Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia is a less complex way to cook blackened tilapia — all you need to do is rub the seasonings and bake it in the oven. It might sound simple, but it’s true. You can make your own tilapia lunch dish in less than 15 minutes.
This Blackened Tilapia recipe will give you tasty and flaky tilapia fillets good for three persons. You can eat this with wild rice or quinoa, and even top it on salads. Try to squeeze some lemon on top to give it that fresh taste.
How to Cook Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia
The flavor of Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia depends on the rub. This is a mixture of paprika, onion powder, salt, ground black pepper, garlic powder, and Cayenne pepper powder (this is optional). Make the rub by combining these ingredients in a bowl. Make sure to mix the ingredients thoroughly until blended. Once the the rub is ready, it is time to prep the tilapia fillets.
Pat dry the tilapia using a paper towel. Coat some oil all over the tilapia fillet. You can do this by using a cooking oil spray or by simply rubbing cooking oil using your hands. The oil will help the rub stick to the fish and will also assist in bringing-in the dark color when baking.
Coat the tilapia with the rub mixture. Let it stay for 10 to 15 minutes. This is the best time to preheat your oven because the fish will be ready once your oven reaches the desired temperature of 400 F. Bake the tilapia for 12 to 14 minutes. The baking time will vary on the size and thickness of the fillet. The baking time indicated is for medium sized fillet. Add more time if your tilapia fillet is thicker.
After you’ve finished making your amazingly crisp Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia, you can get ready to serve this to your table of 3! But this also works as a meal prep dish for the next few days that’s just for you. The key is knowing how to set this aside properly so it stays fresh for a long time. Let’s explore some ways for proper storage.
How to store Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia:
For storage, you should decide whether you would want to consume your cooked fish within the next few days, or more towards the distant future. Should you be looking for just a short period of storage, refrigerating would be the way to go.
Refrigerating your cooked tilapia:
Firstly, let your Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia cool down to room temperature. It is important that you don’t store this while it is piping hot so we can avoid quicker spoilage. Keep in mind that tossing hot food in the fridge puts it at greater risk of having bacteria grow quickly. And so once we have our fish nice and cool, we should place this inside an airtight container.
A reminder not to keep the fish out at room temperature for over two hours. The dish may also go bad if we don’t store it in the fridge by then. When your fish is in the container, you can place this in the refrigerator. You can expect your baked tilapia to be good for two to three days in the fridge.
Freezing your cooked tilapia:
Now for a longer shelf life, your best option would be to freeze your dish. You can use a freezer bag, but make sure that you have let go of all the excess air from inside. You could also opt for an airtight container. And if you have plastic wrap, you could wrap your dish in two layers of this, and then some aluminum foil. Then just put this inside the freezer.
If you used plastic wrap and aluminum foil, it would be best to keep some distance among the pieces of fish inside the freezer. This will aid in freezing them as fast as possible. And then once you have succeeded in getting them frozen, you could stack them together.
And how about creating more recipes with our versatile, yummy hero ingredient— the famous tilapia? I have a few I would like to introduce to you, some of which are also baked. Let’s dive right in then!
More tilapia speedy recipes to take a look at:
Baked Lemon Butter Tilapia
Do you prefer your tilapia with a hint of exciting sourness and lemon-y flavor? What about making the fillet smoother than ever with a satisfying, buttery taste? Should you want something that ticks all of those boxes, you are about to be really happy with this recipe of ours. Baked Lemon Butter Tilapia is made with melted butter, some garlic, chopped parsley, and of course, the rich, zesty lemon.
Despite the fact that we don’t use a lot of ingredients for this dish, you can count on it to be very flavorful. This is because we truly mix in all of those spices— from ground black pepper to garlic— into our fish. And because this is, once again, a recipe involving baking instead of frying, it is a healthier way of having your tilapia. The lack of oil really keeps all of our nutrients more intact once it’s baked. And we get to reduce the amount of saturated fat in our meal.
Baked Parmesan Garlic Crusted Tilapia
Now what about making a dish that’s easy, speedy, but also graciously savory enough to impress a group of guests? Our Baked Parmesan Garlic Crusted Tilapia takes less than a half hour to make, and is absolutely delicious. It has a mildly salty flavor from the crust made of our parmesan cheese, garlic powder and more.
Plus, our baking method gives us that nice, light crisp outside while making the interior of the tilapia beautifully tender. I would recommend preparing some quinoa or couscous salad to have this with if you want a side dish as well. But you could also have it alone. The flavor definitely stands nicely flying solo because it is not too overpowering, nor is it too light.
Sweet and Sour Fish
Who doesn’t enjoy a great Sweet and Sour Fish dish? This is definitely a favorite in various cuisines, and is something you can find in many restaurants as well. That’s because the duo of dominant flavors really is irresistible, and luckily for us, it is not all too hard to recreate. For my recipe, I utilize white vinegar, tomato ketchup and white sugar to achieve that blend of sweetness and sourness.
Another advantage to this dish is that it doesn’t just work well with tilapia. You can try plenty of other types of fish to cook with that will complement our velvety orange sauce. But when it comes to sweet and sour fish that comes from Filipino establishments, dalagang bukid is a fish you will often see paired with our mix of bell peppers and carrots.
Share your thoughts about this Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia. Go ahead, and give your feedback on the comments section below!
Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia
Ingredients
- 3 tilapia fillets approximately 3/4 lbs total weight
- cooking oil spray
- 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper powder optional
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
Instructions
- Pat dry the tilapia fillets using a paper towel. Set aside.
- Combine paprika, Cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, ground black pepper, and parsley flakes in a bowl. Mix well.
- Spray cooking oil on each tilapia fillet and then rub with the paprika mixture. Turn the fillet over and rub the remaining mixture on the other side.
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Lay an aluminum foil over a baking tray. Spray cooking oil on the foil and arrange the fillet on top. Spray some cooking oil on the tilapia fillet.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until the fish is done and flaky.
- Serve hot. Enjoy!
Please send me your recipes. Thanks.
Thank you for the easy recipe. I cooked it for mi wife and she loved it
Quick and delicious for a simple meal night. Thank you
Delicious! I cooked mine longer because I like it extra crispy. Very good flavor & nice with the cayenne added.
I got some tilapia from a food bank and had no idea how to cook it. This recipe turned out great. Thanks for posting it.
You are welcome, Rob. Glad you liked it. Enjoy!
I fixed the Blackened Tilapia tonight for my husband and I and I will say, “we both LOVED it!”… The mixture of the spices were straight on…..I have made Blackened Mahi Mahi but wasn’t sure that it could be pulled off for the Tilapia but it did. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes.
Could I add fresh tomatoes and black olives?
Can I use smoked paprika instead?
Loved it.
We used smoked paprika and olive oil because they’re what we had on hand and everything was delicious. Super easy and complimented our roast veggies really well too.