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Easy baked cod recipe with lemon, olive oil, salt and cayenne pepper. One of the best cod recipes baked in the oven. Moist, juicy with 5 mins prep time. So good!
Table of Contents
Baked Cod Recipe
Cod is my favorite fish, other than swai fish and tilapia.
Oven baked cod is one of the best fish recipes and the end result is always juicy and moist.
As cod fillets have very mild flavor, you only need a few ingredients such as lemon and olive oil to bake the fish.
Why This Recipe Works
This simple and healthy recipe is so easy and calls for four (4) seasonings to bring out the natural flavors of cod fish. The cooking process takes as little as five (5) minutes prep time.
It’s a great dinner idea for those busy weeknights, especially after a busy day at work and you just want to come home for a simple, healthy, and quick dinner.
Other fish Recipes You Might Like
Garlic Butter Fish
Baked Salmon
Lemon Butter Swai Fish
Lemon Parmesan Tilapia
Ingredients for Cod Fish Recipes
Fresh or frozen cod.
Olive oil.
Lemon juice.
Cayenne pepper.
How to Bake Cod?
To bake cod fillets in an oven, first you need a baking tray. I like using a glass baking tray.
You can also line a piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet and place the fish on top of it before baking.
The perfect temperature for baking cod fish is 400°F or 205°C.
How long to bake cod? The answer is 10 – 12 minutes; the baking time for cod fish depends on the thickness of the fish.
DO NOT overcook the fish fillets or they will turn dry and rubbery.
Can I Use Frozen Cod Fillets?
Yes. Thaw the frozen cod fillet at room temperature before cooking. Do not cook frozen fish straight out of the freezer as the texture will be tough.
After thawing, do make sure you pat dry the fish fillets with paper towels to remove excess water inside the fish. This simple step will make sure that there is no cloudy “fish water” seeping out after baking, and the natural sweetness of cod will shine through.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is It Healthy?
This recipe is healthy as cod fish is very low in fat. It’s high in lean protein and loaded with vitamin B-12, B3 (Niacin) and B6.
It has a lot of health benefits such as promoting heart wellness and brain functions. It’s also low in mercury.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This baked cod fish is only 286 calories per serving.
What to Serve with This Recipe?
Serve this dish with side dishes such as boiled potatoes. For a healthy meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Baked Cod (The Best Recipe!)
Easybaked cod recipewith lemon, olive oil, salt and cayenne pepper. One of the bestcod recipesbaked in the oven. Moist, juicy with 5 mins prep time. So good!
Try a gentle cooking method: Instead of adding fat, you can also try a gentle cooking method like steaming or cooking en papillote. Both of these methods help to preserve Pacific cod's high moisture content and produce incredibly tender results.
It's true, you don't! You can skip the thawing process altogether and cook frozen fish straight from the freezer. You'll have to add a few minutes to the cook time in your recipe to account for the lack of thawing, but you can poach, steam, bake, broil, or grill fish straight from the freezer!
Soaking is the most important step in preparing salt cod. Most recipes say to soak for 24 hours. However, this is risky and may leave the fish too salty. About 48 hours is a better bet.
When you overcook fish, it can become dry, tough, and lack flavor. Overcooked fish loses its natural moisture, which can result in a dry and chewy texture. The proteins in the fish also begin to tighten, which can make the fish tough and rubbery.
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.
Cod is a beautifully mild and buttery-flavored fish and this preparation couldn't be easier or more stunning. Coat it in paprika and a few other spices, then pan fry it until tender and juicy. It takes under 10 minutes to get restaurant-quality flavor!
It's easy to accidentally overcook seafood, especially small shellfish—like shrimp and mussels—and thin fish fillets. The texture can also turn out mushy if it is too saturated with water. Fortunately, you can start making restaurant-quality seafood at home with these seafood cooking tips.
If you salt your fish less than an hour before cooking, you can leave the fish on the kitchen counter. If you salt it for longer, refrigerate it so it doesn't spoil. Another tip is to remove the fish from the fridge half an hour before cooking.
It may sound bizarre, but, according to Epicurious, an effective way to combat fishiness is by soaking the protein in milk prior to cooking. To try this trick in your home kitchen, follow Cook's Illustrated's advice: before cooking, let your fish spend about 20 minutes sitting in milk to absorb any unwanted odors.
Salting fish, like sea bass fillets, before cooking helps to firm up the flesh and improves the texture. If you've travelled much in Spain or Portugal you will no doubt of seen salt cod, or bacalao on the menu – this is where the fish is covered in salt for days to remove all the moisture.
One of the reasons fish will taste bitter is due to incorrect manner of slicing the fish. Sometimes the gall bladder of the fish, which contains bile which of course is bitter, gets punctured when the fish is being cut. The leaked bile gets quickly absorbed in the fish body. This gives it a bitter taste.
Fishy odor may also come from enzymes that break down once the fish is caught. Bacteria in fish flesh convert lysine, an amino acid, into cadaverine, a molecule that's associated with decomposing animals, according to the American Chemical Society. Chemical reactions can also lead to fishy odors.
This is why it is often referred to as the "least fishiest fish." One reason is that cod has a lower oil content than other fish. This means it has a less pronounced flavor and is less likely to have a strong "fishy" taste. Additionally, cod is a white fish with a firm texture, contributing to its mild flavor.
But more importantly, pan frying yields that deliciously browned exterior on both sides of the fish. Baking or steaming won't accomplish that same golden “crust.” Pro Tips for pan frying cod: Let fish sit at room temp in a colander to drain any excess water, particularly if your fish was previously frozen.
COD-FISH is a strand-specific modification of standard FISH technology which allows the hybridization of single-stranded probes to one, and only one, chromatid of a metaphase chromosome.
Temperature is the key to making sure your frozen cod doesn't turn out rubbery or chewy. No matter how you cook it, be sure that your cod reaches an internal temperature of 145˚F as measured by a food thermometer. At this temperature, its flesh will be opaque white and flake easily when pressed with a fork.
Introduction: My name is Carlyn Walter, I am a lively, glamorous, healthy, clean, powerful, calm, combative person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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