Lemon Garlic Swordfish Recipe

Name: Lemon Garlic Swordfish Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Ingredients: 2 TB salted butter (softened to room temp); 1 TB freshly chopped chives; 2 TB garlic cloves (minced); 1/8 tsp kosher salt; 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 1 TB juice from fresh lemon; 1 TB grated lemon peel; 2 TB olive oil; 2 1-inch thick each swordfish fillets, about 6-7 oz each; kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

By Amy Dong
Published Aug. 28, 2018
Updated Nov. 30, 2023

This buttery Lemon Garlic Swordfish is stunningly delicious. This recipe results in a tender, flavor-packed fish that tastes like you spent way more time on it than you did.

lemon garlic swordfish recipe fish recipe — Tender, flavorful swordfish is way easier than you might iimagine.

The Only Swordfish Recipe you’ll need

This delicious Lemon Garlic Swordfish brought me back to our long-ago BK years (Before Kids) when Hubby and I frequently experimented with various fish, whole grains, and fresh veggies for dinner.

We would take time preparing healthy sautéed greens almost every night. We’d often grill, bake, or pan-sear some kind of fish…Mahi Mahi with Mango Avocado Salsa or Marinated Seared Ahi were among our favorites. Seared Halibut and Lemon Butter Cod made regular appearances on our little kitchen table as well.

Then came the kid-years, when just about the only things we managed to “grill” were cheese sandwiches. And the only kind of fish that made it onto our plates were covered in breading and shaped like sticks. Some of you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, rest assured that you’re not missing out on the food scene.

This Lemon Garlic Swordfish feels like a throwback that’s making a comeback. It’s totally back in dinner rotation. Get ready to devour this buttery, lemony, garlicky goodness.

How to make Lemon Garlic Swordfish

Start off with high quality 1-inch thick swordfish fillets.
It’s important to towel-dry the fish so that all excess water/moisture is removed. Give it a sprinkle of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper on both sides.
Swordfish is a steaky white fish that is firm, with great flavor potential. It stands up really well to pan-roasting with a large oven-proof pan, so that’s exactly what we do here. We start off with browning one side of the fish for a few minutes and then immediately flipping the fish over to its other side and transferring the pan into a hot oven.
It only takes 5-ish minutes for the fish to finish cooking in the oven; as a rule of thumb, always try to have your fish just-cooked and no more. Avoid overcooking at all costs, as that is what makes fish lose its tender texture.
Lastly, you’ll slather on the amazing butter-garlic-lemon mixture. The flavor combination is stunning and perfect over swordfish.
It’ll taste like you spent way more time on it than you actually did. Enjoy 🙂

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Lemon Garlic Swordfish Recipe

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This buttery Lemon Garlic Swordfish is stunningly delicious. This recipe results in a tender, flavor-packed fish that tastes like you spent way more time on it than you did.

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 10

Servings:

Author: Amy Dong

Ingredients

For the Lemon Garlic Mixture:

2 TB salted butter, softened to room temp
1 TB freshly chopped chives
2 TB garlic cloves, minced
⅛ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 TB juice from fresh lemon
1 TB grated lemon peel

For the Fish:

2 TB olive oil
2 1-inch thick each swordfish fillets, about 6-7 oz each
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F with rack on middle position. In a small pan, combine all Lemon Garlic Mixture ingredients and stir to fully combine. Set aside.
Use paper towels to pat-dry all excess moisture from the swordfish fillets. Evenly sprinkle both sides of fillets with pinches of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.
In a large, oven-proof pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Once oil is hot, add the swordfish fillets to pan and let cook until browned on one side, about 3 minutes (do not move fish around much.) Carefully flip fish fillets over to the other side, turn stove off, and immediately transfer pan into hot oven.
Let fish roast about 5-6 minutes or just until the top is golden and center is just cooked through. Take care not to overcook. A minute before fish is done cooking in oven, cook small pan of prepared lemon-garlic mixture over medium high heat, constantly stirring, just until melted and bubbly. Immediately turn heat off and pour mixture over the cooked fish. Be sure to pour on any juices from the swordfish pan as well.

Equipment

Notes

This dish is amazing with Easy Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms or Farro Salad with Butternut and Avocado
A large splatter guard really helps against those random oil sizzles from getting everywhere, while still allowing plenty of ventilation.

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