Name: Grilled Lemon Butter Tilapia
Prep time: 3 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 11 min
Ingredients: 1 lb Tilapia fillets (6 medium fillets); 2 teaspoon butter; 2 teaspoon ReaLemon or about the juice of 1/2 lemon; 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder; salt and pepper

Recipe Table of Contents

4.15 from 55 votes

Bursting with great flavor, this grilled lemon butter tilapia is flaky and tender. Just follow these easy step by step photo instructions for a great meal.

Table of Contents

🐟Tilapia
♨️The Grill
📖Tilapia Recipes
🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
📝Full Recipe

Blue ribbon divider used for visual effect

Introduction

Oh so simple and way up there on the health-o-meter, the taste-o-meter, and the I-really-should-do-this-more-o-meter. This is destined to by one of your go-to recipes.

There is something classic about any fish with butter, lemon, and garlic. It is just what I would say is the traditional taste. Let's do that on a grill to add a little char, and you have a wonderful healthy main dish.

My Rating

My wife loved it, and so did I.

🐟Tilapia

Tilapia is frequently referred to as "the chicken of fish" due to its mild taste and ease of mass production on farms.

Scientifically, tilapia is a genus, and there are hundreds of different species of tilapia. There are also some similar related species that are generally also referred to as tilapia although technically not quite right.

Tilapia is native freshwater fish from Africa and the Middle East but been distributed around the world. They’re farmed almost everywhere since they can tolerate a wide range of temperatures and are very hardy.

On a final note, some internet "health sites" have been attacking tilapia as unhealthy using misleading headlines like "worse than bacon" but the facts still support tilapia as a good source of low-fat protein.

❄️Fresh vs. Frozen Tilapia

Fresh or thawed frozen either should be fine here. But I don't have a great source of fresh.

A one-pound package of frozen tilapia had six medium fillets that I had moved from the freezer to the frig the night before.

♨️The Grill

This recipe uses a hot grill preheated on high. Preheat a griddle or grill pan also. You may also use a grill basket as long as you can flip the fish.

The fish is thin, and this is one of the few recipes I do with the grill lid open.

📖Tilapia Recipes

Grilled Blackened Tilapia

Oven Baked Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia

Easy Grilled Tilapia with Paprika

This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

Easy Dinner Recipes, Fish Recipes, Grill Recipes

🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

preheat the grill on high with griddle in place

Preheat grill on high with a griddle or grill safe pan in place. Oil well.

Pat dry fillets.

In a small bowl, put butter, lemon juice, and garlic powder. Microwave for 10 seconds and mix well.

Brush both sides of the fillets with the butter mixture. Do this quickly before the solution firms up.

Lightly salt and pepper to taste.

A large plate of Grilled Lemon Butter Tilapia

Grill for about 4 minutes per side with an open lid. Serve hot off the grill.

📝Full Recipe

Grilled Lemon Butter Tilapia

From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

Bursting with great flavor, this grilled lemon butter tilapia is flaky and tender. Just follow these easy step by step photo instructions for a great meal.

Tap to leave a Rating

4.15 from 55 votes

Print Collection

Prep Time: 3 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 11 minutes

Servings #/Adjust if desired 6 servings

Ingredients

US Customary - Convert to Metric

▢ 1 lb Tilapia fillets - 6 medium fillets
▢ 2 teaspoon butter
▢ 2 teaspoon ReaLemon or about the juice of ½ lemon
▢ ½ teaspoon garlic powder
▢ salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat grill on high with griddle or grill safe pan in place. Oil well.
Pat dry fillets.
In a small bowl, put 2 teaspoons butter, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, and ½ teaspoon garlic powder. Microwave for 10 seconds and mix well.
Brush both sides of the fillets with the butter mixture. Do this quickly before the solution firms up.
Lightly salt and pepper to taste.
Grill for about 4 minutes per side with an open lid.
Serve hot off grill.

See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

My Private Notes

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Recipe Notes

Pro Tips:

Any grill pan, griddle, or even a grill basket will work as long as you can flip the fish.
Preheat a griddle or grill pan with the grill on high. A grill basket does not need to be preheated.
If frozen, the tilapia needs to be completely thawed. Just moving the frozen tilapia from the freezer to the refrigerator overnight will do.
This is one of the few recipes that I grill with an open lid

To adjust the recipe size:

You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

Nutrition Estimate

Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.

Course : Fish

Cuisine : American

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Originally Published August 17, 2010. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.

DrDan

August 19, 2017 at 7:36 pm

Let's address the tilapia first. It is a specific type of fish. It is a thin white fish, usually about 1/2 inch thick. While most fish will cook about the same manor, those you mentioned are thicker so although I suspect they can cook similar but just a little longer, I have not done those types.

On to the medical stuff, I have to remove it. Although the site is run by a doctor (Family doctor with no indication of board certification, not endocrinologist nor internist.) I don't have the time or expertise to evaluate the whole site. But in my prime, I read thousands of articles in medical journals per year so well read on this sort of thing. Their references are laughable medically speaking. This is just a low carb, high fat and protein diet like Adkins/South Beach. Nothing magic. Very well studied and thousands of articles out there.

For a site on the internet, they are giving advice on adjusting insulin etc that I and most doctors would consider unethical and down right dangerous. Those things should only be done by your doctor. There are a few vague call your doctor but then they give very specific medical advice. VERY BAD IDEA.

Next the diet. These sorts of diets can stress things like kidneys and livers and once damaged always damaged and at our age, many people have marginal renal function already. So no marked changes in diet without your doctor and a RD (Registered Dietitian) not a “nationalist” or other nice sounding terms.

And lastly, they want to promote the "we just want to help our patients" and no ads. Yet they seem to have "free trials" of things I suspect they want to sell. I don't buy the "we are just looking out for our patients" thing.

Final words. Let's be careful out there.

Dan