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!!
perfect dinner last night. thank you for this amazing super quick delicious recipe
This recipe is a keeper! it is a great meal, weeknight or not. The timing was spot on which I greatly appreciate. Will definitely make again
I had bread in the oven so prepared this on the stovetop. Browned the fish for a couple of minutes then sauted the shallot and onion and added the remaining ingredients. Returned the fish to the skillet and spooned the sauce over while it cooked for a few more minutes. DELICIOUS! Thanks for a great recipe.
Soooo delish! Made this with your easy baked risotto, foil pack carrots and Outback copycat rolls. 5 stars!
This was sooo delicious and easy! Perfect quick meal for a uni student like me 🙂
Awesome Natasha!!! That’s great! N x
Just delicious and sooo easy
Yes! That was so delicious. Made it exactly as you said to and it was so yummyyy!
Would winter skate be good in this recipe. Trying to find meals for my husband who requires a good diet, and has medical issues, trying to please him all I can.
WOWZA! So quick, easy and so very delicious!!
Just made and served this with pickerel (big huge pieces). It came out delish. I think i can just cut back on the lemon a tad. Broil last minute for golden crisp edges would have been nice touch. Dash of parm topping to finish. My wife approved. Thank you for this recipe!! Much love.
How about Chilean sea bass?
At Costco right now. Thank you.
Yes that will work nicely PattiAnn!! N x
I am late to cooking anything outside of my top 4. So i needed a fish other than salmon and I tried this with cod filets. Even without a practice session I tried it on my wife and 2 of her friends. it came out just right as described. I thought I was in trouble because it took almost all the sauce I made to cover the filets (half of them were thicker than suggested). But the baking produced the fish stock and the sauce retained plenty of lemon flavor. It was a big hit with them and with me. This goes into my regular rotation from now on. thanks
I had some cod loin and wanted something a little different than the baked with a cracker crust I usually make. This was perfevct. So quick and easy. I roasted asparagus and served with rice, using the little bit of leftover sauce over the asparagus. I can imagine it would be great over pasta, and/or made with shrimp or chicken. Yum!
Yes! I served it over a pasta dish my son made in collab. Both were cream, garlic, lemon based so no conflicts there. We are so satisfied! (Don’t forget your glass of wine!)
Love this recipe and use it a lot. I have used it successfully with salmon without the sauce splitting. I used fresh, skinless fillets. So simple to cook and very tasty! A family favourite.
I’m not one for lemon in hot sauces but we really liked this. It was quick & easy to put together too.
Oh my life, this is delicious thank you once again Nagi!! We just had it with basa, so good. Tell me, would it work with prawns as well as fish? X
For those who love a really lemony taste I added finely grated lemon rind of a small lemon to my sauce and it was absolutely delicious!
I love this recipe!
I served it with linguine using the same sauce that used on the fish, delicious!
Delicious. I had to stop my partner licking the plate.
Nagi, i love your recipes – they just always work
Perfect combo Vi, I’m so glad you loved it!! N x
My family absolutely love this! It’s one of our go-to fish dishes. It’s so quick and easy..even my husband is going to try make it for dinner tonight.
AMAZING! I didn’t measure just guessed amounts cuz I had quit a bit of fish. I thawed it and removed as much liquid before cooking. I used 18% coffee cream. I thinly sliced regular sweet onions. It was so good on rice with boiled carrots. This recipe is a keeper. Thank you for it. 👍