How to Make Butter-Basted Fish Fillets with Garlic and Thyme

[Music] cooking fish at home can be really tricky the fish is fragile it can overcook not to mention the fact that it's really expensive so i know why people go out to seafood restaurants but it's actually a restaurant technique that we're going to use today that's going to make you look like a pro at home and it's super easy so let's talk about what i'm using here we've got two beautiful cod fillets they're about an inch thick and each of them weighs around six ounces now that's pretty important you want to stick to this size and thickness of fish but you can use halibut or snapper of the similar size now i'm going to set these aside for just a second because the method that we're using today is butter basting butter basting is going to help us cook the fish from the bottom up and the top down nice and gentle but we're going to get some beautiful color and great flavor so of course we're going to need butter and i want to prep everything ahead of time because the cooking method goes really fast so i need about three tablespoons of butter and i'm going to cut the butter into half inch pieces that's just so that when i add them to our skillet they're going to melt super fast you don't have to be too precise about this this really is just about breaking it down in size so now i want to work on a couple of other flavorings that i'm going to add to the butter it's going to make a sauce that tastes great so i've got two garlic cloves here and we're going to smash these cloves i'll smash them with the side of my knife just makes it easier to peel but you don't want to mince the cloves or even cut them into smaller pieces and that's because they'll burn during this method so keep them in pretty large pieces as whole as possible is great if they break apart that's fine too next up a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme fresh thyme is perfect it's got this woody stem it's going to add a really beautiful herbal note to our sauce now i've been making this recipe a lot and if you don't have thyme on hand other woody herbs will work great like marjoram or oregano so now i've got basically everything ready all i need to do is heat up my pan and i've got a 12 inch non-stick skillet here you don't have to use a non-stick skillet you can use a carbon steel skillet but you want to make sure that it's really well seasoned because it's super important that the fish does not stick to the pan i'm going to add a tablespoon of vegetable oil we're going to heat this over medium-high heat until the oil just starts to smoke so while this is heating i'm going to go ahead and bring my fish back up here just a couple more things to do i want to pat these fillets dry with paper towels just to ensure that we get some really beautiful color and crust on the exterior of our fish i'll do that to both sides here and then i'm going to hit them with salt and pepper but before i do i want to show you you see this coloring here this is where the skin was attached to the fish so i'm going to call this the skinned side we're going to use this side to create a beautiful crust on our fish this side is flatter it's a little bit heartier than this interior side so i'm just going to season the fish here i've already pre-mixed my salt and pepper i have a half a teaspoon of kosher salt mixed with an eighth of a teaspoon of ground black pepper it's a good idea to mix them ahead so that you don't have to fiddle around with a salt box or a pepper mill after you've been handling fish so i'll flip these over and all i have to do now is wait on that pan and the oil all right the oil is just starting to smoke i'm going to turn the heat down to medium let me give this a nice little swirl and now i'm going to put the fish into the pan skinned side down all right that is a good sizzle take a spatula and just press on the fish for about five seconds because i want it to be nice and flat underneath there where it touches the pan and that ensures that we get a really pretty crust all the way across all right so five seconds i'm going to start my timer because we're going to let this go over medium heat for between four and five minutes and during that time there's going to be some really lovely color on the underside there now i also turned the heat down to medium we wanted to give that initial blast of heat over high from a preheated pan in that preheated oil but then we're turning it down to medium just so that the fish doesn't cook too quickly [Music] all right let's check and see what's going on underneath the fish now i am using two spatulas here using a non-stick spatula to get under the fish you see that beautiful gold color there this metal spatula is not touching the skillet so i don't have to worry about using this metal one on non-stick so i'm going to let this cook for another minute on this second side just to let it firm up a little bit so it's been a minute now i'm going to add the butter just scatter it around the pan we're going to see that it's going to start to melt and all the solids and the butter the milk solids are going to start to brown and form a beautiful sauce so as soon as that butter is melted this is where butter basting comes into play i'm going to tilt the skillet down toward me let this butter pool and i'm going to take a spoon and just put it over the fish for about 15 seconds gorgeous so i'm going to put it flat on the surface now right back on the burner and cook it another 30 seconds so this is the method 15 seconds tilted 30 seconds on the fire and that's so that we're moderating the heat and allowing the fish to stay in the pan and get butter basted as long as possible all right i'm going to tilt again and take your time doing this now i'm not scratching the bottom of my skillet with my metal spoon i am using a spoon that has a nice deep bowl that's perfect all right another 30 seconds i've got a timer going that's counting up too so it makes it easy for me to know if it's been 15 seconds or 30 seconds so at this point i want to start taking the temp temp is always more important than the cooking time and i'm looking for a temperature at this point of 130 degrees in the thickest part right there so now i'm going to add the thyme sprigs and the garlic to the top of the pan it's going to splatter a little bit that's all right run some of that butter up there and now i'm going to continue to butter baste so now oh this aroma that's coming through here 15 seconds absolutely gorgeous and then as the butter races to the top of the pan it starts to pick up the flavors of the thyme and the garlic so 30 seconds on the burner 15 seconds of basting now the total cooking time is right around 8 to 10 minutes but again always more important to look at the internal temperature than the cooking time speaking of these are ready to take out of the pan here you want to get these out of the pan really quick so i'm going to use my two spatulas you can drizzle a little bit of that butter over the top if you like i think it's really pretty to put sprigs onto the plate just like that the fresh squeeze of lemon really is all that these need at the end i do cook this a lot so i know what i'm getting but i wish you were here because the flavors are amazing that fish is still so plump and juicy it's because it's not overcooked and this gorgeous color on the top not only from browning it in the skillet but from that browned butter it gives it a real nutty flavor too and i just pick up hints of the garlic and the thyme just enough it really is a game changer and it's a foolproof way to cook fish at home and it looks spectacular and i know that you're going to want to make it at home so just remember these keys start with a six ounce fillet that measures about an inch thick alternate between basting and cooking and then always pay more attention to the internal temperature than the cooking time so from america's test kitchen at home restaurant worthy and you can do it butter basted fish fillets with garlic and thyme thanks for watching america's test kitchen what do you think well leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or you can just say hello you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our channel see you later i'll see you later

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 1,430,866

Keywords: americas test kitchen, cooks illustrated, cooks country, butter basted fish, fish, seafood, fish recipes

Id: sPzBPj5mOls

Length: 8min 53sec (533 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 17 2022