Lime Butter Sauce for Fish

Transform your fish into a restaurant-style meal in just 10 minutes and less than 5 ingredients. This Lime Butter Sauce for Fish is absolutely delicious with any type of fish and is a great way to enhance any meal.

Try it on pan-seared salmon!

a small bowl of butter lime sauce for fish with a spoon in it next to a plate of seared salmon

Hey guys!!

This simple butter sauce for fish can transform any basic fish into an elegant main dish. And the best part is that it’s incredibly easy to make. The final butter sauce is flavorful, buttery and full of bright, sweet nutty flavors.

This lime butter sauce is super versatile. It is perfect for fish and all types of seafood, such as shrimp, lobster, scallops, clams and mussels.

And it’s also fantastic on chicken and steamed or roasted vegetables.

Basically, this is a sauce you can drizzle on almost anything!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!!

Kissxx

Seafood Recipes You’ll Love: Baked Lime Salmon, Salmon Chimichurri, Tuna Salsa Recipe (Pastinha de Atum)

collage showing the ingredients to make a lime butter sauce and the final sauce in a bowl

Making changes to a recipe may cause the recipe to fail. Substitutions can significantly alter the final results.

Unsalted butter – this is a must for a butter sauce and there is no substitute. You can use salted butter if that’s all you have at home.
Brazilian stir-fried – or a few chopped garlic cloves.
Lime — We will use both lime zest and juice.
Parsley — Freshly chopped parsley adds a beautiful color and flavor to our sauce! You simply won’t get the same result with dried parsley.
Salt and pepper – you will add them as desired at the end. Medium-grit kosher salt (like Diamond Crystal) and freshly ground pepper are my favorites.

Recommended equipment:

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How to make lime butter sauce

Collage of two images showing how to make a butter sauce for fish

Melt half the butter in a small skillet or saucepan over medium-low heat.

Add the Brazilian stir fry to the melted butter and sauté until fragrant and golden.

As this happens, the butter will also turn lightly golden and, along with the golden garlic and fatty butter, will provide the perfect sweet, nutty flavor.

Then simply add the lime juice. This will cut through the fat and also add a little brightness to the sauce.

close up shot of salmon on a plate after topping with butter and lime sauce

Add the rest of the butter, just to melt it and turn off the heat.

Finally add the parsley and lemon zest and you’re done!

Pro tip

It’s important to add these two ingredients off the heat because we don’t want to cook them. We just need the residual heat to warm them up and release their bright green, grassy flavored oil into the sauce.

If we cook them, the flavor profile changes and the lime zest can become bitter and the parsley become muted and flat.

Taste and add salt and pepper to taste, if necessary.

How to store:

You can double the recipe and save more for later.

And if you have any leftovers, store them in an airtight container and keep them in the refrigerator for up to about a week. To reheat, place in the microwave and heat a little at a time – stir to combine while the butter melts.

spoon the lime butter sauce over the salmon over the sweet potato puree

How to serve:

I photographed this recipe while working in Brazil, then served it baroa mashed potatoes (Also known as cassava pureedepending on where you are in Brazil).

This root vegetable is one of my obsessions and when I’m in Brazil, I usually eat it with every meal. It’s so good!!

Unfortunately I couldn’t find it anywhere outside of Brazil.

If you want to serve it alongside a starchy carb, try it with mashed yuca, fried sweet plantains, or instant garlic mashed potatoes.

This sauce is delicious tossed with air fryer broccolini and parmesan baked asparagus.

You could also serve it with rice, like the instant brown rice recipe, carrot rice, and walnut rice.

Seared salmon with butter sauce over baroa sweet potato puree on a plate

Other sauces and condiments to try:

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