Tilapia with Garlic Butter Sauce

Name: Tilapia with Garlic Butter Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Filipino
Ingredients: 2 lbs tilapia fillets; 6 tbsp unsalted butter; 8 cloves garlic, minced; 2 tbsp vegetable oil; 4 tbsp lemon or calamansi juice; 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped, chopped; to taste salt and black pepper

Pan-fried tilapia with a rich garlic butter sauce and a squeeze of calamansi, a trending Filipino fish dish that's elegant and simple.

30 minEasyServes 4320 cal/serving

FilipinoDinnerStovetopStandard

Ingredients

2 lbs tilapia fillets
6 tbsp unsalted butter
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp lemon or calamansi juice
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped, chopped
to taste salt and black pepper

Instructions

1

Pat 2 lbs tilapia fillets dry with paper towels and season both sides with to taste salt and black pepper.
2

Heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering.
3

Add tilapia and cook for 3-4 minutes per side until cooked through and flaky. Transfer to a serving platter and cover to keep warm.
4

In the same skillet, reduce heat to medium. Add 6 tbsp unsalted butter and 8 cloves minced garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, until garlic is fragrant and lightly golden.
5

Stir in 4 tbsp lemon or calamansi juice and remove from heat.
6

Pour the garlic butter sauce over the tilapia and sprinkle with 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, chopped.
7

Serve immediately over rice or with fresh vegetables.

Questions

Can I make Tilapia with Garlic Butter Sauce dairy-free?

Yes. The dairy in this entry is 6 tbsp unsalted butter. Swap the butter for olive oil where it melts, or a plant-based block butter where it is creamed. The richness shifts slightly, but the method does not change.

How long does Tilapia with Garlic Butter Sauce keep?

Refrigerate leftovers within two hours and eat them within two days (seafood turns fast). Reheat gently on the stovetop.

Can I halve or double Tilapia with Garlic Butter Sauce?

Yes. As written it serves 4. Every ingredient in this entry carries precomputed half and double quantities, and the app's batch dial rewrites them inside each step. When doubling on the stovetop, use your widest pan or work in two batches so the food sears instead of steaming.

Serve it with

Cook this free in the app

Textual Chef is 4,525 plain-text recipes, free to read and free to cook from. No account, no paywall, no ads, no life stories. Open this one in the app and each quantity sits inside the step that uses it, so you read once and cook.

Every recipe is curated or public-domain sourced, written to one template and checked before it publishes. Nothing here is a scraped blog post.

Cook this free in the appNo download needed. It opens in your browser. The kitchen tools (planner, shopping list, pantry, import) are $5.33 a month billed annually; the first 30 days are free.