You'll love my easy Ginger Garlic Pan Roasted Swordfish. It's the perfect restaurant style meal for your next date night dinner!
I always have friends ask me, what’s the best way to cook fish? While my favorite way is the simplicity of Olive Oil, Sea Salt and Pepper, there are times that I add additional flavors to spice things up a bit! After all, Variety is the Spice of Life.
One of my latest requests was what to do with swordfish? Swordfish can be a disaster if overcooked and is really a fairly bland fish (if it’s fresh), so you can have fun adding in very flavorful ingredients. Marinating is always an option, but it takes a little more thought and time.
How do I make Compound Butter?
Compound butter is made by mixing additional elements, such as herbs, spices or aromatic liquids, into softened butter. Reforming the butter into logs using plastic wrap or parchment paper is a great way to store it until needed. You can also place it into serving crocks for table use.
Remember recipes are guidelines. Add your favorite flavors to make your signature compound butter. Have fun and experiment with the flavors.
Make sure to chill your butter to firm it up and can be kept in the refrigerator for up 5 days. Compound butter can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months.
What are Compound Butters good for?
Using compound butter is a great way to spice things up with your cooking. You can use compound butter on fish, chicken or beef adding another layer of flavor to your dish.
Compound butter is also a wonderful addition to vegetables, rice, noodles and they taste great on bread.
This is my variation of a compound butter that would work wonderfully for you, and don’t be afraid to crank up the flavors you like most by adding a bit more into your butter. That’s how I came up with my Ginger Garlic Pan Roasted Swordfish.
You can do this fish in the oven for the entire cooking process, but I do like the Pan Roasting Method for some foods, and it worked well with the swordfish. This recipe will also work well on grilled swordfish.
Don’t forget to add a little color to your plates with your favorite side dishes. We eat with our eyes and if a plate is pleasing to look at the food will always taste better!
What other fish can I use instead of Swordfish?
Compound butter is a wonderful way to enhance any fish that may be on the drier side. Tuna, shark, mahi-mahi, and red snapper are also good choices. But truth be told a compound butter is a delicious way to dress up your favorite fish. My wife loves it with flounder.
You might also like these fish recipes:
- Blackened Salmon with a Gorgonzola Cream Sauce
- Pan Seared Halibut
- How to Poach Mahi-Mahi (or your favorite fish)
- Grilled Atlantic Rockfish
Ginger-Garlic Pan Roasted Swordfish
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter room temperature
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger grated
- 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon peel grated
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 12 ounces swordfish fillets should be 6-7 ounces each
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- In a small bowl blend together the butter, parsley, garlic, ginger, red pepper and lemon peel.
- Season the swordfish to taste with sea salt.
- In an ovenproof skillet heat oil over medium-high heat.
- place the swordfish in the skillet and cook until browned, 2- 3 minutes.
- Turn the swordfish over and transfer the pan to the oven. Roast until just cooked through, about 8-10 minutes or until desired doneness.
- Transfer swordfish to a serving dish
- Add seasoned butter mixture to the same skillet. Allow it to cook slightly over medium-high heat until melted and bubbling.
- Pour butter sauce over swordfish and serve with your favorite side dishes
Nutrition
More recipes from my site
How to make Restaurant-Style Seafood Soup- Linguine with Clams Recipe – Authentic Italian Seafood
- Seafood Marinara with Pasta – Restaurant-Style Recipe
- Sicilian Style Seafood with Pasta and Eggplant
- How to Make Salmon Cakes – An Easy and Delicious Weeknight Dinner
- Restaurant-Style New England Clam Chowder
Ramona says
I really love the sound and looks of this recipe. I normally avoid swordfish in restaurants for the reason you said. It can be a disaster if overcooked and truthfully I rarely happened to have a good dish. I only eat it at the one restaurant that does it very well.
I must try this recipe- it looks awesome!
Jeanne Robert says
This was delicious. I followed another reviewer’s suggestion and marinated in Almond milk for a couple hours. Because my filets weren’t too thick, I only cooked in the oven for 6 minutes. It wasn’t dry at all. My husband, who is less than enthusiastic with his compliments said, “that was pretty good” which is high praise for him.
Lola Lorie says
This was so easy and so delicious. Will make again for sure. Served on a bed of sauteed spinach with lemon and olive oil. It was not only delicious but a beautiful presentation. Will make a great dinner when entertaining and don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
Anna Lynn says
Quick, easy and delicious! My teenagers loved it. I substituted cilantro for the parsley only because I didn’t want to go to the market to get parsley, and it tasted great also.
Ania says
Hi, this looks wonderful! Can I ask – sorry probably really daft question – when you say ‘add the butter to the same skillet’ – does this mean you take the skillet with the fish out of the oven once done, put it back on the stove and add the butter to it, with fish still in the pan – or – do you take the fish out of the pan before doing the butter heating till melted and bubbling bit and then pour butter over the fish? (Don’t want to ruin what looks a scrummy feast!)
