How To Cook Haddock: Oven, Pan & Grill Methods

Last Updated on 8th June 2022 by

Haddock is a really light whitefish that’s pretty easy to work with. It makes a great main course, if you cook haddock with plenty of seasoning, and I’ll share with you a few ways how to cook haddock and use it in your meals.

One of the things I love about this fish is that it doesn’t have a strong fishy taste, so it’s not necessary to overpower that with a lot of seasoning.

It takes seasoning really well, making it one of the better whitefish options for beginner cooks.

How to Cook Haddock in the Oven

I’ll start off with a recipe for how to cook haddock filet in oven. I keep the seasonings really simple so that there’s little chance you’ll mess this up, making it a great initial recipe to try if you’ve never cooked haddock before.

Ingredients:

4 haddock filets
2 teaspoons of salt
3/4 cup of milk
¾ cup of bread crumbs
1/4 teaspoon of dried thyme
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup of butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Next, mix together milk and salt in a bowl.
In another bowl, combine thyme, breadcrumbs, and parmesan cheese.
Submerge the haddock fillets into your milk mixture. Then, coat them in the breadcrumb mixture.
Put the haddock filets into a glass baking dish and pour your melted butter over top.
Bake the fish in the oven on the top rack for about 15 minutes. You know it’s done cooking when the fish flakes easily when prodded with a fork.

This simple method for how to cook haddock in breadcrumbs can be modified to your liking with different seasonings, but it gives you a base recipe to work with and it makes for a really crispy outer texture.

How to Cook Haddock in a Pan

Pan frying the haddock is really simple as well, and this thin fish cooks quickly on the stovetop. How to cook haddock on the stove?

Start by patting the fillets dry and then add a dusting of flour and season with salt and black pepper. Place a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and warm on medium high heat. Once the butter has melted, you can lower the heat to medium and add the haddock to the pan.

Cook your haddock on medium heat for about 3 minutes and then flip the fillets. If they don’t flip easily, let them cook for another 30 seconds. Don’t touch them until they are ready to flip, if you can help it, otherwise they might fall apart.

Once the fillets have been flipped, pour another tablespoon of butter over top of them and cook for an additional 3 minutes or until they have achieved a golden brown appearance. If you are seasoning the fillets, you can do that for the last few seconds of cooking time.

This is one of the simplest methods for how to cook haddock fillets, and I like how quickly they cook, making them ideal for a midweek dinner or lunch.

How to Cook Haddock from Frozen

I showed you how to cook haddock in frying pan, but if you have frozen fillets (which store for years), you may wonder if you need to thaw them out first before using them.

You should let them thaw, as they will be tough to cook properly form frozen. If they don’t thaw, they can burn easily and may cause a lot of spattering in your skillet if you try to cook frozen fillets on the stovetop.

You can let them thaw out in the fridge overnight or place them into a bowl of room temperature water to thaw faster. Using the defrost setting on your microwave works too, btu that can slightly cook them, so watch for that and reduce your cook time accordingly.

How to Cook Haddock on the Grill

Let me share without some step-by-step instructions for how to cook haddock on BBQ grill so they are still tender and juicy and don’t dry out.

Directions:

Warm up the grill at medium heat and pat the haddock fillets dry.
Prepare your grill by putting some olive oil on it so the haddock doesn’t stick.
Add some seasoning to your fillets at this point, like garlic, black pepper, and salt.
Then, place slices of lemons on the grill (using a few for each fish fillet) and put the haddock on top of the lemon slices.
Close the grill and cook for 8 minutes. The fish needs to cook until it starts to turn opaque and has a flaky quality to it.
Then, remove the fish from the grill and add your BBQ sauce or whatever other kind of sauce you want on them.

How to Cook Haddock in Foil

If you are looking to wrap the fillets in foil on grill with, here is a method you can use for that.

Directions:

Put the fish fillet into the middle of the foil and add your seasoning and a healthy spritz of olive oil.
Garnish each fillet with lemon and then whatever herbs you are using.
Fold in the ends of the foil to seal the fish completely inside. Make sure no steam or juice will be able to escape. Don’t press the foil down but leave it slightly loose around the fish.
Warm up only half of the grill using high heat. Close the cover to speed up the heating process.
Then, add your foil packets to the grill on the side with the heat off and close the grill back.
Cook the fish long enough for them to become opaque, which should take about 10-15 minutes. Check them at 10 minutes to see if they are cooked and flaky.

Haddock is really simple to cook with, and now you have a few methods you can try to make this lovely whitefish at home.

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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!