This Lemon Butter Baked Cod is the perfect healthy and easy weeknight dinner! Baked Cod in a lemon butter sauce with cherry tomatoes and olives, all ready in just 30 minutes!
Baked Cod
I love cooking with cod because while cod on its own is pretty boring, if using the right ingredients you can have amazing results. This recipe is foolproof and incredibly simple. It’s also a great recipe to use for any white fish. While I used cod, feel free to replace it with halibut, tilapia, or whatever fish you like.
I used cherry tomatoes and olives in this dish. I love baked cherry tomatoes, and they add so much freshness to a dish like this. However, you could use so many other great ingredients like asparagus, peppers, maybe even some baby spinach.
Ingredients You Need to Make Baked Cod
My favorite thing about this dish is the sauce. It’s so full of flavor and so fresh. Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
- butter
- garlic
- chili flakes
- white wine
- lemon juice
- salt & pepper
- cherry tomatoes
- olives
- parsley
- thyme
- cod fillets
How to Make Lemon Butter Baked Cod
There are mainly 2 steps to making this cod. Start by seasoning the cod with salt and pepper on both sides. Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil in a 9×13 inch baking dish then place the cod in the dish.
Bake the fish, covered with foil for about 12 minutes at 425 degrees F.
While the fish is baking, prepare the sauce. Start with melting the butter in a skillet. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds. Season with salt and pepper. Add the wine and let it come to a boil. Add the cherry tomatoes, olives and lemon juice. Let the sauce simmer for about 5 minutes or until the tomatoes begin to pop. Finally add the herbs and stir.
Remove the foil from the fish and pour the sauce over the fish. Return the dish to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
What to Serve With Lemon Butter Baked Cod
We served this cod over rice. However, you could serve it over pasta, quinoa or orzo as well. There’s plenty of sauce that would go great over pasta such as penne.
Other dishes to consider serving this with:
Tips for Making the Best Baked Cod
Do not over bake the cod. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes for the cod to cook completely at 400 F degrees. Of course the time depends on the thickness of the fillets. When it’s done baking, the cod should be flaky and opaque in color.
Use simple ingredients. Cod will shine with just a few delicious ingredients, such as butter, garlic, lemon juice or even capers. Keep it simple!
Make the lemon butter sauce separately so it keeps its creaminess and won’t break down.
How to Store Leftover Cod
Properly store leftover cod in an airtight container in the fridge. It can last 3 to 4 days.
You can also freeze it, in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
More Fish Recipes:
- Fresh Sole Fish with Pea Salad
- Vietnamese Fish Tacos
- Fish and Chips
- Firecracker Salmon
- Baked Lemon Garlic Halibut
- Halibut Soup
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Lemon Butter Baked Cod
Ingredients
- 1 pound cod fillets (about 3 fillets)
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Lemon Butter Sauce
- 4 tablespoon butter unsalted
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- ½ cup kalamata olives
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- 2 sprigs thyme
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Prepare and bake cod: Season the cod filets on both sides with salt and pepper. Drizzle the olive oil in a baking dish and lay the filets in the dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 12 minutes.
- Make the sauce: While the fish cooks, melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook for 30 seconds. Season with salt and pepper, then pour in the white wine. Allow the sauce to come to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives and lemon juice. Let the sauce simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the tomatoes begin to pop. After the sauce has simmered, add the parsley and thyme, and mix well.
- Add sauce to cod and bake: Remove the foil from the fish, and pour the sauce into the baking dish over the fish. Spread the tomatoes and olives evenly around the filets. Return the dish to the oven and cook for another 5 minutes.
Video
Recipe Notes
- This recipe will work with other mild flavored white fish such as tilapia, bass, halibut, sole, etc.
- Dry white wines work best for this recipe. This includes Chardonnay, pinot Grigio, and Sauvignon blanc.
- If you don't want to use wine, you can use 1/4 cup chicken broth with 1 tsp vinegar as a substitute.
- You can use more or less garlic depending on your preference.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
Made this for Christmas Dinner today minus olives. It was very flavorful and delicious. Will make this again.
Glad you guys liked it!
Oh how I love this recipe! Cod never had it so good! I like to serve this with some linguine and topped with slivered fresh basil. Major awesome!
Wow Jo, yet another winner of a recipe – thank you. My husband said he felt like he was dining in a 5 star restaurant!! I used sole instead of cod and omitted the olives. So easy and so delicious! Served with savory rice (rice with onion, peas and corn stirred through), salad and squash.
So happy to hear this! 🙂
Made this Friday night and wow! Absolutely fabulous! Love the brightness of the lemon and briny olives and the tomatoes were so sweet. Will for sure be making this again.
I’m so glad you liked this! 🙂
Excellent recipe!
Great display of instructions, photos and video.
Thank you!
Hi Jo,
Let me begin by telling you that I rarely give a 5-star review for a recipe since that would imply there is no room for improvement. In this case, however, your cod recipe is superb. I am a very experienced cook and dabble in many styles of cuisines. So, I am a big believer in using what I have on hand.
For this recipe, I followed it almost exactly, staying true to your vision. I used Aleppo pepper instead of the Italian flakes since it’s a bit milder and I love the aroma. I used 1/2 tsp. of dried thyme since I couldn’t find fresh in my local market. Luckily, I scored a beautiful cod filet which was wild-caught and fresh as all get out. Also, I topped the sauce on the cod with about 1/4 cup crushed whole-wheat saltines which I had handy.
So, WOW! I served this with a sourdough baguette for dipping. And more of the white wine used in cooking the sauce.
Kudos!
Louise
Louise! You’ve made my day! Thank you so much for letting me know and for the 5 star review, I really am happy you enjoyed the cod!
This Lemon Cod looks delicious! Then again, one could probably cook most anything (including an old tennis shoe) with this same combination of ingredients and it would taste wonderful! 😀
I’m definitely going to try this dish soon. It calls to me like summer, at a time of year when I’m in need of a change of seasons. Thanx, Jo.
Let me know how you like it!