Pan Seared Sea Bass Recipe with Potatoes & Herb Sauce
This Seared Chilean Sea Bass recipe with Potatoes & Herb Sauce is a beautiful, healthy restaurant-quality dish that can be made at home in 17 minutes.
This is the BEST way to cook Chilean Sea Bass
If there’s a recipe on this website that clearly demonstrates my cooking philosophy the best, it might just be this one.
We’re taking something kind of fancy but still easy to find at the store (sea bass, but you can also use cod, snapper, or grouper) and preparing it confidently, with classic, simple techniques, so that you end up with a restaurant-quality final product.
No panic attacks. No almost burning down your kitchen. No crazy ingredients you’ll have to go to a special grocery store for.
This best Chilean sea bass recipe comes together with perfectly cooked fish, tender fingerling potatoes, creamy Greek yogurt, and a bright, herby green sauce that will make you want to lick your plate.
Why You Will Love this Pan Seared Sea Bass Recipe
- No need to turn on the oven! That makes it perfect for a hot day or small apartment.
- When I say you can make this in under 20 minutes, I really mean it. You can!
- Between the fish and the yogurt, it has lots of protein to keep you full, while still being light and healthy.
Chilean Sea Bass Recipe ingredients
- Chilean sea bass – the star of the dish and the main protein source. It has a rich, buttery flavor and flaky, tender texture.
- fingerling potatoes – the starchy side dish that complements the delicate flavors of the sea bass. You can also use small red or yellow potatoes.
- Greek yogurt – adds a creamy and tangy element to the dish, and kind of serves as a second sauce for the fish and potatoes.
- celery – adds a refreshing and savory flavor the the green sauce.
- cilantro – the herby backbone of the green sauce, providing it with a vibrant flavor and rich green color.
- leek – we’ll be using the dark green top part in the green sauce, and the bottom light green/white part as a sauteed garnish for the fish.
- lemon juice – to add acidity to the sauce.
- kosher salt – for seasoning the fish and sauce.
- olive oil – for sauteeing the fish.
Variations of Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass
- BASIL – Use basil instead of cilantro in the herb sauce for a pesto-like twist.
- SESAME – Use sesame oil instead of olive oil to sear the fish to add a nutty Asian flavor.
- LIME – Use lime instead of lemon for a different type of citrus infusion in this dish.
Can I make this with another type of fish?
Absolutely! Just about any type of fish you prefer would be wonderful with this preparation.
Some other great choices for this recipe are cod, snapper, or grouper.
How to make this Chilean Sea Bass Recipe (17 minutes!)
Here’s how you can make this pan seared Chilean sea bass recipe like the home chef that you are, with some shortcuts and tricks to make it even easier.
Read through the directions once before you begin, and make sure you have all of your ingredients out before you start cooking. Then, take it step by step, and relax – you’ve got this!
1. Make the juice and cook the potatoes.
Minutes 1-4: Realize you don’t have a juicer to make the green juice. Pull out your blender, and puree all of the juice ingredients.
Dump the resulting herb smoothie into a fine-mesh strainer and set it over a bowl – the green juice drips into the bowl. Success. Home Chef Trick: Work with the equipment you have to make what you need.
Minute 5: Get super lazy about boiling potatoes and decide to microwave them instead . Scrub them, poke them, put them in a bowl and zap them. Home Chef Trick: Take shortcuts. Sometimes.
2. How to prepare Chilean Sea Bass
Minute 6: Get out a skillet and pre-heat it on the stove. Pat the fish dry and season it with salt. Home Chef Tricks: Always start with a screaming hot pan when cooking fish. Always start with dry fish. Always season with salt.
Minutes 7 – 13: Place the fish skin-side down in the screaming hot pan. Crispy skin is the best! Turn it and cook it a few minutes longer.
3. Prep the garnishes
While the pan seared sea bass is happening, get the yogurt out of the fridge and thinly slice the whites of your leek. Home Chef Trick: Don’t just stand around and watch your food cook. Multitask and work on the next step of the recipe, while keeping an eye on the fish in the skillet.
4. Plate it up!
Minutes 14 – 17: Transfer the pan seared Chilean sea bass to a plate to rest, put the leek whites in the skillet for a quick saute.
Gather all of the elements and assemble the plates: green juice, potatoes, yogurt, fish and leek whites. Go all Picasso on that plate and make it pretty. Home Chef Trick: A beautiful presentation never goes out of style, even at home.
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How long to cook Chilean Sea Bass
For the best Chilean sea bass recipe below, I cooked the fish in a skillet for 6 minutes: 4 minutes skin-side down, flip, then an additional 2 minutes.
You can also bake the fish in a 400 degree F oven for 10 minutes per inch of thickness of the fish.
Sea Bass internal temp
No matter how you cook it, you want to make sure that the internal temperature of all fish and seafood reaches 145 degrees F for food safety reasons.
If you like to cook at home, I highly recommend investing in an instant read thermometer [affiliate link] so that you can easily check the internal temperature of meat and seafood without having to cut into it (which will ruin the final presentation).
However, if you do not have a thermometer, and you don’t mind messing up the presentation a little bit, an easy way to tell that your fish has reached this safe temperature is by cutting into the fish at it’s thickest part and peeking inside.
How do you know when Chilean sea bass is done?
The fish should be opaque (no longer translucent) and it should easily flake with a fork.
Home Chef Tips for How to Cook Chilean Sea Bass
- Buy the freshest Chilean sea bass you can find. You’re looking for translucent, moist, odorless fillets.
- Make sure your pan is screaming hot before you add the fish. This helps create a beautiful, caramelized crust while keeping the interior tender.
- Allow the fish to rest for a few minutes after cooking to let the juices redistribute.
