Honey Lime Tilapia – Crispy pan-fried tilapia with a sweet honey lime marinade. This tasty recipe is good enough to convert any fish hater!
Michael and I talk all the time about how being married and eating together has changed the foods we eat.
For instance, I didn’t eat much in the way of potatoes, hardly ever bought red meat, and had NEVER cooked steak of any kind before we were married. Now, potatoes find their way into our menu once every week or two and one of my favorite meals we’ve discovered together is a sort of steak stir-fry.
Michael, on the other hand, never really ever ate fish. Not that he didn’t like fish, he just never really ate it. Now, he really likes tilapia and shrimp (he can’t get enough of our cajun fish sandwiches and shrimp po’boys).
Because I love fish so much, and I’m always looking to expand our seafood recipe repertoire, I hunted down this REALLY easy method for cooking tilapia. After eating this for dinner, Michael said it was the best fish he’d ever eaten. Woo hoo!
Now, I know it looks like fried fish. It isn’t. In fact, all the ingredients required for this dish are pretty healthy and straightforward. I even used whole wheat pastry flour for dredging the fish! Also, I found that it was a great balance of flavor and not too sweet. I loved the combination of lime and honey.
One of the beauties of fish is that it cooks very quickly. With only a little bit of preparation beforehand, this meal comes together in about 10 minutes. Seriously. You did read that right. 10 minutos, dear reader.
I tried an experiment with the recipe, which originally called for marinating the fish about an hour ahead of time. I wondered if it would work to marinate it longer than that, so we cooked half the fish one night after about an hour of marinating time, and waited 24 hours to cook up the rest for dinner the next night. I couldn’t tell any difference in texture, and the flavor was, if anything, better.
Because of that, you could easily mix up the marinade, pour it in a zip-top bag with the fish fillets and keep it in your freezer until you’re ready to eat it. You just pull it out of the freezer, pop it into the refrigerator for the day, and by dinner time, all you have to do is dredge it and cook it up. Easy-peasy!
As for what to serve it with, we tried it with a simple squeeze of lime juice, and it was delicious. Or, you could certainly serve it with some peach salsa. I loved it!
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Honey Lime Tilapia
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4
Ingredients
For the fish and marinade:
- 4 (4-5oz) tilapia fillets (thawed if frozen)
- Juice and zest of 1 lime
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 Tbsp honey
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
For dredging and cooking:
- 1/2c flour (I tried both white flour and whole wheat pastry flour with good results)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1–2 Tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Assemble marinade by combining lime zest, lime juice, olive oil, honey, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a gallon-sized zip-top bag or shallow container with a lid. Add fish and marinate in the refrigerator anywhere from 1 hour up to 24 hours*.
- When ready to cook, combine flour with salt and pepper on a plate. Remove each fish fillet from the marinade and dredge lightly with the flour on both sides (just a light, light coating).
- Heat 1-2 Tbsp olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Cook fillets 2 at a time for 3-4 minutes per side or until opaque and browned (this works best if you don’t disturb the fish much while letting it cook).
- Serve with lime wedges or peach salsa.
Notes
*If you want to plan this meal in advance, you can prepare the fish and marinade in a large freezer bag and keep it in the freezer. Move frozen fish and marinade to the refrigerator the morning you plan to serve the fish and allow it to thaw in the refrigerator. It will marinate while it thaws!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Main dish, seafood
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Seafood
Keywords: tilapia, honey lime, honey lime tilapia,
Adapted from How Sweet Eats
Def the BEST tilapia receipe out there! Tried it step by step really easy and fast!! Love it!!
★★★★★
I’m SO glad you enjoyed it! We LOVE this one!
hi Emily!
I am wondering if you have tried this GF too?!? If so, is there a flour you would recommend instead of white or whole wheat?
I am excited to try this tonight and love all your recipes!
Katie – I’ve done it with GF All-Purpose Flour (like Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Mix) and it works great!
So I’ve made fish maybe twice? In my life. I had some tilapia filets from a friend who wasn’t going to use them. They sat in my freezer until yesterday when I found this recipe. Holy tilapia, so good!!!! In addition to being incredibly proud of myself for preparing something soooo good, I am incredibly thankful for this recipe! I can’t wait to add it to our meal list and it is so easy to prepare and cook. I’m disappointed I didn’t make more!
★★★★★
Rayna – You made my day! What a wonderful review. Thank you so much for sharing!
This wasn’t good at all to me or my family. After leaving it on the pan for the time instructed, there was nothing left of any honey or lime flavors.
★
I’m sorry to hear that Conner!
Wow…This was so good and easy… going straight into the regular rotation! I fried it in coconut oil… omg 🤤 I think the last dude didn’t follow the directions, ha.
★★★★★
I’m SO glad you enjoyed it! It’s one of our favorites 🙂
Loved this recipe, just the right balance of sweet and savory, not too much breading, perfect! My 6 year old even loved it and he normally won’t eat fish. I will definitely be making this one again…
★★★★★
That’s fantastic! So glad you all loved it. (It’s such a win when it works for the kids too!)
I let it marinade for about 45 minutes and this is easily the best tilapia I’ve ever had. So light and slightly crisp!! I’m not much for peaches so made a mango salsa and cilantro lime rice… The whole fam damily thought it was the 💣!!
Two thumbs up and five gold stars!!
👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
★★★★★
Daniel – I’m SO GLAD you enjoyed it! It’s one of our very favorites 🙂