50 Ridiculously Easy Fish Recipes That Anyone Can Make
Let’s face it: Cooking fish can be intimidating. First, what type of fish should you make? Salmon? Cod? Tilapia? Fish is also a pricier protein, so it’s higher stakes than your usual weeknight chicken breast. But don’t worry—if you can cook chicken, you can ace fish. Try one of these 50 easy fish recipes and you’ll be an expert by dinnertime.
RELATED: 75 Summer Seafood Recipes You Can Whip Up in No Time
1. Baked Fish and Chips
As easy as microwaving fish sticks (well, almost), these homemade breaded whitefish strips are baked until crispy and served with homemade fries that are just as simple to make. Grab some vinegar or tartar sauce at the grocery story for dipping.
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2. Slow-Cooked Salmon
All you really need is time to sit around while these dill-covered salmon fillets slowly roast in your oven. The results? A tender, savory dinner that basically made itself.
3. One-Pan Roasted Salmon with Potatoes and Romaine
It doesn’t get much easier than this. Just toss the potatoes on a sheet pan, roast them in the oven until tender, add the fish and romaine and roast for another five minutes.
4. Baked Sesame-Ginger Salmon in Parchment
The best part of this ridiculously simple recipe? No dishes to do. Once you master the en papillote technique, you can replicate it with other fillets of fish and complementary seasonings.
5. Whole Roasted Branzino with Shaved Fennel Slaw
Branzino with the head and fins on looks intimidating, but if you can buy the fish, you can master the recipe. Just follow Coterie member Gaby Dalkin’s easy steps.
6. Bacon-Wrapped Black Cod with Spinach and Capers
Cod is a neutral-tasting fish, meaning the flaky white flesh can take on the flavor of whatever it’s cooked with (in this case, bacon). Color your dinner guests impressed.
7. Pan-Fried Cod with Orange and Swiss Chard
This keto-friendly, low-carb, high-veg meal not only looks beautiful, but tastes sophisticated—and takes less than 30 minutes to make.
8. Honey Mustard Sheet Pan Salmon
Impressive looking but easy to prep and cook, this two-pound salmon fillet can feed a crowd and be prepped a day or two in advance. Invite your crew and wow them with your cooking skills.
9. Wild Alaska Salmon and Smashed Cucumber Grain Bowls
We see you, fancy lunch place, and raise you one elegant, delicious grain bowl topped with expertly seared salmon. The fillets take only a few minutes to cook in a pan and taste just as good cold the next day.
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10. Fish Taco Salad
When you’re craving tacos but want something a bit lighter, this pan-fried, taco-seasoned tilapia salad does the trick. Bookmark this baby for Taco Tuesday.
11. Crispy Baked Fish Tacos with Cabbage Slaw
These fish tacos are baked, but taste like they were fished out of a boardwalk fryer. The breaded tilapia is a breeze to make and can also be enjoyed as a salad topper.
12. Lemon Butter Tilapia
This fish doused in lemon, butter and fresh herbs is so clean and tasty that it will be hard not to crave it all the time once you master the recipe. (Bonus: You can sub in pretty much any type of seafood to keep things interesting.)
13. Honey Garlic Salmon Lo Mein
This is meal prep at its finest, people. Roast sockeye salmon in an addictive sweet-and-spicy sauce, pair it with noodles and you’re set for a whopping eight meals.
14. One-Pan Lemon Roasted Salmon, Potatoes and Parmesan Asparagus
A restaurant-caliber meal made on only one sheet pan? Sign us up. It doesn’t get much simpler than this salmon with roasted lemons and a few edible flowers, just to make it fancy.
15. Spicy Brown Rice Seared Tuna Bowl
Making sushi may be slightly above your skill level (even though it's easier than it looks...just sayin'), but this simple seared tuna over brown rice and fresh veggies is a breeze to replicate.
