This simple salt baked fish recipe is made with recent seabass filled with fragrant garlic and juicy lime slices baked to perfection. It’s the good comforting weeknight dinner made in simply 40 minutes.

Thai Salt Baked Fish

Each time I spot recent seabass on the market, this Thai salt baked fish is the precise dish I need to make. Identified historically in Thailand as pla pao, this home-baked model skips the messy, thick salt crusts of outside distributors and retains issues extremely easy. By making one lengthy slit alongside the highest of every facet of the fish and utilizing only a gentle sprinkle of coarse salt, you get a clear, simple oven baked entire fish that also locks within the pure sweetness of the seafood superbly.

The secret to conserving the meat intensely juicy is stuffing the stomach and gills with flippantly pounded garlic cloves and recent lime slices. Because the fish bakes, the lime and garlic steam the fish from the within out so it stays utterly moist. Taking simply 40 minutes from begin to end, it’s a gentle, protein-packed principal dish that pairs superbly with a facet of spicy Thai Seafood Sauce and a scorching bowl of steaming jasmine rice.

Purchasing Information: Selecting The Proper Entire Fish

Shopping for a complete fish can really feel intimidating in case you have no idea what to search for on the market. Since this recipe depends on easy seasoning, the freshness of your seafood is all the pieces.

• Take a look at the eyes first: You need them to be clear and shiny. If they appear cloudy or sunken, skip it.
• Examine below the gills: Raise the flap and ensure the gills are a shiny, vibrant crimson colour, not uninteresting brown.
• Give it a fast poke: The flesh ought to really feel good and agency. If you happen to press it flippantly and your finger leaves a dent that stays there, the fish isn’t recent.
• Go for the proper fish: Common seabass, Asian seabass (barramundi), and even crimson snapper are good for this as a result of white fish stays flaky and moist within the oven.
• Persist with the proper dimension: Attempt to get a fish that’s round (12 oz) 350 grams when weighed on the counter. If you happen to do go for a heavier fish, you’ll simply want to extend the baking time by a couple of minutes so the center cooks by way of utterly.
• Let the fishmonger do the cleanup: It can save you numerous mess at house by asking the fishmonger to scale, intestine, and clear the fish utterly for you so it is able to use immediately.

Components You’ll Want

See the recipe card under for all of the ingredient particulars and precise measurements.

Professional Tip #1: Selecting Between Sea Salt Flakes And Coarse Salt
I exploit sea salt flakes as a result of they cling properly to the fish pores and skin, however customary coarse salt works simply as effectively. Be at liberty to make use of whichever one you could have in your pantry. Simply keep away from high quality desk salt, because it dissolves a lot too shortly and may simply make the fish style method too salty.

Professional Tip #2: How To Slice Your Limes
Slice your limes skinny, round 1 / 4 of an inch thick. You need them skinny so the warmth can get proper by way of them shortly, letting all that recent juice steam contained in the fish whereas it bakes.

Professional Tip #3: Crush Your Garlic, Do Not Mince Or Slice It
Smash and bruise your entire garlic cloves with a heavy cleaver or rolling pin as a substitute of mincing or slicing them. Tiny minced or sliced garlic bits will simply burn within the oven and make the entire dish style bitter. Pounding them cracks them open simply sufficient to let all that nice garlic taste seep out slowly with out burning.

Regularly Requested Questions

What To Serve With This Recipe

For a straightforward and healthful Thai weeknight dinner, I like to recommend the next recipes:

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