Butter Baked Halibut with Lemon, Chives, & Garlic
When cooked right, halibut is soft and tender, and can handle a multitude of seasonings. Sometimes, though, a simple butter, lemon, chives, and garlic sauce is plenty to provide a delicious Butter Baked Halibut for dinner. The recipe is written using only a pound of halibut, but it can certainly be scaled to feed as many as you need!
Ingredients
- 1 pound halibut fillet
- ⅓ cup butter See notes.
- 3 cloves garlic chopped small
- 1 lemon zested
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice from the zested lemon
- 2 Tablespoons freshly chopped chives
- Sea salt and and freshly ground pepper to season
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter a baking dish and lay the halibut fillet in skin side down. Season the halibut with salt and pepper.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the garlic and let it cook for about a minute. Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice, zest, and chives. Pour the melted butter mixture over the halibut
- Bake the fish for 10-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillet. Baste with the butter mixture after about halfway 7 minutes. At this point, also use a fork or knife to see if the fish will flake. Allow the fish to continue cooking, basting and checking again after another 5 minutes.
- When the fish flakes easily and is still a bit clear, take it out of the oven. It will keep cooking once you take it out so don't let it go too long. Err on the side of caution. You can always put it back in.
- Serve it with rice because that sauce is amazing and totally soaks into the rice. You should also have some sauteed green beans.
Notes
On the butter ... I always use salted butter. I know that the "experts" say you shouldn't do that because you can't control the amount of salt. That is true in that you don't know how much salt is in the butter, but if you are consistently tasting your food, you can control anything. And I like salted butter. Bottom line.
If you can get fresh chive blossoms (like from your garden!), you should definitely use them and add that gorgeous lavender color to your dish at the same time!
If you don't like chives, feel free to use your favorite herb. Thyme, rosemary, or basil would all be amazing choices and they all pair so well with butter.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!