27 Best Pan Seared Sea Bass Recipes to Try

Depending on the specific variety you choose, sea bass can sometimes be decadent but is always delicious—and healthy. A light, flaky white fish, it easily falls apart in large buttery forkfuls, cooks quickly, and pairs well with numerous flavors. Don’t be intimidated—you can create restaurant-quality sea bass yourself!

1. Northern Chef’s Easy Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass

Flaky white fish with a delicate taste doesn’t need strong competitors in the flavor department.  It can really shine with a few well-chosen accompaniments. This recipe plays classic garnishes to advantage, first making a sauce of fresh lemon, butter, salt, and pepper. You’ll cook the sea bass over high heat with just a little olive oil to create a perfect sear.

 

2. Robert DeLessio’s Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass

White wine pairs perfectly with mild, juicy main courses like chicken and fish. This fish dish starts with reducing white wine, which you can choose to your own tailored tastes. It forms the basis for a lemon butter sauce. DeLessio recommends searing in a cast-iron skillet with canola oil, which won’t cause smoke like olive oil or butter. Garnish with capers.

 

3. Mediterranean Pan Seared Sea Bass with Garlic Bell Pepper Medley

This one’s for everyone looking out for delicious diet fare! It adheres to the Mediterranean diet and is low in carbs and calories as well as being gluten-free. It’s also quite beautiful, topped with a rainbow of red and green bell peppers, Kalamata olives, and shallots. A bevy of spices bring the zest: cumin, coriander, sweet Spanish paprika, and garlic.

 

4. Cooking Italian with Joe’s Seared Sea Bass with Tomatoes and Spinach

Bursting with flavor, ripe cherry tomatoes and quality olive oil give this recipe its Italian flair. Spinach is cooked down in one pan, and thick filets of sea bass are rolled in olive oil before searing in pan. Sauteed tomatoes and spinach form a colorful bed for crusted sea bass, and a butter-lemon juice mixture is drizzled on.

 

5. Cooking Chat’s Pan Seared Sea Bass With Albarino

For this rendering of sea bass, we travel to Spain with a cooking tour, where the chef picked up Albarino wine to complement the pure yet meaty flavor of the fish.  The sea bass is seared first, but any flakes stuck to the pan will form the sauce.  Simmer with butter, Albarino, green olives, roasted piquillo peppers, smoked Spanish paprika, and parsley.

 

6. Fruge Seafood’s Chilean Sea Bass With Mushroom Gravy

The light and not too attention-grabbing taste of mushrooms makes them a great accompaniment to sea bass, not to mention their similar buttery texture. Start by searing sea bass over high heat with butter and olive oil, and add cherry tomatoes before baking. Reduce mushrooms in broth with garlic, onion, shallots, and red wine to make a rich gravy to pour over top.

 

7. Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass With Asian Marinade

Who needs takeout when the ingredients to this sea bass recipe are so fresh and flavorful and the preparation so easy? Ginger, mirin, and soy sauce blend with sugar and rice wine vinegar for house-made teriyaki sauce that seeps into the fish skin and coats the filet. This recipe also gives great tips on getting the perfect crispy skin or sear outside.

 

8. Fly Eats Kitchen Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass

Chilean sea bass makes for a special occasion all on its own, but it really wows with lobster and crab! After initial seasoning, give filets a sprinkling of flour for light breading, and sear with garlic butter as well as unsalted butter and olive oil. Don’t move filets so the crust can form. Add lemon juice, onion, lobster, and crab to pan drippings.

 

9. Chilean Sea Bass Curry with Blistered Tomatoes

Curry is a welcome addition to skin-on Chilean sea bass steaks which sometimes come in thick cuts, and the chef suggests pan searing over medium-high heat and then finishing in the oven for thick steaks. Start with olive oil and curry powder, and sear in the pan as you add halved cherry tomatoes, butter, salt, and pepper. The acidic tomatoes complement the curry well.

 

10. Sea Bass With Parsley Cream Sauce

An herbed cream sauce tops sea bass here for a simple yet decadent dish.  Make a butter and flour rue and whisk in milk, then add parsley and horseradish and finish with salt and pepper. Cook sea bass with avocado oil in a pan over high heat and press all sides into pan, watching the color change to opaque and then white as crust forms.

 

11. Pan Seared Sea Bass With Orange Maple Glaze

This recipe uses a creative combination of flavors for a sauce over rich and buttery white fish.  Sea bass, chock full of oils that help create a great sear, is cooked over medium-high heat with herbs de Provence. As with other pan sear recipes, the oils left behind in the pan from the sauce base, with orange juice, maple syrup, and garlic.

 

12. The Salt Room’s Wild Sea Bass

This recipe calls for an innovative combination of ingredients to partner with fresh fish.  Buttery fats like sweet corn puree and chicken cream sauce get elevated by wild asparagus and house-brined artichokes. Bass is seared in a hot pan and served over potato gnocchi.  Also, if you don’t already have this skill, the video includes a great tutorial on cutting filets from a whole fish.

 

13. Pan Seared Sea Bass With Chilean Pebre Sauce

This method of cooking Chilean sea bass truly celebrates the fish’s origins in the southern deep waters of Chile. Pan sear any cut of this fish in a hot skillet for 4-6 minutes, adding 2 minutes for the skin. Grease the pan with ghee, a buttery Indian oil, and season with salt and pepper.  Make flavorful salsa from jalapeno, garlic, tomato, onion, and cilantro.

 

14. Binging with Babish:  Chilean Sea Bass from Jurassic Park

Here’s a seriously fun recipe inspired by a Jurassic Park website!  Chilean sea bass is cooked sous vide by soaking in the hot water bath and then searing in a hot pan with oil.  Fish should not stick if the pan is properly preheated. Served with an entertaining side of spiralized sweet potato fries and topped with lemon-butter sauce, tomatoes, and green beans.

