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!!
Made this last night and it turned out perfectly. Easy and quick, thanks!
Oh sweet Jesus is right. This was so easy and so tasty. I made mine with your mushroom rice…I know mushrooms sounds weird with fish but who cares I love your mushroom recipe and had a serious craving for it. This fish was outstanding! So much flavor.
Will some publisher out there give this talented lady a recipe book deal already! Or a tv show! Or both!
Made this last night. Big hit with everyone. Thanks
O m’y jesus this fish recipe is soooo amazing. The sauce is outrageous. I’ll be making it again soon. Thank u so much for sharing
Glad to hear you enjoyed this Veronique!! Thanks for letting me know 🙂 N x ❤️
What you recommend serving with this? It looks delicious!
Hi Brandy! How about Garlic Butter kale Rice?? It’s packed with kale but you can’t tell 🙂 Even kale haters love it!!
Absolutely fabulous! Thank you for the recipe.
P.S. We aren’t a seafood loving family….we LOVED this!
Glad to hear you enjoyed this Claire!! Thanks for letting me know – N x ❤️
Can you sub the heavy cream for cream of mushroom soup?
Hi Jennifer – unfortunately I don’t know, I’ve never tried and I don’t use canned soup for cooking so I can’t guess 🙂 N x
O my word , what a great recipe! I used flounder fillets and they came out great. Served them with steamed asparagus and jasmine rice… my husband’s comment:”a marvelous dish”
This is so easy to make and taste so good! So creamy and totally removed the fishy taste. Love it! I tried putting dill instead of parsley and also topped some cheese on top when grilling. It turn out awesome !
Glad you enjoyed it Diane! Thanks for letting me know! N x
I searched the internet for ages for a creamy fish dish and was struck by how easy this dish looked to prepare so I thought I’d give it a go. I was astounded that a dish that was so quick and easy was sooooo delicious. I’ve never commented on a recipe before but this was just such a brilliant dish I just had to take the time to say thanks!
This was fabulous. Will be my go to once. Week. I used cod and served with broccoli and brown rice
That’s so great to hear Terri! I’m so pleased you enjoyed this, thank you for letting me know! N x
This was fabulous! I used cod and served with brown rice and broccoli.amazing
So easy and tasty. Served with smashed potatoes and salad. Great way to make use of extra lemons! Thanks Nagi.
Great to hear Marie! Thank you for taking the time to let me know! N x
I cooked haddock with the lemon cream sauce tonight. We were running short of fish, so my sidekick was grilling hake bought at the last minute. In the confusion, we forgot to put out the parsley. All the same it was extraordinarily good.. Though I think next time I might add a pinch of tarragon to the sauce. We served the fish with angel hair pasta tossed with garlic brown butter(prepared in a microwave), Parmesan cheese, and some leftover green peas and sliced black olives. Salad was fresh greens with avocado, tomato, sliced hardboiled eggs, and fresh basil. I think we will use that fish recipe again. Thanks.
Great to hear David! Thank you for taking the time to let me know! N x
Great recipe. I used halibut and cooked it about 5 minutes longer as the filets pictured were thinner. It turned out moist and very flavorful. Can’t wait to make it again. Btw, I used filets I had previously frozen and thawed them before cooking. Not the least bit dry.
I’m so pleased you enjoyed this Don! Thank you for letting me know!
Divine! Will make for my next big family get together for my pescatarians. Thank you!!
That’s great to hear Rebecca! Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed this – N x
We love this recipe, and we are so excited so many more of your creations! I am making the baked mac and cheese today! Thank you so much for sharing your love for foood! And, I love, love, love Dozer as well! I am a dog mama so I love to see him and what he is up too!
I’m so glad you enjoy this recipe – and I really hope you loved the Mac and cheese!!
This is such a lovely dish. Naji hats off to you.
Just a quick question, in the printed recipe you say to bake at 390 degrees F, but in the video you say to bake at 350 degrees F. Which one is the right baking temperature?
Hi Nancy! the video is a typo, I popped a little note above the video to explain that 🙂 So the correct temp is 390F. Hope you love it!
YUMO x 100! I made this ripper last night using basa fillets and whacked on some cherry toms. The sauce is simply amazing and very little effort. Garnished with shallots.
It’s a definite keeper, thanks Nagi.
I’ve made this now half a dozen times, after first trying it only 2 months ago – it’s unbelievably good. I’ve tried it with Swai, Orange Roughy, and Halibut, and tonight will try with salmon. FWIW, it works best with Swai…halibut (which is always ornery to cook) was not a great success. Orange Roughy is ok but the flavor of the fish overwhelms the sauce a bit.