Baked Lionfish with Salted Butter & Everglades Seasoning
Lionfish is mild, moist, and buttery on its own. Salted butter and Everglades Seasoning just finish the job. This is a whole-fish bake for a weeknight after a hunt, or for anyone who landed a cleaned fish and does not want a fussy recipe. Twenty minutes in the oven, a squeeze of lemon, and dinner is on the table.
It is also one of the better things you can put on a plate if you care about the reef. Lionfish are invasive across Florida, the Gulf, and the Caribbean. The spines are venomous. The meat is not. Once the spines are off, what is left is a lean white fish that cooks fast and tastes like it belongs next to hogfish or a mild snapper. Eating it is part of the removal, not a side note. More on why that matters is on Are Lionfish Good to Eat? and Meet the Bad Guy.
Serves: 2–4
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes
Total: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 1–2 whole lionfish, cleaned and scaled, head on or off (about 1–1.5 lb total)
- 3–4 tablespoons salted butter, cut into thin pats
- 2–3 teaspoons Everglades Seasoning, or to taste
- Lemon wedges, for serving
Everglades Seasoning already carries salt, garlic, onion, and a little heat, so you do not need a second salt. The salted butter is there for richness and a pan sauce, not to cover the fish.
Before you start
Scaling matters. Lionfish skin is tough. Have the fish scaled when it is cleaned, or scrape firmly against the grain with the back of a spoon.
Spines come off before the fish ever hits the counter. Dorsal, pelvic, and anal spines are the hazard. The flesh does not carry the venom. If you are new to breakdown, start with What’s the Best Way to Filet Lionfish Safely?. This recipe uses the whole fish, but the same rule applies: no spines on the board, no spines in the pan.
If you are still in the water when dinner starts as an idea, the fish should already be in a containment unit, not on a stringer. The ZooKeeper Lionfish and Marine Debris Containment Unit is built for that: spear in, hands off, spines inside. The full line is in the ZooKeeper collection.
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet or shallow pan with foil.
- Rinse the cleaned fish under cold water and pat it dry. Wet skin steams. Dry skin takes seasoning. Cut 3–4 shallow diagonal slashes on each side, about ¼ inch deep. The slashes let the seasoning in and help a thick shoulder cook at the same rate as the tail.
- Season the cavity and both sides with Everglades Seasoning. Rub it into the slashes. Tuck 1–2 pats of butter into the cavity. Lay the rest along the top and press a few into the cuts.
- Bake 20 minutes. The thickest part should flake with a fork and read 145°F. Lionfish is lean. Past that point it dries out. If you are cooking two smaller fish, start checking at 15 minutes.
- Rest 2–3 minutes. The butter will have melted into the pan. Spoon that over the fish. Serve whole, or fillet it at the table. Lemon is optional and usually the right call.
What to serve with it
Rice pilaf, roasted vegetables, or a sharp mango salsa. The butter is rich. Something acidic keeps the plate from sitting heavy. If you want the same fish in a colder direction, the Lionfish Ceviche by Chef Hari Pulapaka is the other end of the spectrum. For a fillet version with oil and lemon instead of a whole-fish bake, there is also A Simple Way to Cook Lionfish.
More recipes live in the recipes archive and in the REEF Lionfish Cookbook, which is written by cooks who actually work this fish.
Notes from the boat
- Head-on looks better and keeps the meat moister. Head-off is easier to fit on a weeknight pan. Either works.
- Do not flip the fish halfway. The butter is doing the work on top.
- Leftovers flake clean the next day and will take a tortilla, hot sauce, and lime better than a second round in the oven.
- If the fillet is what you brought home instead of a whole fish, use the same seasoning and butter, drop the time to 10–12 minutes, and pull it at 145°F.
Got a lionfish recipe worth posting? Send it to info@lionfishzk.com.
Slay. Eat. Repeat.