What to serve with Chilean Sea Bass
Sauce for Chilean Sea Bass
I really like the Green Sauce for the Chilean Sea Bass recipe below, made with celery, cilantro, leeks, lemon and salt.
You can also finish the fish with a bit of browned butter and a squeeze of lemon juice.
What to serve with Sea Bass
If you decide not to make the yogurt / potatoes / herb sauce situation from the recipe card below, and are simply serving a nicely seared piece of fish, you’ll still need a side dish.
I recommend Instant Pot mashed sweet potatoes or Parmesan roasted broccoli.
A great green side salad with miso vinaigrette or feta dressing would also work well here.
Chilean Sea Bass FAQs
While “sea bass” refers to several different species, Chilean sea bass is scientifically known as Patagonian toothfish and it is a specific type.
Chilean sea bass is prized for its high fat content, which gives it a luscious flavor and flaky texture.
Chilean sea bass used to be known as Patagonian toothfish. The name change was an effort to make it more appealing to consumers.
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Pan Seared Sea Bass Recipe
Ingredients
For the Green Sauce:
- 2 celery stalks roughly chopped
- 2 cups packed fresh cilantro
- 1 leek dark green top only, roughly chopped
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- ⅓ cup water
- Pinch of kosher salt
For the Potatoes, Fish & Assembly:
- 1 pound small fingerling potatoes
- 4 pieces Chilean sea bass 4 ounces each
- Kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 leek white part only, thinly sliced
- ½ cup Greek yogurt
- Cilantro sprigs for garnish
Instructions
- Make the Green Sauce: Puree all ingredients in blender until smooth. Pour into a fine-mesh strainer set over a medium bowl. Let sit, stirring mixture in strainer occasionally so all juice drains into bowl; discard solids.
- Scrub potatoes clean and use fork to pierce each potato lightly in several places. Place potatoes in medium microwave-safe bowl. Cover bowl with paper towel and microwave on high 4 minutes or until tender (or boil potatoes on stovetop, if desired).
- Heat large skillet over medium-high heat until skillet is very hot. Pat fish dry with paper towel and season with salt. Pour oil in pan; place fish skin side-down in pan. Cook 4 minutes or until skin is very crisp. Turn and cook 2 minutes longer. Transfer fish to plate.
- Place leek whites in same skillet; cook 1 minute or until slightly softened.
- Divide yogurt, potatoes, fish and leek whites between 4 plates. Spoon green juice around fish and garnish with cilantro.
Notes
- Buy the freshest Chilean sea bass you can find. You’re looking for translucent, moist, odorless fillets.
- Make sure your pan is screaming hot before you add the fish. This helps create a beautiful, caramelized crust while keeping the interior tender.
- Allow the fish to rest for a few minutes after cooking to let the juices redistribute.
Ok can you strike my previous comment on the juice. I found a better mesh strainer and juices flowed. Also anyone in bucks county pa who thinks fish is expensive needs to come to the Garden Farm market. I got 1 1/4 lb beautiful fresh sea bass for 24 dollars. ( dinner for 2 ). And the whole fish Branzino are 7 dollars a fish. Just nuts!!
So glad this ended up working out for you, Liz. Thanks for stopping by!
I am making it now. Didn’t have a blender for the green sauce only cuisinart unfortunately no sauce of much came out Guess juice of 1/2 lemon was a downfall so I added a bit more. Tastes great but now will be a marinade I will toss the sea bass in before we grill it. Should work out fine as it is so tasty
Came out excellent
I’m so glad to hear that, Jen!
my CSB came in steaks (skin on side) any suggested adaptations?
Suppose the ‘green’ sauce is supposed to be bitter?
I think you can use the same technique for steaks. You may need to adjust cooking time depending on thickness. Since the skin is on the side, it won’t get crispy like it does with skin-on fillets but it’ll still be really tasty. Sauce shouldn’t be bitter, just very herby and fresh.
Trying to recreate your recipe for a dinner party. When do you flip the fish over and how long to you cook on the non skin side?
Hi Jacklyn! Please refer to step 3 of the formal recipe at the bottom of the post. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Hope your dinner party is great!
We finally had sea bass where I shop and I totally….totally paused because I really, really wanted to buy some. So, I’m going to bookmark this recipe for our very next special occasion. 🙂
Yeah…it was definitely a special dinner when we had this 🙂 I wish sea bass (and fish in general) wasn’t so expensive, but it’s a nice treat!
Damn, Lori, you totally killed it. #likeaboss. Your photo looks exactly like the BA cover, hell, even better! I love all of your tips ‘n tricks, although I fear that if I look away from my cooking fish, it’ll be burnt when I finally look back at it. Baby steps!
Oh no, give yourself more credit than that, girl. You could easily pull this together, no burning allowed. Actually, I think one of the biggest mistake people make when cooking fish (myself included, even still) is trying to flip it too early. If it sticks, it’s not ready!
Thanks so much, Mahdis. And I totally remember being on a student budget, believe me. I wish I would have started a blog back then with all of the cheap recipes my roommates and I used to make!
The best was something called poverty gruel . . . A magnificent combination of stovetop stuffing, cream of mushroom soon, and instant rice. You’ve come a loooooooong way my love in your culinary pursuits.
shhhhhhhh.
I’m not going to be cooking this cover (student budget + pricey fish= no go) but I really love your tips and the dish looks beautiful! I completely agree with you about presentation and home cooking. I’m no trained chef but it is so much easier to eat healthier when the plate of food on your table looks good!
Just a note – I only had one piece of Chilean Sea Bass, but I had some frozen cod filets, so I thawed one of those and made the Sea Bass for my husband (his favorite) and had the cod myself. The cod was good too and much more budget friendly.
Thanks so much, Jenn. So glad to know that sea bass works for this recipe as well 🙂