Capers

Pan-Seared Tilapia with Balsamic-Cherry Tomato Quick Sauce

by:
August 14, 2011
4.5
2 Ratings
Pan-Seared Tilapia with Balsamic-Cherry Tomato Quick Sauce
  • Serves 2
Author Notes

This is one of the first recipes I ever "made up"- and it remains one of my favorites. Any white fish would work great here- cod, halibut, or even some chicken breasts if you're not into fish.

I hope you enjoy! —totalnoms

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 tilapia filets
  • 3-4 teaspoons flour
  • salt & pepper
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth (low-sodium if possible)
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
  • 1 tablespoon capers
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Directions
  1. Preheat an oven (or toaster oven if you have it) to 250-degrees. Dry your tilapia filets well with a paper towel to remove excess moisture.
  2. Lightly coat the filets in flour on both sides. Season with salt and pepper.
  3. In a pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter. When hot, add the tilapia, searing on each side for 2-3 minutes. When both sides are nicely browned, transfer to a 250-degree oven to continue cooking while you make the sauce.
  4. Keeping the same pan over medium heat, add the chicken broth and scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan with a spatula or wooden spoon. Add the quartered tomatoes and let simmer for 5 minutes. You’ll see the tomatoes starting to stew in the broth- this is a good thing!
  5. Add the capers and balsamic vinegar, and let sauce cook for another 1-2 minutes.
  6. Place tilapia on a plate, and serve topped with the tomato sauce. Enjoy!
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3 Reviews

cookbabycook
cookbabycook August 26, 2023
Simple, quick, and so delicious! I've made this several times - it's great as written for tilapia and amazing with broiled salmon. Only minor tweaks I made were to add a tiny slurry of 1 Tbsp cornstarch and water as a thickener at the end, and to add 1 T dried Rosemary. For Salmon, I broiled it with a tad of EVOO and S&P for 9-10 min and made the sauce (with 1 T less butter) while the salmon cooked. Delicious!
 
VGA
VGA July 13, 2015
My garden is hemorrhaging cherry tomatoes this year, so I made this recipe yesterday to use up a few of them. I used halibut instead of tilapia. I also used some high quality 18 year aged balsamic vinegar. Simply amazing recipe. I will be making this one again. The only complaint I have is all the time it takes to quarter those cherry tomatoes.
 
Angela T.
Angela T. January 12, 2012
So so so good!!!! What a wonderful dish, loved the capers!