We love this dish. This one dish is probably responsible for our kids liking fish. It’s simple, and fast, and cheap… all 3 things we love in a meal. We cook it at very very high heat because tilapia is thin and fish cooks fast anyway, so we’ve got to use that high heat to get a crust on it before the fish overcooks. And it always comes out juicy and lovely. So watch this vid and see just how to make this beautiful caramelized fish with yummy crispy edges.
Ingredients:
Tilapia filets
salt/black pepper
Method:
- Dry fish with a paper towel. If the fish is too wet it’ll splatter grease on you when you put it in and that’s going to hurt.
- Salt and pepper the fish on both sides.
- Put it flesh-side down in a very hot pan with about 2 T. of oil in it. The pan can be a nonstick, but we’re using a lovely carbon steel pan from lodge.
- Cook until you can see about maybe 1/2 in of white showing up around the edge of the thick side. Probably about 2mins.
- Turn over and cook about the same amount of time.
- Remove from pan and tilt slightly to remove any oil still lingering.
Notes:
- Remember carry-over heat will continue to cook the fish for a couple mins after it’s removed from the pan. So don’t wait until it’s completely done to take it off. So for fish our size, 2 mins on each side was perfect. In fact, it was probably more like 2mins on 1 side and then closer to just 1min on the other. If anyone wants to time it feel free to put it in the comments.
- It’s the crispy edges that make this so yummy. Everyone fights over the crispy bits.
- This is perfect for a quick, super healthy meal. Team this up with some quick steamed veggies, or roasted ones and you’re golden.
- There are also sauces we can put with that that’ll we’ll show you later. This is a great basic recipe that can be applied to other fish as well as chicken.
Enjoy. This is our favorite way to do fish and our kids fight over it.