Barramundi with Lemon Butter
Pan-seared barramundi with crisp skin, finished in a simple lemon butter sauce and served with seasonal vegetables.
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total
- 30 min
- serves
- 4
- level
- medium
Barramundi is one of Australia's most celebrated native fish, prized for a firm, mild flesh and skin that crisps up beautifully when it is properly dried and given real, undisturbed contact with a hot pan.
The lemon butter sauce comes together in the same pan in under two minutes, picking up whatever browned bits are left behind from searing the fish.
Part of our 20 best Australian recipes list.
method
Pat the barramundi fillets completely dry, especially the skin side, and season both sides with salt and pepper.
Heat the oil in a heavy pan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Lay the fillets in skin-side down, pressing gently with a spatula for the first 30 seconds to stop the skin curling.
Cook for 4 to 5 minutes without moving the fish, until the skin is deeply golden and crisp and you can see the flesh turning opaque most of the way up the sides.
Flip and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more on the other side, until just cooked through. Remove to a plate, skin-side up.
Lower the heat, add the butter to the pan, and let it foam. Add the lemon juice and capers if using, swirling the pan to combine.
Stir in the parsley, spoon the lemon butter over the fish, and serve with seasonal vegetables.
chef's tips
- A bone-dry skin is the real secret to crisp skin. Pat it with paper towels right before it goes in the pan, since even a little surface moisture steams the skin instead of crisping it.
- Resist moving the fish for those first few minutes. Crisp skin needs sustained, undisturbed contact with the hot pan.
- Barramundi is a prized native Australian fish, firm and mild, that holds up particularly well to this crisp-skin treatment.
- Build the lemon butter in the same pan right after the fish comes out, so it picks up the browned bits left behind for extra flavor.