You’re going to love my buttery ginger garlic pan-seared swordfish recipe! It’s amazingly delicious and so very easy to make. My restaurant-quality recipe produces a tender, moist, flavor-packed swordfish that tastes better than your favorite seafood restaurant.

Cooking swordfish can be a disaster when it’s overcooked. The mild flavors of the swordfish make it a blank canvas for flavor. Have fun adding your favorite seasonings and fresh herbs to customize my easy swordfish recipe to your taste preference.
Making a simple marinade is a great option, but my compound butter is easier and turns fresh swordfish into a culinary masterpiece.
Try our Pan-Seared Rockfish and Tilefish Recipes if you love fresh fish recipes.
Ingredients for Swordfish Recipe
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients needed for our Ginger Garlic Swordfish Recipe. In Chef Speak, this is called the “Mise en Place,” which translates to “Everything in its Place.”
Not only does setting up your ingredients ahead of time speed up the cooking process, it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
Simple Ingredients
- swordfish steaks
- butter
- fresh Italian parsley
- garlic cloves
- ginger
- lemon zest (or chopped lemon peel)
- red pepper flakes (or black pepper)
- extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt
How do I make Compound Butter?
Before you start making the swordfish recipe, prepare the compound butter you’ll be using at the end of the preparation.
Compound butter is made by mixing additional elements, such as herbs, spices, or aromatic liquids, into softened butter. I used minced garlic cloves, red pepper flakes, chopped Italian parsley, grated lemon peel, and freshly grated ginger for my compound butter.
You can easily swap out ingredients to customize the compound butter and have fun experimenting with the flavors.
How to make our Swordfish Recipe
Follow along with my simple step-by-step instructions to learn how to make our swordfish recipe in your home kitchen.
Rinse the swordfish steaks with cold water, then pat dry with paper towels. Salt the swordfish generously using your favorite sea salt (kosher salt can also be used).
- Place an ovenproof frying pan (or grill pan) over medium-high heat, and when hot, add one tablespoon of olive oil and the swordfish, salted side down. Sear the swordfish for 1-2 minutes or until the seared swordfish has a lovely color.
- Turn the swordfish over and drain any excess oil from the pan. Carefully add a few tablespoons of water to the pan and place it in a preheated 400-degree oven.
*Roast the swordfish until just cooked through, about 6-8 minutes or until the desired doneness.
How do I know if the swordfish is thoroughly cooked?
Swordfish is a meaty fish, and the easiest way to tell if it’s done is to use an instant-read or meat thermometer. The temperature should read 130°F for medium, 135°F for medium-well, or 140 to 145°F for well-done.
Another way to tell if your swordfish is thoroughly cooked is by inserting the tines of a fork into the thickest portion of the swordfish at a 45° angle. Gently twist the fork and pull up some of the fish. If it flakes easily, without resistance, the fish is done.
- Transfer the seared swordfish to a serving dish. I like serving my swordfish with wilted spinach, but feel free to use your vegetable or grain.
- Add seasoned butter mixture to the same skillet. Allow it to cook slightly over medium-high heat until melted and bubbling (1-2 minutes).
Spoon the seasoned butter over the cooked swordfish and serve with your favorite side dishes. My Pan-roasted swordfish is seared in a pan and finished in the oven, just like we did in the restaurant!
*You can do this fish in the oven for the entire cooking process, but I like to sear the swordfish before finishing in the oven. You can also add the butter directly to the swordfish before it goes in the oven instead of cooking the compound butter in a pan.
*This swordfish recipe can also be prepared on the gas grill or air fryer. But you still need to use a frying pan to cook the topping.
What fish can I use instead of Swordfish?
Compound butter is an excellent way to enhance any fresh fish that may be on the drier side. Tuna, shark, mahi-mahi, red snapper, or your favorite white fish will also work well with my recipe.
Compound butters also work well with grilled chicken, steaks, and pork chops.
After one bite, I know you’ll agree that this is The Best Swordfish Recipe you’ve ever tried.
Swordfish is a delicious and nutritious fish. The bold flavors of ginger and garlic, combined with the meaty texture of swordfish, create a satisfying and delicious meal that is perfect for your next date night, dinner party, or any occasion.
Recipe FAQ’s
Overcooking any fish is an easy way to ruin it. Swordfish is not as forgiving as salmon, so it’s essential to cook swordfish to medium well, cooked to the point where it is just cooked through but still remains juicy.
Swordfish is an excellent source of selenium, a micronutrient with cancer-fighting and heart-health benefits. It’s also protein-rich and loaded with niacin, vitamin B12, zinc, and Omega-3. Swordfish is also low in fat and calories, which makes it a guilt-free choice when it comes to seafood.
I think it’s always a good idea to rinse any fish under cold running water. Pat the rinsed fillet dry with paper towels before seasoning and cooking.
More Recipes You’ll Love!
Ginger-Garlic Swordfish Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter room temperature
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon ginger grated
- ⅕ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- ½ teaspoon lemon peel grated
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 12 ounces swordfish fillets should be 6-7 ounces each
- sea salt to taste
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.
- Place an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat and when hot add one tablespoon of olive oil and the swordfish, salted side down.
- Pan sear the swordfish for 1-2 minutes or until it has a nice color.
- Turn the swordfish over, and drain out any excess oil from the pan. Carefully add a few tablespoons of water to the pan and place the pan in a preheated 400 degree oven
- Roast the swordfish until just cooked through, about 6-8 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 (1-2 minutes).
- Pour butter sauce over swordfish and serve with your favorite side dishes
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.