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!!
So easy and delicious! Also looks good enough for company, I will be making this again!
No idea why I haven’t made this before. A huge hit & so easy. The flavour was amazing I used fresh snapper. Will definitely make again soon.
I found the cooking time to be extremely unrealistic for a gas powered oven. I had my oven set to 425 F and 12 minutes cooked the edges of the liquid and none of the fish. I added 20 mins and will check every 10 fo doneness.
Made this tonight with basa from aldi. so easy and delicious! definitely recommend for a quick light meal
I was curious as to how it would go with their frozen fillets! I will try next time as fresh from the deli is quite the luxury.
I have made this a few times before. Tonight, because of other items in the oven, I did this recipe on the stove top. Floured and pan-fried the fish, removed it, and did the sauce.
Umm, YUUMMM! Either way, this dish is delicious.
Absolutely loved this Nagi, another winner!
Wow, this a is restaurant quality dish and so amazingly simple. I will make again for sure
I just made this tonight using snapper, and it was an absolutely delicious. I’m not a huge fan of fish, but with this sauce I am, and my husband, who doesn’t like ANY sauces usually, commented on how great dinner was 😊. Win win!
So delicious and really easy. I’ll definitely make this again.
Hi. Made this or dinner last night. I regularly use your recipes on the website but found this recipe in your cookbook. It was delicious. I used fresh halibut. Will definitely be making this again. Thx Nagi.
A family favourite that I’ve cooked quite a few times now. The three and four year old love it and so do we. Easy and tasty. I’ve always just used frozen basa fillets so it’s cheap too. I always use light cream. Tonight I added some capers, which worked really well.
Just so good. I used frozen fish (whiting) and used 2 pieces but all the sauce. I had with rice and broccoli and my husband and I thought it was delicious. And so easy!!!
Hello Nagi, made the lemon baked fish tonight and WOW. It was moot and so tasty. We will definitely be making it again and again. Best baked fish. Thanks for a great recipe and all the fun things about Dozer.
This is one of my go to fish recipes. It’s fool proof everytime! We love it with rice and green beans. Dinner is done in 30 minutes during a busy school week.
This was delicious and so easy! I doubled the cream after reading other comments and used fresh basil as I don’t care for parsley. Served over rice with steamed broccoli. Everyone loved it!
Can I make this and put it in the 200 degree oven for a church pot luck for 2 hours
????
Such a great recipe – just as suitable for a fancy pants dinner party as it is for a quick and easy midweek meal for the family. I tend to add more cream because we really love the sauce and I have sometimes thrown in a packet of prawns for good measure but the basic recipe is so quick and so easy but very very tasty.
I’ve been making this sauce non-stop and putting it on everything, so delicious! Due to lack of ingredients I also made a dairy free version using apple cider vinegar and coconut cream and its also amazing!
Great dish and easy to do – I tried it with smoked haddock for a change and was brill
I’m making this fish for dinner tonight using tilapia. I’m having it with some homemade lobster and crab ravioli. I know it will be delish!