16. Garlic Basil Barramundi Skillet with Tomato Butter Sauce
We know what you’re thinking: barramundi? Believe it or not, this recipe is seriously doable on a weeknight. This fish can be cooked from frozen, so you can opt to keep the ingredients on hand for whenever a craving strikes.
17. 30-Minute Blackened Salmon Caprese Skewers
These kebabs are just as fun to eat as they are to make. Plus, the hands-on assembly is fabulous for kids or guests who want to help out.
18. Rodney Scott’s Honey-Butter Fish
Even the steak will be jealous when you whip this beauty up at your next barbecue. You can use trout, catfish, red snapper or even branzino.
19. Antoni Porowski’s Salmon and Spinach Rice Bowl with Green Tea Broth
Inspired by the Japanese dish ochazuke, which calls for pouring hot green tea over rice. The Queer Eye cooking star makes it even heartier by topping the rice with broiled sesame salmon (though Arctic char works, too).
20. Mackerel Asparagus Salad with Sesame Vinaigrette
Don't knock tinned fish 'til you try it: It's loaded with flavor and nutrients. Look for mackerel that's labeled "pole caught" or has the Marine Stewardship Council's seal of approval on its packaging to ensure you're buying sustainable, ethically sourced fish.
21. Salmon with Pesto and Blistered Tomatoes
You only need 35 minutes to pull off this weeknight stunner, thanks to handy store-bought pesto. Feel free to substitute sweet potatoes, broccoli or spinach if tomatoes aren't in season.
22. Buffalo Tuna Melt
Canned tuna has saved dinnertime at our house more times than we can count. Here, it's the meat of a Buffalo- and ranch-spiked tuna melt loaded with melted mozzarella and diced carrots and celery.
23. Roasted Salmon Tacos
A taco is only as good as its toppings. And these filling handhelds finished with grilled pineapple-jalapeño salsa, cashew-lime crema and pickled red onions are proof.
24. Sheet-Pan Miso-Glazed Fish with Broccoli and Coconut Rice
Use cod, sea bass, halibut, salmon—the fish market is your oyster. Just don't skimp on the miso paste, since it packs every bite with savory, umami-laced flavor.
25. Jake Cohen’s Iraqi Roasted Salmon with Tomato and Lemon
Jake Cohen created a simplified spice mix to mimic harder-to-find Iraqi curry powder. Feel free to prep the caramelized onions and tomato paste a day or two ahead—they'll freeze like a charm.
26. Mediterranean Pan Seared Trout Recipe with Tzatziki
Cool, herby, refreshing tzatziki is just the match for crispy coriander-paprika fish. Serve it with olives, pita or a Greek salad.
27. Instant Pot Coconut Salmon with Fresh Herbs and Lime
Isn't she lovely? Believe it or not, this pressure cooker wonder only takes 20 minutes from start to finish. Toss in shiitake mushrooms, snap peas or spinach to make it a full meal.
28. Alison Roman’s Swordfish with Crushed Olives and Oregano
It may sound fancy, but you're only 30 minutes and eight ingredients away. Don't overcook the steaks—you can take them off the heat at medium-rare, since the vinegary sauce will help the fish firm up anyway.
29. Lemon Salmon with Garlic and Thyme
Dinner doesn't get simpler than five pantry staples and 20 minutes in the oven. Serve the salmon with rice, pasta or greens (and a bottle of white).
30. Buttermilk-Battered Pan-Fried Fish Fillets
Buttermilk is the key to impeccably crisp fried fish, since it tenderizes the meat and offers flavor to the batter. Catfish, flounder, trout and grouper all work here.
31. Miso-Glazed Salmon with Gochujang Rice
Just a spoonful of gochujang (aka spicy red chile paste made with fermented soybeans) takes a boring pot of brown rice from basic to spectacular. Don't even get us started on the zingy miso glaze.
32. Tomato-Poached Cod with Fresh Herbs
Not only is this recipe flexible (you can easily swap in mahi mahi, haddock or grouper), but it comes together in just 25 minutes. Did we mention you likely have most of the ingredients in your kitchen already?
