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Basa Fish Fillet with Lemon Brown Butter Sauce

This pan fried Basa Fish Fillet with Lemon Brown Butter Sauce is a delicious, healthy dinner recipe that is ready in under 20 minutes!

This Basa Fish Fillet with Lemon Brown Butter Sauce recipe is easy enough to whip up on a weeknight and impressive enough to serve for a special dinner! Delicate Basa fish fillets are cooked to perfection and then topped with a lemony brown butter sauce! Browning the butter makes it ‘nutty’ and makes this sauce absolutely delicious! Make an impressive dish in less than 20 minutes!

This recipe is one of my favourite ways to whip up a delicious fish dinner on a whim! We love salmon in our home (especially my husband) but I love to switch it up with a delicate white fish as well! Since basa fish is exactly that and readily available at local grocery stores, it is one of our go-to fishes. Its moist, easy to prepare in minutes and there are so many possibilities for seasonings that really change up the meal! Its like a blank canvas and I am the artist! For a creative mind, its so much fun!

My absolute favourite way to prepare this basa fish is with this lemony brown butter sauce! Browning butter makes it nutty and enhances the flavour in a big way! Butter is delicious as is, but browning it and adding it to sauces or baked goods completely transforms a dish! Adding the lemon and fresh rosemary just makes this out of this world! No, really! Try this recipe!

pan of basa fish fillets in a brown butter sauce

If you don’t have basa fish fillet and have difficulty finding it in your local grocery store, you can easily substitute another white fish fillet in its place. Basa is pretty easy to find around here but I have heard that outside of Toronto, people have had issues finding it. Don’t worry! Any mild, white fish fillet will do in its place and your dish will be just as delicious!

Served with a bright salad, veggie side dish, rice, or potatoes and you have an amazing meal in no time at all!

pan of basa fish fillets in a brown butter sauce

What you need to make Basa Fish Fillet with Lemon Brown Butter Sauce

To make this recipe, you will need:

  • Basa fish fillets
  • olive oil
  • flour (optional)
  • salt and pepper
  • butter
  • lemon juice
  • rosemary
basa fillet topped with lemon slices in a pan with rosemary sprigs

Steps for making Basa Fish Fillet with Lemon Brown Butter Sauce

  1. Melt butter in a light colored saucepan over low heat. Continue to cook at a low temperature until butter starts to foam and then begins to turn brown.

  2. Remove from heat as soon as it browns and transfer into a bowl. You may run it through a sieve when you transfer the butter to the bowl, if you desire. Place a sprig of rosemary and the lemon juice in the bowl and let sit.

  3. Pat fish down with a paper towel. Salt and pepper fillets on both sides. In a flat bottomed dish big enough to fit a fillet, sprinkle flour evenly. Place fillets in the dish one at a time, flipping on both sides to ensure they are evenly coated with flour. [Optional. Fillets can also be prepared without the flour]

  4. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Place fillets in the skillet. Cook on both sides for about 4 minutes or so. Cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of your fillets.
  5. Spoon browned butter sauce over fillets and serve.
steps for making basa fish fillets with lemon brown butter sauce
Basa fish fillets covered in brown butter sauce

I hope you enjoy this recipe! Bon appetit!

-Cathy

You may also like:

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Salmon Parcels
Herb Butter Salmon

I hope you enjoy this recipe! If you try it and love it as much as I do, I would love to hear about it! Leave a rating and/or comment below to let me know!

pan of basa fish fillets in a brown butter sauce

Basa Fish Fillet with Lemon Brown Butter Sauce

Catherine
This pan fried Basa Fish Fillet with Lemon Brown Butter Sauce is a delicious, healthy dinner recipe that is ready in under 20 minutes!
4.86 from 7 votes
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 17 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine French
Servings 2 servings
Calories 473 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 2 fillets Basa fish
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • salt and pepper
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 sprig rosemary (or more)

Instructions
 

  • Melt butter in a light colored saucepan over low heat. Continue to cook at a low temperature until butter starts to foam and then begins to turn brown. Remove from heat as soon as it browns and transfer into a bowl. You may run it through a sieve when you transfer the butter to the bowl, if you desire. Place a sprig of rosemary in the bowl and the lemon juice and let sit.
  • Pat fish down with a paper towel. Salt and pepper fillets on both sides. In a flat bottomed dish big enough to fit a fillet, sprinkle flour evenly. Place fillets in the dish one at a time, flipping on both sides to ensure they are evenly coated with flour. [Optional. Fillets can also be prepared without the flour]
  • Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Place fillets in the skillet. Cook on both sides for about 4 minutes or so. Cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of your fillets.
  • Spoon browned butter sauce over fillets and serve.

Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.

Nutrition

Calories: 473kcalCarbohydrates: 13gProtein: 20gFat: 39gSaturated Fat: 17gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 106mgSodium: 250mgPotassium: 308mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 711IUVitamin C: 4mgCalcium: 20mgIron: 1mg

The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.

Keyword basa fish, brown butter, brown butter sauce, fish, fish fillet, lemon, white fish
Tried this recipe?Leave a star rating and comment below to let us know how it was!

8 Comments

  1. Pingback: Perfect Baked Rice - Herbs & Flour

  2. Michelle Franson

    Your recipe does not include the lemon juice.

    • Herbs & Flour

      Oops! I corrected the recipe to include the lemon juice. Thanks for pointing that out!

  3. Chef David M Blundell

    Does it have to be a SILVER saucepan? I only have stainless steel or copper.

    • Herbs & Flour

      No, just a light coloured pan so that you can see the butter brown. You can do it in a darker pan too but I find seeing the colour of the butter ensures you brown the butter correctly.

  4. P R Doucette

    5 stars
    Recipe was great! Only thing I would like to recommend is that you give some directions on how much heat you need under the pan when frying the fish. Know that frying something implies higher heat is needed but would respectfully suggest you might want to consider adding your suggested heat level. Also going to try your Panko bread crumb fish recipe. Keep up the good work.

  5. It’s still doesn’t show where to use the lemon 😭😭

    • Catherine

      It’s in the first step. You add it to the browned butter along with the rosemary sprig.

4.86 from 7 votes (6 ratings without comment)

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