Garlic and Dill Seafood Bake
This restaurant-quality seafood bake is made by wrapping fish, shrimp, and seasonings in foil packets and then cooked in the oven. Perfect for a quick weeknight dinner or serving at a party. Customize it with your favorite veggies or fish!
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Table of Contents
About Garlic and Dill Seafood Bake
No matter if it’s the raging summer or the dead of winter, I don’t let anything keep me from getting my seafood fix.
Because you see, me and seafood, we’re likethis.
You can’t see it, but right now I’m holding up my hand with two fingers crossed. Writing that I like shrimp is simply not enough; I have to act it out the emotion, even if I’m sitting in a room by myself and looking like a total loon.
Yes, it’s that serious.
Seafood is my favorite indulgence for a lot of reasons, but I think the biggest has to be that it doesn’t have to be a seasonal affair. Thanks to my trusty oven and a couple good skillets, I can make my favorite seafood dishes all year ’round.
And, between you and me, I sometimes prefer it when I don’t have to brave the heat or the cold to operate a grill. This is probably why all of my favorite ways to enjoy seafood can be made in the climate-controlled comfort of my own kitchen.
And today, I’ve got another yet recipe to add to my crustacean-craving-curing arsenal:
Garlic and dill seafood bake.
This is the kind of dish that hits all the bases in my house, because while I’m the crazy-obsessed shrimp fanatic, an old friend of mine, well… isn’t.
He thinks shrimp are okay, but they’re not in his top ten foods – or, heck, not even in his top five. He does, however, like fish, corn, and potatoes. He tells me quite often that I don’t make enough “plain fish” for him – which to him means fish with only a little salt and butter – and I’ve told him multiple times that recipes like that don’t really work for a food blog.
So to meet somewhere in the middle, I’ve had to get a little creative in fulfilling his tastes and my desire to share tasty recipes with readers like you.
Given all of this, you probably imagine what the response was when these lightly-yet-deliciously flavored seafood packets hit the dinner table at my house.
Shrimp for me plus lightly flavored fish and extras for him?
You can’t see it, but I’ve got my arms in the air, raising the roof, looking like a loon again, because I totally nailed it.
I’m really glad I’m the only one in the house right now.
How to make a seafood bake
One of my favorite things about this recipe is how easy it is to customize, because no matter what ingredients you use, the instructions for how to set it up will remain the same.
Step 1 – Melt butter and flavor it with your favorite herbs and spices. In the case of this recipe, I used fresh dill and minced garlic.
Other seasonings you can add to the melted butter:
- Fresh Parsley
- Fresh Cilantro
- Fresh Basil
- Fresh Spinach
- baking sheets
- Cajun seasoning
Step 2 – Lay out some long pieces of foil, then arrange your chosen seafood in the center. I kept it simple and used cod and shrimp (both were on sale at my grocery store at the time).
Other types of seafood you can use:
- Tilapia
- Salmon
- Scallops
- Clams
- Halibut
Other meats you can use (note that all of these should be cooked before adding them to the foil packet):
- Sausage
- Bacon
- Ham
Step 3 – Add some raw veggies and/or fruits for flavoring. I used a bag of small red potatoes, corn, and some sliced lemons.
Other veggies you can use:
- Zucchini
- Squash
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Asparagus
- Carrots
- Red, green, or yellow peppers
- Red or sweet onions
Other fruits you can use:
- Limes
- Oranges
- Pineapples
- Apples
Step 4 – Wrap up the foil packets and bake!
How to cook a seafood bake
When it comes to seafood bakes, you can go about cooking them two ways:
In the oven. This is my preferred method and how I’ve always baked seafood packets. The cook time usually depends on the size of the filet, with an 8oz or smaller taking 20-30 minutes and 8oz or bigger taking 30-40 minutes.
On the grill. For the true cookout feel, grilling a seafood packet is the way to go. Once the grill is warmed up, the packets typically only need 15-20 minutes to be cooked through.
If you’re ever in doubt of how long to cook your chosen seafood, you can either ask someone behind the deli counter at the time you purchase your seafood OR you can always do a visual check of the seafood as it bakes. Check out these tips on how to tell if a fish is done.
notes & tips for this seafood bake:
- Before making this recipe, make sure you have plenty of aluminum foil and large baking sheet on hand!
- When your seafood bake is ready, there’s no need to remove the food from the foil – just serve the foil-packets as is, so that the foil creates its own plate. Doing this will make cleanup so much easier because all you’ll have to do is wrap up the foil and throw everything away.
Other great seafood recipes:
- Honey Garlic Shrimp and Broccoli
- Shrimp Scampi with Linguine
- Teriyaki Salmon with Sriracha Cream
- Maryland Crab Cakes
This recipe was originally posted on September 23rd, 2015. It received a TLC update on January 15th, 2018.
Garlic and Dill Seafood Bake
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted
- 3 tbsp fresh dill finely chopped
- 24 oz baby red potato (1 bag)
- 4 fillets cod (big as you can find) or other white fish (halibut, flounder, etc)
- 30 shrimp raw, peeled and deveined with tail on
- 2 medium lemon sliced (12 slices total)
- 4 ears corn husked and halved
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Tear off 8 pieces of aluminum foil, roughly 2-3 feet in length. Separate the foil in groups of 2 and lay one on top of the other, so that you have 4 groups of double layered foil (1 for each cod fillet). Lightly spray the top piece of foil with cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, melt the butter in the microwave (about 1 minute). Add chopped baby dill, garlic, plus salt and pepper (to taste) to bowl. Mix ingredients together, then set aside.
- Arrange the food on the aluminum foil: Lay the fish filet in the middle of the foil, lengthwise, so that the long sides of the cod are parallel to the long sides of the foil. Arrange 6 shrimp on top of the fish, then place the 2 corn halves and 1/2 - 3/4 cup of baby red potatoes around the sides of the fish. Drizzle 1/4 of the dill butter mixture on top of everything, particularly on the shrimp. Finish by placing 2-3 lemon slices on top of the shrimp. Wrap the foil around the food, pinching the sides to ensure that it's sealed. If the seams won't close, just wrap another piece of aluminum foil around it. Place prepared seafood packets on a large baking sheet, seam side up. Repeat this step for the 3 other seafood bakes.
- Bake time depends on the size of the fish fillet. If 8 oz or smaller, bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. If 8 oz or larger, bake 30-40 minutes. The best way to tell when the seafood packet are done is when the corn, butter, and garlic are very fragrant through the foil.
- Serve immediately, directly in the foil, with buttered rolls or a side of rice.
Nutrition
I do my best to provide nutrition information, but please keep in mind that I'm not a certified nutritionist. Any nutritional information discussed or disclosed in this post should only be seen as my best amateur estimates of the correct values.
