Recipe: Sautéed Tilapia with Lemon Butter Sauce

Posted On March 28, 2023

I’m always trying to think about adding more fish into our diet, and lent is the perfect excuse to make that happen.  Here is a very simple recipe that takes next to no time and can be used with any mild white fish.  For me, the sauce was of the plate lickin’ variety 🙂 Tilapia was what was on sale this week–at $3.99 a pound, how can you say no?  Even the littles ate it up.

Lemon Butter Tilapia

• 4 fillets of tilapia (probably was just over a pound, I wanted 1 fillet per person)
• juice of one lemon (about 1/4 cup)
• 3/4 of chicken broth
• 1 1/2 teaspoons capers
• 2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/4 cup cornstarch

Combine lemon juice, chicken broth and capers, set aside.  Melt 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil over medium high heat.  Meanwhile, coat fish fillets with cornstarch, shaking off excess–you really only want a very light dusting, you don’t even have to cover completely.  Let oil and butter heat until butter is slightly brown. Add fillets and cook about 3 minutes per side. (Depending on thickness of fish–if you press lightly down on the fish it should break apart easily and have a white texture.  Done vs. overcooked can happen pretty quickly, so check often.  Sometimes I have to cook one piece a minute or so more because it’s thicker than the others.)

Remove fish from pan. Add broth mixture, scraping bottom of pan to scoop up bits.  Heat for about 3 minutes until the mixture is reduced by about half.  Add remaining tablespoon of butter, and whisk together until melted and mixed.  Pour over fish.  Presto!  Dinner on the table in less than 20!  I made this with some sliced sweet potatoes, sprinkled with olive oil, agave and some chopped rosemary.  I cheated by tossing into the microwave for about 5 minutes to cook through first, then tossed into a 450 oven to caramelize for about 15 minutes.  Yummy!