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Trout Recipe with Garlic Lemon Butter Herb Sauce - simple and delicious way to cook fish, especially if you're in a hurry! The whole recipe takes only 30 minutes. Italian herb seasoning, chopped fresh parsley and garlic give great flavor to the fish! Healthy, low-carb dinner rich in lean protein and omega-3 fatty acids.
Trout fillets are usually pretty thin which makes them perfect for cooking on stove top in a skillet. One of the best trout recipes I've tried is simply cooking the trout in the skillet in olive oil, and then adding garlic, lemon juice, white wine, fresh parsley and butter. That's it! Simple and delicious.
What makes this trout recipe work:
- The ingredient list for this trout recipe is short and simple.
- The trout itself is such a delicate fish with a great flavor, it doesn't need too many ingredients or special technique to enhance it. So, just cook it in a large skillet on stove top with olive oil and butter, garlic, butter, lemon juice, white wine, fresh parsley.
- The cooking times are short since trout fillets are usually pretty thin. This trout recipe takes only 30 minutes from start to finish.
I have also made this recipe using the type of fish I've never cooked with before - Arctic Char. Arctic Char looks very similar to trout, and it's closely related to both salmon and trout. Therefore, this recipe will also work with salmon and arctic char. Very easy and versatile!
Other trout recipes
- Another simple way to cook trout is simply to enhance it with capers, garlic, lemon and butter. I combined just those ingredients to make this easy and delicious Trout with Caper-Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce. And yes, I used steelhead trout for this recipe but you can use a regular trout.
- I made this recipe with salmon - but it is easily adaptable for trout: Garlic Parmesan Crusted Salmon and Asparagus
Trout with Garlic Lemon Butter Herb Sauce
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds trout or salmon, or arctic char - 2 large fish fillets with skin on the bottom
- 2 tablespoons olive oil more, if needed
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (dried thyme, oregano, parsley, combined together)
- ¼ teaspoon salt to taste
- 4 garlic cloves diced
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 2 tablespoons white wine
- 2 tablespoons butter softened
- 2 tablespoons parsley chopped
Instructions
- Season the top of fish fillets with Italian herb seasoning and salt (generously). Fish fillets will have skins on the bottom - no need to season the skins.
- In a large skillet (large enough to fit 2 fish fillets), heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat until heated but not smoking. To the hot skillet with olive oil, add fish fillets skin side up - flesh side down. Cook the flesh side of the fish for about 3-5 minutes on medium heat, making sure the oil does not smoke, until lightly browned.
- Flip the fillets over to the other side, skin side down (add more oil, if needed). Cook for another 2-4 minutes on medium heat (to prevent oil from burning).
- Remove the skillet from heat, close with the lid, and let the fish sit for 5-10 minutes, covered, in the skillet, until flaky and cooked through completely.
- After the fish is cooked through, off heat, using spatula, carefully remove fillets to the plate, separating the fish from the skin. Carefully remove or scrape the fish skin off the bottom of the pan, making sure to leave all the cooking oils in the pan.
- Add diced garlic, lemon juice, and white wine to the same pan with oil. Cook on medium-low heat for about 1 minute, until garlic softens a bit. Remove from heat. Add 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley, and 2 tablespoons of butter, off heat, to the sauce, stirring, until the butter melts and forms a creamy mixture.
- Add fish to the pan, spoon sauce over the fish, top the fish and sauce with the remaining 1 tablespoon of parsley, and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice.
Thank you, this is a great recipe!
So happy to hear that!
Thank you for this post!
You are very welcome! Enjoy!
I cook. A lot.
This is one of the tastiest and easiest recipes I’ve ever made. Thank you.
What did you pair the trout with?
You can pair the trout with regular rice or wild rice of flavored rice. You can also serve it with roasted asparagus. I think it will also be great with store-made ravioli.
I am very happy to hear that, Jenny! Thank you for taking the time to leave such a positive comment!
My first time having trout and I made it myself. This recipe was perfect! Thanks for sharing with the world!
You are very welcome! So glad you enjoyed this recipe and left this wonderful comment!
Making this tonight with fresh Trout a friend caught and gave us. Julia, what sides do you recommend with this dish?
You could serve this with wild rice, lemon potatoes, sweet potato fries. Sauteed spinach or creamed spinach would work too.
Excellent balance and well annotated.
Hi Julia, I cooked this recipe for my wife after she had a hard day at work, she was overwhelmed with it and said it tasted wonderful, she was right,the flavours in this simple to do dish were incredible. It has been requested again tonight so I’m back on the site and thought I would take the opportunity to say thank you for this superb recipe
Alan, thank you so much for such a wonderful comment! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for stopping by and sharing such positive feedback.
Delicious and simple thank you 🙂
Glad you liked it!
simply the best fish recipe I've ever used. Thanks
Your comment made my day! Thank you! 🙂
Delicious looking recipe indeed. I do a lot of trout fishing myself and like to take one home now and again, so its nice to find another recipe like this one to try and replicate. Just the one question so you peel the skin off the fish before putting on the plate and then putting back in the pan to sit in sauce? I was just concerned it may fall apart..?
Freshly caught trout is the best! About your question: after you cooked the fish, you carefully remove the fish fillets from the skillet to the plate, using a spatula, separating the skin from the fish fillet in the process (the skin would remain in the skillet, and would be somewhat stuck to the bottom of the skillet).
The fish is on the plate, while you carefully remove or scrape the fish skin off the bottom of the pan, making sure to leave all the cooking oils in the pan. Then, you add all the sauce ingredients to the pan, mix, and add the fish back.
The fish might fall apart while you move it back and forth. To prevent it, use 2 large spatulas or pancake flippers on both sides of the fish to support it and to keep it together. Just keep an eye on the fish, use more than 1 spatula or flipper, do it carefully and the fish should be intact.
Delicious looking recipe indeed. I do a lot of trout fishing myself and like to take one home now and again, so its nice to find another recipe like this one to try and replicate. Just the one question so you peel the skin off the fish before putting on the plate and then putting back in the pan to sit in sauce? I was just concerned it may fall apart..?
Should I use dry white wine? Or can I use semi sweet?
Use dry white wine.
I prepared this tonight. Delicious! I added rosemary, pineapple sage and Old Bay seafood seasoning. I grow my own herbs so I used what I had dried and crushed them to a powder with Old Bay and Garlic powder. Oh my this was sooo good. Thanks for the recipe guide!
You are very welcome! Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing such a positive comment! 🙂
Delicious fish recipe and so easy and fast. Made it twice now and great every time. My husband says it's a keeper!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!
Hi Julia
I have never posted a comment online before but you deserve the appreciation for sharing this recipe.
This is my kind of recipe. 5 Stars
1-Quick,
2-Easy
3-Nutritious
4-Very delicious
5-It uses ingredients I already had in the house!
Thank you for the recipe both for my meal last night and all the times in the future I
am going to use it!
You are very welcome! So glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for such a positive comment! 🙂
My 1st time commenting but had to tell you that this recipe is terrific Julia. Simple ingredients, great-tasting and good for my family. I just learned to trout fish this last summer, so we have lots of em in the freezer. I tried a couple of other recipes, but this one is absolutely our favorite. Thanks a million! Billie
Billie, thank you very much for such a positive comment! So glad this recipe became one of your favorites.