Tender Chilean Sea Bass Recipe

Chilean sea bass is quite trendy, and for good reason. The white fish is light, flaky, buttery, and incredibly tender. You could cook it a variety of ways, from pan-searing to baking, and it goes well with just about any topping, sauce, or seasoning blend. It can be on the pricier side compared to other types of white fish, but a single bite of the tender, flaky goodness makes it pretty obvious why that is the case.

Recipe developer Kit Hondrum likes to prepare her Chilean sea bass by pan-frying it in butter. She seasons it with thyme, an ingredient she says "adds a subtle flavor that isn't too overpowering for this delicate fish." To finish off her fish, she tops it with a sauce made of butter and capers. It's a rich, flavorful, and subtly salty sauce the perfectly complements the tender and flaky fish. And, with a fresh squeeze of lemon at the end, this sea bass is delightfully fresh and surprisingly quite easy to make.

To make this dish, you'll need some Chilean sea bass fillets, salt, pepper, butter, garlic, capers, and thyme. Fresh lemon juice finishes the dish off nicely, although if you want to give it some extra color you can garnish it with parsley, too.

Take your fish out of the fridge 30 minutes before you plan to cook it. As the fish is warming up, you can peel and chop the garlic and, if you plan to use parsley, cut that up, too. (No need to chop the thyme.) Once the proper amount of time has elapsed for the fish, season it all over with salt and pepper.

Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a pan over medium heat, then add the fish once the butter starts to turn brown. Hondrum notes that you should put the fish in the pan "skin-side down if it has skin." Leave the fish to cook on its own for 6 minutes, then flip the filets and leave them alone for another 4 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, and capers, then stir those around the pan for 2 more minutes before turning off the heat. Check the fish to see if it's done. When it is, it should be opaque and easy to flake with a fork. If you want to check it with a meat thermometer, that should read 145 F.

Add the rest of the butter to the pan and let it melt. To speed up the process, Hondrum advises cutting the butter into chunks. Serve the fish with the pan sauce and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, garnishing it with parsley if you want to get fancy.

"This recipe is great with crusty French bread to soak up all the butter sauce," says Hondrum. She also enjoys serving it with salad or steamed vegetables.