of most U.S. grocery stores, and at just about any fish counter. It’s mild in flavor, inexpensive, and comes in naturally portioned, ready-to-cook fillets.
One of the biggest fears around cooking tilapia is that the thin fillets will dry out (just an extra minute can change the texture). That risk becomes less likely with this baked tilapia recipe; cooking it in the oven drizzled with sauce ensures it will be moist and flaky. You don’t even need to cover or flip the fish! This simple dish has become one of our favorite tilapia recipes because it relies on kitchen staples and can be ready in 20 minutes.
Baked Tilapia Ingredients
- Tilapia fillets: Whether you choose fresh or frozen tilapia, follow this guide to buying and cooking the best-tasting fish. You can tell that fish is fresh by looking for fillets that lack discoloration and a strong odor. If buying frozen, choose fillets that are still frozen solid without ice crystals in the packaging. You can use this recipe to bake other thin, mild fillets, such as swai, cod, lake perch or walleye.
- Butter: It makes everything better! In this case, lightly salted butter creates a luscious sauce that flavors the fillets and keeps them moist.
- Lemon juice: The acidity in lemon juice enhances the mild taste of tilapia and balances the richness of the butter in this sauce. Squeeze the lemons yourself for the freshest flavor, but bottled lemon juice will still give you a tasty meal.
- Capers: What are capers? These little green balls are actually immature flower buds that have been pickled, making them soft and slightly sour. Their bright, briny flavor bursts on your tongue as you bite into them, making them a delicious savory garnish for mild fish. If you don’t have capers on hand, green olives impart a similar—but mellower—effect.
- Seasonings: Garlic powder, dried oregano and paprika add just enough flavor to the fish.
Directions
Step 1: Dress the fish
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the tilapia fillets in a single layer in an ungreased 13×9-inch baking dish. In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, lemon juice, garlic powder and salt. Pour the sauce over the fillets, covering as much of the fish as possible. Sprinkle with capers, oregano and paprika.
Editor’s Tip: For safety, cook fresh fish within one to two days of buying it, refrigerating it in the meantime. Remove frozen fish from its vacuum packaging and seal it in a new zip-top bag before you thaw it overnight in the refrigerator or under cold running water.
Step 2: Bake the fish
Bake the fish, uncovered, until it just begins to flake easily with a fork, 10 to 15 minutes. Use a slotted spatula to transfer the fillets to a serving platter. If you’d like, drizzle the fish with the sauce left in the pan and serve with lemon wedges.
Recipe Variations
- Lime sauce: Put a spin on this dish by replacing the lemon juice with lime juice and mixing in some fresh grated ginger. Instead of capers and oregano, choose toppings like lime zest, sliced green onion, Thai basil and sesame seeds. If you miss the pickled flavor, serve the fish with Japanese pickles (tsukemono).
- White wine sauce: White wine mellows the flavor of this sauce when you use it instead of lemon juice. Stirring in a little prepared mustard and grated Parmesan cheese will slightly thicken the sauce. A homemade Italian herb mix or lemon-pepper seasoning can stand in for the oregano.
- One-pan meal: Add some quick-cooking vegetables to the pan for a saucy, one-dish meal. Try fresh cherry tomatoes, sliced zucchini and onion, green beans or bite-sized pieces of fresh asparagus. Depending on how many vegetables you add, you may want to double the sauce and spread it all in a larger pan.
How to Store Baked Tilapia
You can easily store fish in the fridge. Baked tilapia can be kept safely in the refrigerator for up to four days. Ideally, the sauce should be stored separately from the fish, but the sauced and baked fish will keep fairly well when refrigerated in an airtight container. To reheat refrigerated leftovers, transfer them to a covered baking dish and bake them at 350° until they’re just warmed through to avoid overcooking the fish.
Baked tilapia is not a good candidate for freezing; it can become soggy if you freeze and thaw it in its sauce, and the texture of previously frozen tilapia can deteriorate if you freeze it a second time.
Baked Tilapia Tips
Does frozen tilapia need to be thawed before cooking?
Lean frozen fish like tilapia can go straight from the freezer to the oven, but doing so will change the texture and increase the cooking time. Thawing the fish overnight in the refrigerator ensures the best texture. A quicker thaw in a large bowl under cold running water also keeps the fish firm. Pop the frozen fillets into a leak-free zip-top bag first to keep the fish from absorbing the water.
If you do decide to cook the tilapia without thawing it, rinse it completely under cold water to remove any ice and then pat it dry with a clean towel. As it bakes, check the fish frequently after the first 10 minutes to ensure it cooks completely without becoming tough. Take care when opening the oven; the extra moisture of the frozen fish can cause the butter sauce to splatter.
How do you know when baked tilapia is done?
Color and flakiness indicate how long to bake tilapia. When the outer flesh starts to look white instead of translucent, it’s getting close to done. Press fork tines at an angle into the thickest part of a fillet and gently twist to see if it easily flakes. You can instead insert an instant-read thermometer and check for a temperature of 145° or higher, but an accurate reading can be challenging in thin fillets. The pan’s residual heat will keep cooking the fish after you remove it from the oven, so err on the side of slightly underdone. Here’s everything you need to know about food-safe cooking temperatures for fish and more.
What’s good to eat with tilapia?
This baked tilapia recipe goes well with many vegetable side dishes, from honey-lemon asparagus to sauteed radishes with green beans. Serve it alongside rice pilaf or even plain white rice, which will soak up the sauce. For a low-fat fish-and-chips night, put thickly sliced potatoes into the 425° oven until they need to be flipped and then add the fish pan; they’ll be ready around the same time. Drizzle butter and lemon sauce over the fish and potatoes when you plate them, and serve the tender baked fish and crispy oven-baked fries with a fresh green salad.
