How to Bake Hake Fish in the Oven

Last Updated on 15th September 2022 by

Hake is a simple whitefish that’s similar to cod. If you’ve had cod before, hake fish is just a little sweeter. This fish will flake easily, and when it’s cooked, it has a meaty texture, and it firms up very well.

I want to share with you how to bake hake fish and give you a few ideas for how you can work with it. It’s very similar to several types of whitefish, but knowing just what kind of seasonings works well with it and how to bake hake to perfection will help you create a wonderful dish from this particular fish.  One of my favorites is how to cook red snapper.

How to Bake Hake in Oven

You can cook hake when seasonings that are as simple as lemon juice, breadcrumbs, and chili pepper flakes. All of these help to bring out different textures and flavors in their own unique way. If you have them available, I would add in some garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, paprika, and cayenne pepper flakes.

My favorite way to cook hake fish is to bake it, partly because it’s so simple and I don’t have to keep an eye on it.

To do that, I preheat my oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and then prepare my fish. I put on a layer of oil or lemon juice to help the breadcrumb stick and then add on my seasonings and breadcrumbs. Make sure the fish is well coated and press the breadcrumbs down with the back of a spoon to help them stick better.

You can gently shake off the fish to get rid of any excess crumbs and then place your fish on a baking sheet.

The hake should bake for 15 minutes once the oven has fully heated. When it’s done cooking, the outside of the fish should be golden brown as the breadcrumbs cook all the way. The fish should be tender but fully cooked.

This cooking method gives you a light and juicy fish that’s bursting with flavor.

How Long to Bake Hake?

The cooking temperature and duration I chose for the recipe above helps ensure that the fish taste juicy rather than dry. If you bake hake for too long or at too high of a temperature, you can suck the moisture out of it and make it dry, sapping it of flavor.

How long to bake hake fillets?

If you’re cooking the filets at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, 15 minutes should be long enough for a pan with two to four filets on it. The size of the fillets will help determine how long they should cook for as well as the temperature you’re using to cook them at.

Keep in mind that changing the temperature in one direction or another will change your recommended cooking time. It’s always better to err on the side of not cooking the fish enough. If you undercook it, you can just put it back in the oven for a few more minutes until it’s cooked fully.

How to Bake Hake Fish with Flour in Oven

The recipe I gave you above is for fish that is seasoned and has breadcrumbs on it. If you want to bake your fish with flour, you’ll want something to help the flour stick to the fish. I would suggest using melted butter to help the flour adhere to the fish’s skin.

A combination of flour and butter baked onto the fish creates a lovely crust, but it’s not very flavorful. I suggest mixing some seasonings into the flower to keep your fish from being too bland.

Other than these changes, though, you can cook the fish according to the directions I gave you above, baking it for 15 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

You can use the same method for how to bake battered hake.

The difference is that you’ll use an egg coating on the fish rather than butter. Egg works really well to stick flour to your fish, and it helps create a thicker, crispier crust.

Now you know a couple of methods for how to cook hake in the oven, no matter what your preference is or how you like the outer layer around your fish to be, you know what to do.

How to Cook Hake from Frozen

When you are working with frozen hake, you may be wondering if you need to thaw it out first or if you can cook the fish while it is still frozen. Let me share with you how to cook hake fillets from frozen.

After you take the hake from the freezer, you should wash the fish off, getting rid of excess frost and ice. You’re not trying to thaw it all the way out, but instead rinse it until there’s just the fish remaining. The fish that’s left will be solid and icy on the inside, but it shouldn’t have icing crusted all over it.

From there, you can cook the fish as normal, baking it, grilling it, or frying it up in a pan on the stove. It may need to cook a few minutes longer than normal, but that’s about it.

You shouldn’t need to adjust the cooking temperature or make any other changes to your cooking method. Just check the fish at the time it would normally be done cooking and see if it is cooked all the way through.

The guidelines for whitefish, including cod, tilapia, and hake, is that it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit for it to be considered fully cooked.

You can store hake for months in the freezer, as long as it’s properly packaged. You can place the fish directly into a freezer safe bag and push out the excess air and store it like that.

If you have multiple hake fillets to store in the freezer, it’s best to wrap each of them individually in some parchment paper. This way, you can take out each of the fillets more easily as you need them.

They may still stick together, so to avoid that, you can store each of them in their own plastic bag and then put that inside a larger bag. That may seem like a waste of plastic, but you can reuse the plastic, and you won’t have to break the filets apart from one another to use them.

Pauline

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I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!

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