5 Ingredients or Fewer

Grilled Halibut with Tarragon-Chive-Lemon Compound Butter

August 21, 2019
5
1 Ratings
Photo by What We Eat Gals
  • Prep time 10 minutes
  • Cook time 15 minutes
  • Serves 4-6
Author Notes

Long ago, I abandoned the grill in favor of the smoother cooking surfaces of the stovetop or oven. I was tired of piecing together sad, broken fillets like delicate three-dimensional puzzles with strategically placed lemon wedges. In this recipe, I came up with a fool-proof solution to replicate the even cooking surface of a non-stick pan while still allowing the hot bbg grates to leave grill mark across the flesh of whatever delicate fish you’re grilling. —What We Eat Gals

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Ingredients
  • For the Halibut
  • 4-6 halibut fillets
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste
  • Compound Butter
  • 3 tablespoons salted butter, room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon tarragon, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon chives, chopped
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
Directions
  1. Preheat a grill to high heat. Create a tray by overlapping two pieces of aluminum foil. (If you have “heavy duty” aluminum foil, no need to double up layers.) Line the inside with a piece of parchment paper. Fold the foil border in a couple of times to create a tray.
  2. Rub a generous drizzle of olive oil onto each fillet. Make sure you coat the whole fillet so it is as stick-resistant as possible. Season well with salt and pepper.
  3. Make the compound butter by smooshing in the chopped tarragon and chives, and the zest of 1 lemon until well incorporated.
  4. Lay the aluminum/parchment tray on the grill and heat for 1 minute. Lay the fillets over the top. You can now either shut the grill top and allow it to cook on one side until done or keep it open and flip the fillets a little more than halfway through cooking. Figure about 10 minutes total per inch of fillet. This halibut took 15 minutes total and I flipped them around the 9-minute mark.
  5. A couple of minutes before removing the cooked fillets, top each with a quarter of the compound butter. Allow it to melt over the top.
  6. Transfer the cooked halibut to a platter, drizzle it with any butter that ran off onto the aluminum tray and then shower it with the juice of the zested lemon. Enjoy!

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1 Review

Goo August 17, 2020
This was fabulous! I didn't have all the ingredients for the compound butter so I used dried tarragon instead of fresh, I substituted onion powder for chives (you could also use scallions/green onions)...but it was incredible. And grilling using the foil & parchment tray was great! Fish cooked beautifully and the grill stayed clean - Win win!