Honey Lime Tilapia (df)
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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 1x
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
Adapted from How Sweet Eats
For a gluten free version, substitute the flour with Maple Grove Farms Gluten Free Pancake & Waffle Mix…..it was super yummy!!!;-) What a great recipe, thanks for sharing!!
Heather – Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve had lots of gluten-free readers hoping for a substitution like this. THANKS SO MUCH!
I substituted with almond flour which also worked well 🙂
This is a regular in our dinner rotation now! We use the marinade and grill the fish! So good! Thanks!
I’ve been meaning to try this recipe for a while, and I finally got around to it tonight. My husband and I loved it! The flavor of the fish was fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
I found your blog through Pinterest and just printed this off to make for tomorrow. I’ve never really liked fish, but my husband does. Though, recently I tried tilapia and fell in love with it. I can’t wait to try this recipe. We fix a lot of tex-mex type meals in our family, and my husband is on a gluten free diet. I’m going to try using brown rice flour instead of the regular flour for him, and pair it with a black bean, corn, and avacado quinoa recipe we’re wanting to try as well. 🙂 Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I bought a package of 10 tilapia today at Costco. I went online and found this recipe. This was seriously easy to fix. I only marinated it for an hour, but the subtle lime and honey mixture was just right. It was a big hit with my husband and 13-yr-old son. Take care not to overcook the fish. It really only needs 3 1/2 minutes per side on a medium heat. I plan to marinate, then freeze the 6 filets that I did not cook today. My husband wants me to add this one to the lineup, and I agree. Yummy!
Spectacular! Thank you. I’m very popular tonight thanks to your recipe!
Making this right now! 🙂
Just made this, and it was AMAZING! Easy to make, and some of the best fish I’ve ever had!
How cute is your site!! 🙂 I am attempting this fish tonight, wish me luck! Thank you for posting this great recipe!
I made this tonight and this was HANDS DOWN the BEST FISH RECIPE EVER!!!! I couldn’t believe how good this was. Mine marinaded for about 6 hours and it was really sweet (I think any longer and it would have been too sweet). We are Paleo, so I used a mix of coconut and almond flour and sautéed in butter. YUMMMY!!! I will make this many, many more times!
What side item would you recommend?
Rita – we love fruit or fruit salad and bread, but you could keep the theme going and serve it with beans and rice. Best of luck!
Thanks for the awesome recipe! I had everything on hand except flour. I had whole wheat bread crumbs but it didn’t seem to stick to the fish well. Aside from that, the taste was amazing! Full of flavor & I only marinated it for 1 hour. It was a last minute dinner idea I whipped up so I’m sure if I have flour the bedtime around it will be better & also I will marinate it longer. I will most definitely make this again!
Just made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! I made white rice and a green salad to go with it. My kids (read: picky eaters) even liked it!
This fish is amazing! I just made it for my husband and he loves it! I’m usually not the best of cooks, but this was both easy and delicous! Thanks!
I have 100% whole wheat flour but it doesn’t say pastry flour. Is it the s
ame thing.
Lovetocook – It’s not the same thing, sorry! Pastry flour is more fine and has less protein in it. I’d just use white flour.