 

15. The Kitchen Girl’s Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass

This take on Chilean sea bass suggests topping it with chimichurri sauce, which, of course, plays on the South American theme. First, you’ll cut the sea bass filet into two pieces for quick pan frying in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Cook until opaque in the center and serve over a balsamic-glazed arugula salad, then spread tangy chimichurri sauce on top.

 

16. Frederick Forster’s Sea Bass and Champagne Sauce

Wow, fancy!  Top an already high-end fresh seafood choice with sparkling champagne and the occasion becomes instantly more elegant. Score sea bass skin to keep it smooth while pan frying, pressing filet down on the hot pan. Make sauce with vegetables and stock while pan seared sea bass continues cooking in the oven, and finish with shallot and cream champagne sauce with parsley.

 

17. Pan Seared Sea Bass in Tomato Fennel Broth

This recipe from chef Robert Irvine teaches how to sear the outside of the fish, gently cook the inside to seal in moisture, and gain a bigger flavor all at once. After heating oil to smoking, heat is reduced to sear fish seasoned with salt, pepper, and fennel, and further reduced for the flip. The delicious sauce features fennel alongside orange juice and wine.

 

18. Healthy Pan Roasted Sea Bass with Asparagus and Mint Salad

This refreshing fish dish seems almost like it has some Thai influences and comes out all the better for them. Thick Chilean sea bass filets are pan seared for 3-4 minutes on each side to create a crisp crust, then finished in the oven for 8 minutes. An accompanying salad consists of grated carrot, asparagus, green onion, and fresh mint.

 

19. Pan Seared Sea Bass with Grape Relish

Sea bass gets a fun kick with red seedless grapes!  Fish filets get browned in a pan for 4 minutes per side, then finished in the oven at 350 degrees. The pan drippings form the base for a sauce with scallions, vegetable stock, vinegar, and butter. Crushed grapes are added for a sweet and tangy twist, as well as Cabernet Sauvignon to complement grapes.

 

20. Chilean Sea Bass with Black Bean Garlic Sauce

Black beans provide a great ‘turf’ to the refined Chilean sea bass ‘surf’, and add Latin flair as a bonus.  Sea bass filets are doused with a generous amount of cornstarch for pan frying so a light coating becomes visible when crisp. You can make the sauce in the same pan—just add black bean puree, garlic, ginger, green onion, and sugar.

 

21. Biltmore Culinary Academy’s Pan Seared Blackened Sea Bass

For healthful dishes that don’t compromise on flavor blackening spices are a great option, and work beautifully on fish. Preparing it at home, you can control the heat level by adjusting the amount of cayenne pepper with salt, oregano, paprika, and black pepper. Dust each side of fish fillets in the spice mixture and pan sear on medium-high heat for the amazing crust.

 

22. Brasserie 9’s Pan Seared Sea Bass with Coriander Cream Sauce

If you’re fortunate enough to take French cooking lessons, this easy yet so classy recipe could make a student feel like a master. While skin-on sea bass browns to a crisp in the skillet, the sauce is made from butter, onion, fish stock, fresh coriander, white wine, and cream. The smooth sauce in a blender, strain, and serve over fish, potatoes, and asparagus.

 

23. Pan Seared Sea Bass with Cottage Cheese

This sea bass dish comes from Britain, and the combination of flavors is incredibly creative.  Marinate thick cottage cheese and tomato slices with herbs, celery, and olive oil before slow roasting. Assemble a bright and playful passion fruit coulis with fruit puree, orange juice, salt, and pepper.  Sear sea bass in hot pan and serve with cottage cheese and tomato. Drizzle with coulis.

 

24. Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass with Ponzu Sauce

The addition of spicy radish microgreens atop this thick and crispy filet kicks up not only the flavor but the healthy factor. The recipe comes from Maile’s Thai Bistro and starts with sauteed sugar snap peas, tomatoes, and a variety of mushrooms. Sea bass is seared in oil with salt and pepper until brown and crispy, then ponzu is drizzled on top.

 

25. Pan Seared Sea Bass in Marsala Sauce

All mushroom fans know how well they pair with white wine in a marsala sauce, and tender fish is an easy substitution for the usual chicken. Simmer onions, garlic, and mushrooms with wine until reduced, then finish with butter and seasoning. When searing in pan, this recipe cautions you to limit the amount of oil for a nice crisp sear.  Serve with sauce.

 

26. Cooking on the Block’s Pan Roasted Chilean Sea Bass

This recipe is for everyone who loves sweet and salty together.  A relish based on Italian flavors includes an inventive combination of raisins, capers, and thyme. While lightly floured sea bass browns in olive oil and butter in a hot skillet, caramelized onions get an orange juice glaze. Combine with white wine and those delicious pan drippings, topping filets with relish.

 

27. Pan Fried Sea Bass with Sweet Mango Salsa

Just north of the waters off Chile and Antarctica where Chilean sea bass is found comes some island inspiration for sweet and tangy topping. Sear sea bass filets in olive oil over high heat for 2-3 minutes per side, then drain on paper towels to keep dry and crisp. Layer the plate with mashed avocado, fish, and mango tomato salsa with cilantro.

Summary

As you can see, there are many ways to create a great pan seared sea bass dish, and none of them require loads of culinary experience.  Play with flavor combinations yourself and think of new garnishes and sides to compliment the mild flavor and smooth, rich consistency of the fish.  Use these recipes to practice pan searing fish, and create more beautifully seared foods from there!