Fish Milanese with a buttery garlic and parsley sauce

This easy recipe for Fish Milanese is made with juicy cod fillets, marinated in lemon and onions, coated in crispy breadcrumbs and covered in a buttery garlic and parsley sauce. Serve with crispy french fries for a fish and chip supper with a difference.

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Fish Milenese with a buttery garlic and parsley sauce

I think it is safe to say that most people enjoy a plate of fish and chips. And this is my version of fish and chips with a difference – Fish Milenese with a buttery garlic and parsley sauce.

I didn’t think there was much that you could do to improve the flavour of a lovely fresh piece of fish, but that was before I tried marinating the fish in a mixture of lemon juice and onions before coating with breadcrumbs and frying. The flavours from the lemon are onions are so subtle you can hardly taste them, but when you get comments like ‘Oh this fish tastes nice – what did you do to it?‘, you just know you are on to a winner!

Add some crispy breadcrumbs, and a deliciously buttery garlic and parsley sauce, and you have a family supper that you will be making again and again.

This dish does take rather longer than the normal fried fish and chips, because the fish has to marinate for an hour before you coat it in breadcrumbs, however, I’m sure you will agree that it is worth it.

What ingredients do you need for fish milanese?

You can get the complete ingredient list and full instructions for making fish milanese on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

For the fish, you will need one or two fillets of cod per person. Now, I say cod, but you could use haddock, tilapia, hake or any other firm white fish that can be easily filleted so there are no bones in it. The number of fillets will depend on how large they are. One portion of fish should weigh 5 to 6 ounces (140g – 170g) depending on your appetite.

To make the marinade you will need a small onion or shallot, very finely chopped, lemon juice and olive oil.

For the breadcrumb coating, you will need some seasoned flour, beaten egg and fresh breadcrumbs. I normally blitz stale bread in a blender and freeze in a plastic bag so I always have breadcrumbs available. You could just grate a slice or two of day-old bread to make fresh breadcrumbs. And at a pinch you could even use a packet of store-bought breadcrumbs. I’m also a great lover of Japanese Panko breadcrumbs, but even though they provide a lovely crunch, I think they would be too coarse for this dish. The choice is yours!

Make the seasoned flour by mixing salt and a grinding of black pepper corns with plain flour.

For the parsley sauce, you will need butter, garlic, and of course, some freshly chopped parsley.

You will also need some olive oil for frying the fish.

What do you do with the leftover marinade?

It seems a shame to throw the marinade away. There are two things you could do with it:

• Strain the marinade through a sieve to get rid of the onions and use the olive oil and lemon from the marinade for frying the fish.
• My hubby loves onions in any shape or form, so I just tip all the marinade into a saucepan and let it simmer gently until the onions are nice and soft and serve the onions as a side with the fish (don’t tell anyone 🙂 )

How to make fish milanese

Start off by mixing finely diced onion, lemon juice and olive oil in a large flat dish. Submerge the fish fillets in the marinade. Cover and set aside for an hour (image 1 below).

Remove the fish from the marinade (make sure to brush off all the onions, and coat in seasoned flour.

Dip the coated fish in beaten egg, allowing any excess to drip off, and then coat in breadcrumbs. Be sure to pat the breadcrumbs on firmly so the fish is completely coated (image 2 above).

Fry the fish for about 3 minutes on each side in a little extra olive oil until it is nicely browned on both sides (image 3 above). Use a spatula to lift the fish and see whether the bottom has browned or not.

Test that the fish is done by breaking a corner away with a fork – cooked fish will flake easily.

Remove the fish from the pan and add an ounce of butter. Once the butter has melted, add the chopped garlic and very gently until softened. Don’t let the garlic brown, or it will become bitter. Add the chopped parsley, stir and then spoon immediately over the fish.

Serve this fish with crispy french fries, garden peas and a leafy tomato salad.

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What else to serve with fish Milanese

Instead of serving this dish with french fries, why not serve the fish with a helping of spicy mushroom fried rice. Alternatively, you could serve it with mushroom and pea risotto.

If you are looking for vegetables to serve with this dish, try a helping of traditional mushy peas. Or for a lighter option serve with my orzo pasta summer salad.

If you enjoyed this recipe for fish milanese, why not try some of my other fish and seafood recipes

• Easy homemade fishcakes
• Spicy fish and rice bake
• Easy fish curry in a tomato and onion sauce
• Fresh mussels in a creamy garlic sauce

Can I freeze fish Milanese

If you make this recipe with frozen fish fillets that have been defrosted, I would not recommend freezing.

On the other hand, if you make this recipe with fresh fillets from the fishmonger, which have not been previously frozen, you can freeze the coated fish fillets.

Place the breadcrumb-coated fillets on a baking tray which has been lined with baking parchment (to prevent sticking) and place the baking tray in the freezer. Once the fillets are completely frozen, transfer them to a ziploc freezer bag and leave in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Freezing them before putting in a freezer bag ensures that the fillets will stay separate, and you can just remove as many fillets as you need for a meal and return the rest of the fillets to the freezer.

To fry from frozen, allow an extra 2 minutes per side, otherwise, defrost in the refrigerator and fry as per the recipe instructions.

Additional resources

Don’t forget to check out my handy Cookery Conversion Calculator if you want to convert any of your recipe measurements from grams to cups, ounces, tablespoons or millilitres and vice versa. You can also use the calculator for converting oven temperatures between Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Gas marks.

If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read all about it in this post on baking at high altitudes.

Fish milanese recipe

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