Baked Cod Lemon Butter Sauce (Printable)
Tender cod fillets baked in a rich, zesty lemon and butter sauce for an elegant meal.
# What You'll Need:
→ Fish
01 - 4 cod fillets (5-6 oz each), skinless and boneless
02 - 1 tablespoon olive oil
03 - Salt, to taste
04 - Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
→ Lemon Butter Sauce
05 - 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
06 - 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
07 - 1 teaspoon lemon zest
08 - 2 cloves garlic, minced
09 - 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
10 - 1 teaspoon capers
→ Garnish
11 - Lemon slices
12 - Extra chopped parsley
# How to Make It:
01 - Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a baking dish with olive oil.
02 - Pat the cod fillets dry with paper towels. Place them in the prepared baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and season both sides with salt and pepper.
03 - In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the minced garlic and sauté for 1 minute until fragrant. Stir in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and capers. Remove from heat and mix in the chopped parsley.
04 - Pour half of the lemon-butter sauce over the cod fillets, reserving the rest for serving.
05 - Bake the cod for 15–18 minutes, or until it flakes easily with a fork and is opaque in the center.
06 - Remove from the oven. Spoon the remaining lemon-butter sauce over the fillets. Garnish with lemon slices and extra parsley. Serve immediately.
# Expert Hacks:
01 -
- Ready in under 30 minutes, making weeknight dinners feel less like a chore and more like a treat.
- The lemon-butter sauce is so good you'll want to drizzle it over everything in your kitchen.
- Cod stays unbelievably tender and flaky when you nail the timing, which honestly isn't hard here.
02 -
- Pat your cod completely dry before it hits the pan or oven—wet fish steams instead of cooking gently, and that changes everything about the texture.
- Don't walk away while the garlic blooms in the butter; it goes from fragrant to burnt in seconds if you're not watching.
- Use fresh lemon juice, never the bottled kind—it tastes sharp and chemical compared to the juice from an actual lemon.
03 -
- Invest in an instant-read thermometer if you cook fish often; cod is done at about 63°C (145°F) internal temperature, and it takes the guesswork out completely.
- Make the lemon-butter sauce while the fish is baking so nothing gets cold and everything comes together hot and unified on the plate.