33. Sheet-Pan Honey Tahini Salmon with Chickpeas and Couscous
Behold: the easiest way to cook couscous. The salmon bakes alone for the first ten minutes, then the grains are added to the pan and covered in chicken stock to soften.
34. Cajun-Inspired Blackened Red Snapper
The key to nailing a drool-worthy crust on each salmon fillet is searing it in a roaring hot skillet and leaving it undisturbed.
35. Layered Smoked Salmon Dip with Mini Bagel Chips
None of your brunch guests will see this savory crowd-pleaser coming. Between the briny capers, spicy whole-grain mustard and sinus-clearing horseradish, there's a *ton* of flavor in every bite.
36. Tuna Salad with Yogurt, Capers and Za’atar
Forget about gloppy mayonnaise. Greek yogurt is just as creamy, plus a million times more flavorful. If you have tuna steaks on hand, feel free to substitute grilled or seared tuna for canned tuna in oil.
37. Salmon Noodle Bowls with Chili-Yuzu Relish and Pickled Radishes
You'll want to make double batches of the quick-pickled radishes, chili-yuzu relish and honey-ginger dressing to put on noodles, rice bowls, sandwiches and beyond.
38. Fried Catfish
There's no need to take a Southern road trip for some killer soul food. Serve the fish with lots of lemon wedges, hot sauce and tartar sauce.
39. Salmon and Fennel Dinner Salad
This meal complete with strawberries, napa cabbage and fresh fennel is heartier than it looks. Chalk it up to the protein-packed herby yogurt dressing and rich flaked salmon.
40. Turmeric White Fish with Peanuts and Chili-Lime Cucumber
This subtly Vietnamese-inspired dish will impress your dinner guests big time (and your picky kids). Use fresh hake, cod or monkfish if you can.
41. Mahi Mahi Banh Mi with Spicy Curried Mayo and Fried Eggs
Trade traditional pork belly for sweet-and-sour fish. The essentials (like toasty baguette, pickled veggies and julienned cucumber) are all invited.
42. Joanna Gaines’s Weeknight Salmon with Baby New Potatoes and Dill
Not tonight, dirty dishes. This filling 40-minute meal comes together on a single sheet pan.
43. Salmon Burgers
One bite and cookouts at your place will change forever. Not only does a citrusy, herby salmon patty stand in for ground beef, but it's also finished with a mound of homemade tangy coleslaw.
44. Pasta Puttanesca
This Italian staple is incomplete without anchovy fillets simmered into the sauce. Serve it to a fish hater and we're betting they'll be converted for good.
45. Sheet Pan Eggs with Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese and Dill
Introducing our favorite way to serve breakfast to a crowd. Slice a slab and sandwich it on a bagel or eat it with roasted potatoes and a side salad. Mimosas are nonnegotiable, though.
46. 15-Minute Mediterranean Couscous with Tuna and Pepperoncini
Color your coworkers green with envy when you whip this filling lunch out in the break room. Substitute quinoa or farro for couscous if you'd prefer.
47. Salmon BLT
The combination of crispy bacon, fresh lettuce, juicy tomato and creamy mayonnaise doesn't need any tweaking. But adding a tender fillet of lemon salmon to the sammy certainly won't hurt.
48. Pan-Seared Halibut with Lemon Butter Sauce
This recipe is the definition of low lift. We're betting it'd taste divine atop a bed of Parmesan-kissed spaghetti.
49. Roasted Potato Galette with Crème Fraîche and Smoked Salmon
Yep, it's a literal potato pie. Better yet, it's crowned with smoked salmon and all the fixings, like red onion, chives and freshly chopped dill.
50. Salmon Bowl with Farro, Black Beans and Tahini Dressing
Simply whisk the lemon-tahini dressing, simmer the farro and season the salmon, and you're already 75 percent finished.
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For even more great recipes, check out our first cookbook, Only the Good Stuff.
