Quick And Easy Tilapia Recipe
By Springboard
You will need
Tilapia
Zesty Italian salad dressing
Olive oil
Butter
Border blend
The fish
For this recipe, as the title suggests, we're going to use 1 pound of Tilapia. That should of course be enough to feed two people, but if you have a large family or bigger appetites, just simply double or triple this amount.
I buy my fish frozen, in bulk, at Sam's Club. Typically a 3 pound package of fish will cost around $3.00-$3.50 per pound, which is actually a great price considering even Tilapia will run around $5.99 per pound in the regular grocery store. I love fish. I hate paying high prices for it. So the Sam's Club bulk frozen package is great for me. Plus, each piece of fish is individually wrapped. Use what you need and store the rest.
Marinate the fish
To marinate the fish, make sure you've thawed the pieces. Put two or three capfuls of lemon juice concentrate into the bottom of a glass bowl (or freshly squeezed if you have a lemon handy), then place the thawed Tilapia pieces into the bowl. Pour in enough zesty Italian dressing to cover the fish pieces. Let that marinate for about 30-minutes to an hour. My suggestion? Go for the hour if you have the time. You won't be sorry.
Make your Border Blend
If you follow any of my recipes, you'll notice I use a lot of my own stuff. Perhaps I'm creative. The reality is I'm really cheap. Of course, I do like to experiment as well. Whatever the case, if you've never made your own spice blend before, then here's a great one to start with. I call it Border Blend because it uses spices that are commonly found in Mexican dishes.
Find yourself an empty spice container and we'll get started. Here's what you will need:
3 tbsp. ground cumin
4 tbsp. dried cilantro
1 tbsp. onion powder
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. chilies
Combine all of the ingredients into the spice container, pop the cap back on, and shake it up vigorously. Having a good sized container is important if you are going to mix the spices in the container, you want to have enough room for the spices to combine nicely.
One note as well. If you like hot (I don't) add more chilies to this. 1 tbsp. is barely noticeable. 2-3 tbsp. would really heat this up.
Note: If you use a lot of spices, and especially if you like to create your own blends, buying spices in bulk saves a ton of money as well.
Cook the fish
For this, simply put about 1/2 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tbsp butter or margarine into a large skillet. Once the oil is hot and the butter is melted, add the Tilapia pieces, seasoned on both sides with the Border Blend into the hot pan, and cook on medium heat for about 3-5 minutes per side. When cooking fish like this I like to cook them on lower heat slowly. Fish burns really easy if you're not careful. Plus, this also lets all of the flavors dig nicely into the meat.
Just cook the fish until it's flaky and white.
Serve it all up
I served mine with a homemade rissoto rice dish and a simple vegetable side made with 1 can of French green beans, drained, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, and about 1 tbsp. of imitation bacon bits.
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Comments
greatAmerican—Tilapia, to me, is very good. But then I also like Catfish and Walleye, which Tilapia reminds me of. Salmon is one of my absolute favorites when it comes to fish, though, but at $8.00-$10.00 a pound lately, I just won't buy it very often. This recipe could, of course, be converted to any preferred white fish.
Great Hub and great recipe....I usually just wrap tilapia in bacon with lemon pepper and bake in an oven till the bacon is crisp...I'm trying this one next friday ( our fish night )...Thanks for this...Larry
Have to admit fish is not my favorite dish but your recipe sounds delish.
Awesome hub great recipe I love Tilapia.
I will try this recipe as soon as I can locate my stove! I am in the middle of a renovation, but it does sound delicious.
maven—never thought of wrapping the fish in bacon and baking it, but that sounds absolutely delicious. I've done it with pork...but now you've got me thinking. I've got a ton of fish left in the freezer, and I might just have to do the bacon wrapped thing on my next fish day, which based on this idea may be in just a couple days.
drbj—Oh, fish is one thing I can't get enough of. One of life's little pleasures IMO.
entertainment—thanks for stopping by...Tilapia certainly is good. Has a texture something like catfish, but a bit of a different flavor profile. Definitely stacks high on my list.
POP—kitchen remodels are the most debilitating to be sure. The kitchen in my house is by far one of the most important rooms in the house...aside from maybe the bathroom of course. :)
Springboard...Precook the bacon just before it crisps, then wrap the fish and hold with toothpicks...otherwise you will end up over-baking the fish while waiting for the bacon to crisp...oven at 375 about 10 min...turn, and another 5 min...
I'm looking forward to trying your scrumptious recipe Friday...Now, back to watching Tiger come from behind at the Masters...Thanks, Larry
Mmmm, I love fish, and your spice mixture sounds good. I'll try it.
I love fish and the recipe sounds good so I will try it. Good hub.
Another awesome recipe you whipped up here...I bet your one awesome cook! Thanks for sharing...
Tilapia is one of my favorite seafoods and that says a lot considering I barely eat any! This sounds really good, springboard, and not too hard! A plus for sure. Going to bookmark it!
maven—glad you clarified. I'd have had great burnt fish. :) Let me know how it turns out for you on the recipe, or if you have any suggestions on ways to improve it, those are welcome as well.
sheila b—to me it has good flavor, and experimenting around is a lot of fun as well.
Pamela—great to see you, thanks for stopping in. :)
Michael—I wouldn't say "awesome," but I do like to experiment quite a lot. My wife actually gets mad at me sometimes for FOLLOWING a recipe. "It turns out better when you do 'your' thing." I always enjoy the compliment. :) Either I'm one hell of a cook or my wife just likes crappy food. lol
Ann—that's one of the nice things about this one, in that there really isn't much prep at all. For me, the combination of the zinginess from the Italian dressing, and the cumin and the butter...it just seems to do it for me. But I AM admittedly biased. :)
Oh, yum! I have some tilapia fillets in the freezer, along with all your other ingredients. Thanks!
Great to see you habee...which reminds me I have some catching up to do. :)
Hmmm sounds very yummmy to me SB, hehehe there are also some tilapia in the Philippines and it originated from Africa...
Hmmm, and here I am invested in a Chinese tiliapia fish farm in Hainan. lol.
I really enjoy this particular recipe. If you try it out, hope it turns out well. Thanks for stopping in.
This sounds good! The bacon wrapped tilapia also sounds intriguing. We love fish of all kinds and will have to give these recipes a try. Thanks!
Love fish. Never can seem to get enough of it. Just wish the darn price of it would come down a bit. :)
I am so excited about your talapia recipe. I love mexican food and talapia is a favorite of mine. I'm not the most creative cook in the kitchen, so this recipe will be tomorrow nights dinner. Can't wait! A million thanks.
I very much enjoyed this dish. Let me know what you thought of it, and do share if you think there are some things I could do to make it better. :)
Great ideas from you and your followers! I am not really a fan of the fish -- but talapia is very versatile. I've been making a Tex-Mex version with a tequlia marinade (which must also start the cooking process). Just think margarita -- and add it to the marinade.
I love tilapia, and yes, it is a very versatile fish. I've been buying flounder lately only because it's a bit cheaper right now than tilapia—hey, I'm a man of economy. :) The margarita Tex-Mex version sounds very good. Thanks for stopping in.
greatAmerican 2 years ago
Spring, Looks good I just never could get too excited about tilapia,,
Thanks