Easy Skillet Tilapia Recipe - How to Cook the BEST Tilapia Fish! (2024)

FAQs

How to make tilapia taste better? ›

Fresh tilapia is good, frozen, depending where it's from can be unappetizing. Try mashed fresh garlic, smoked paprika, olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh lemon, whatever herbs you like, marinade, then cook in butter and olive oil.

You should never wash raw fish in your sink, either.

Remove the scales from fish if a recipe calls for it, but leave your fish unrinsed to prevent your kitchen from becoming a breeding ground for germs.

To keep your fish from falling apart, use a large enough nonstick spatula for flipping and a nonstick pan to avoid the fish from sticking to the pan. Avoid overcooking fish or steaming fish on low heat, but rather pan-fry on medium-high heat until just cooked through.

Also, you can marinate the fish in a mixture of lemon juice, vinegar, and water for 30 minutes. This will help to neutralize the fishy taste. Cooking the fish using a cooking method that will not allow the fishy flavor to become pronounced, such as grilling, baking, or steaming can help as well.

Before cooking, soak the fish in milk for 20 minutes

In this scenario, the protein in the milk binds with the compounds that cause that fishy odor, in essence extracting if from the fish. What's left behind is sweet-smelling, brighter flesh with clean flavor. (Just make sure you pour that milk down the drain.

Olive Oil, Lemon, & Herbs Marinade

How To Do It: Combine ½ cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon), and fresh herbs (such as cilantro, basil, rosemary, or thyme) removed from the stems and loosely chopped. Brush the marinade on the fish and let sit for about 5 minutes before cooking.

A 15-minute salting period, which we usually use only with meat and fattier fish such as salmon, bolsters tilapia's mild flavor and keeps the fish moist as it cooks.

When meat or fish touch a hot metal pan, the heat unravels (or denatures) the muscle proteins, exposing a lot of their surface to the metal. The proteins then start to form chemical bonds with the metal, causing them to stick.

Season the fish thoroughly on both sides with kosher salt and black pepper, which helps to prevent it from sticking. "In addition to seasoning, the salt acts as a barrier between the fish and the fat and helps to firm up the protein, she says.

Therefore, be sure to account for this and remove the fish from the heat when the temperature is slightly below 145°F, so that it's internal temperature will rise to the perfect level after resting away from the heat for a few minutes. This will ensure you do not overcook fish accidentally.

Why does my tilapia taste weird? ›

Off-flavour in cultured tilapia is caused by micro-organisms in the water, such as algae and bacteria, which causes the fish to have an earthy-musty, metallic, sweet-sweet or muddy taste.

In a 3-quart bowl, soak fish in milk for 15-20 minutes. The casein protein in milk binds to the trimethylamine in the fish flesh, reducing the “fishy” odor.

Fish tastes "fishy" when it hasn't been handled properly. To avoid "fishy" fish, smell and feel it. It should have a fresh and mild odor. It should be firm to touch and spring back into place.

Season aggressively. Ok, we'll admit it—tilapia is quite bland on it's own. That's why we season these fillets with a hearty pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper right off the bat.

White pepper, being slightly milder, is the ideal choice for most fish dishes. Lemon juice is the final touch that accentuates the exquisite taste of the fish meat. It can be lightly sprinkled on the raw fish or added just before serving the cooked dish.

Soaking in Milk

One of the most effective ways to eliminate the muddy taste is to soak the fish in milk. Place the cleaned fish in a bowl of cold milk and let it sit for 3-4 hours in a cool place. The milk acts as a neutralizer for the muddy flavor.

They can be cultured on pelleted feed, marine green algae like Enteromorpha & Calpulreppa. Rice bean & Ground but oil cake, any pulse outer cover polish with their broken ones are some of the feeds in which the fish can grow very well.