Chef Dennis Littley says
take fish out of the pan first so it doesn’t continue cooking. Heat the seasoned butter, pour it over the fish and enjoy!
Alan Babbitt says
Very easy and very tasty. As always, the quality and freshness of the fish is paramount, so it’s worthwhile to splurge and get the best fish you can from a source you trust. This recipe gives a subtle seasoning and allows the flavor of the fish to shine. I paired this with roasted smashed Yukon gold potatoes and steamed broccoli that was stirred briefly in the last bit of sauce left in the pan after the fish was removed and dressed. Outstanding!
Randall Morrison says
One trick I learned with cooking Swordfish is you need to marinate the fish in the fridge for 3 or 4+ hours. I use Almond milk. It provides a creamy texture to the Swordfish and the fish takes on hints of the Almond milk flavoring.
After I do the marinating I rinse off the fish and then follow Dennis’s recipe. My only change to this is I add fresh lemon juice in the iron skillet while it’s searing and finish it off after I have added the compound butter with a drizzle of lemon juice.
David K says
Most swordfish I’ve eaten were dry and overcooked–I thought it was a fish I didn’t like. This delightful and very easy recipe showed me that, no, it’s easy to cook them so they’re moist, tender, and flavorful. Next time I might use a bit more ginger in the butter–with the other flavors, it got a little lost.
Roberta Herman says
Loved the recipe
Daddy cooks says
You the fucking man Dennis!
Chef Dennis Littley says
thank you!
Diane L Yarid says
My new favorite for swordfish. Delicious! Had a friend over who had never tried swordfish, he was blown away by the flavor! So easy to make! Thank you Chef Dennis!
Georgia says
Wonderful flavor!!!
Natassa says
Amazing recipe. I just made it, so juicy and tender. Thank you chef 🌷
Kim Hale says
Absolutely love this recipe! Have used it a lot! I just noticed the red pepper though. Is that chilli pepper or normal red pepper? Because I have been using normal pepper. Would hate to think I’ve missed out on chilli! Thanks chef !
Chef Dennis Littley says
hi Kim
it is crushed red pepper, but you could use red bell pepper. Now that you know how to make this kind of topping, you can adapt it with favorite seasonings, add heat if you like and even use it on other seafood, chicken, beef or pork.
Shona says
Was a perfect recipe for my MIL’s first introduction to swordfish! I grated the garlic because I prefer the texture and the flavor distribution of grated vs. chopped, and doubled the compound butter because my swordfish steaks were HUGE., but otherwise followed the recipe. DELICIOUS!!
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Shona, and adapting the recipe to better suit your needs is what cooking is all about!
Bruce Babbitt says
Best swordfish recipe I’ve tried in quite a while.
Nancy Quinn says
I found your recipe for Ginger-Garlic pan roasted swordfish while randomly looking for an easy recipe for swordfish. I was drawn to your recipe first because of your name “Dennis” and then because of the simplicity of the recipe. My family was extremely pleased with how the swordfish turned out. It was very tasty!!
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m happy to hear that Nancy. Thank you for the great review and I hope you find more recipes on my blog to try for your family!
Nancy says
This was both easy and incredibly delicious. And it is company worthy. My new favorite swordfish recipe. Didn’t bother putting it in the oven; I just cooked it on the stove until is was cooked through (around 130 degrees).
Katie says
I cooked swordfish for the first time tonight and my family really enjoyed it! My middle son had asked for it and when I searched for a recipe I found this one and the butter sounded SO good, I just HAD to try it. Even my youngest son, who never enjoys eating fish enjoyed this. Thank for sharing it!!
Susan E Howe says
This recipe is absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing.
Trish says
My first time making one of your recipes and my family loved it!!! The swordfish was perfectly cooked and the sauce gave it a restaurant quality flavor! Really amazing. Thank you Chef Dennis.
Wanda McHenry says
Absolutely delicious!
Annette says
This recipe was delicious. We grilled the swordfish and topped it with the melted ginger garlic butter. Scrumptious!
Steven Argyris says
This was the best swordfish I have ever made. It had the perfect mix of spicy and rich.
Tracy G says
Made for dinner tonight. We’ve never had sword fish before. DELICIOUS!
Brittany Little says
O. M. G. !!!! This was just amazing!!!
Dominique says
I just made this tonight and it was great! I had never cooked swordfish before and this recipe made it easy!
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m very happy to hear you enjoyed the swordfish recipe! I hope you find more recipes to try in your kitchen!
JOHN says
This recipe is outstanding. I made the swordfish and the family went crazy over it. This will make people that don’t prefer fish to ask for seconds. Thanks for sharing. This is in the favorite collection.