Creole Cast Iron Grouper
This recipe for Creole Cast Iron Grouper is so easy to make and is one of the most delicious grouper recipes I’ve ever tasted
Oh my …this fish was good. Seriously good. I found this recipe on google yesterday as I was searching for “grouper recipes”. It popped up under Emeril on Food Network and the original recipe is called Paul’s Grilled Grouper Recipe. I made a few minor changes to the recipe, one of which instead of grilling the fish I used my cast iron skillet in the oven instead.
How To Use Cast Iron To Cook Fish
I don’t use my cast iron skillet often, but over the summer when I was visiting my sister in law, she made us blackened red fish in a cast iron skillet that turned out so good. I have been wanting to make fish the same way ever since.
I placed the skillet in the oven while it was preheating so it would be nice and hot once the grouper was ready to cook. Once I had the fish seasoned with the spice mixture, it hit that pan and started to sizzle…and back in the oven it went.
Emeril’s Essence Creole Seasoning Ingredients
This grouper recipe calls for Emeril’s Essence Creole Seasoning, which you can easily make at home using spices you most likely have on hand. I had some leftover so I just sealed it up in a small container for another use.
To mix up Emeril’s Essence Creole Seasoning at home all you need is the following ingredients:
- paprika
- salt
- garlic powder
- black pepper
- onion powder
- cayenne
- dried oregnao
- dried thyme
What To Serve With Fish
I love having all types of fish for dinner and almost always serve it with some type of rice and steamed or sautéed vegetables. My favorite vegetables to prepare this way is always broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. It’s the classic trio of healthy steamed vegetables! I usually season with just a little coarse salt and fresh ground pepper and a squeeze of lemon.
Oven roasted potatoes like these Roasted Red Potatoes with Smoked Paprika or Dill Potato Wedges are also great side dishes for this grouper recipe.
Salmon or another thick fish would be a great substitute for grouper in this recipe.
If you are trying to include more fish into your weekly dinners, look at this fish recipe roundup for more ideas!
Enjoy!
If you are new to or interested in cooking with cast iron, the following posts are helpful to get you started:
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PinIngredients
For the fish:
- 1 lb grouper
- 3 TB olive oil
- 4 cloves pressed garlic (or minced)
- 1 tablespoon Emeril’s Creole Seasoning (see recipe below) or your favorite creole seasoning
- 1–2 TB finely grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
For the fish:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place cast iron skillet in oven while preheating. (If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, just use a roasting pan, but don’t preheat the pan)
- In a small bowl mix together oil, garlic, 2 -3 tablespoons of the seasoning, and Parmesan cheese. Brush the fish generously with mixture and place in hot skillet (be careful and don’t forget to use an oven mitt!!). Place skillet and fish back into oven. Cook for about 12-15 minutes, depending on thickness of fish, until fish is translucent and flaky.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Paul’s Grilled Grouper Recipe, Food Network
Ingredients
For the Essence (Emeril’s Creole Seasoning)
- 2 1/2 TB paprika
- 2 TB salt
- 2 TB garlic powder
- 1 TB black pepper
- 1 TB onion powder
- 1 TB cayenne
- 1 TB dried oregnao
- 1 TB dried thyme
Instructions
For the Essence:
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Store in airtight container.
Important Note: You will only use 1 tablespoon of this mixture for the above grouper recipe. There will be seasoning leftover for future use. Do not use entire amount for recipe, just 1 tablespoon.
More easy fish recipes like this Cast Iron Grouper for you to try:
Broiled Teriyaki Salmon | Reluctant Entertainer
Flounder Piccata | Skinnytaste
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This looks so good. My mom only cooks with cast iron, so I understand the appeal of using your skillet for this. I am so glad my family likes fish!
This looks delicious. We luv seafood. I will try this for sure. Stop by when you can. Connie
I bet the Creole seasoning works wonders with the Grouper.
I’m going to have to try cooking fish in my cast iron skillet. That looks really good.
The color on that grouper is amazing! This looks delicious.
Aggie,
This looks delicious! Living on the Gulf of Mexico, I can’t get enough grouper. I’ll have to try it this way for sure! Thanks for sharing.
-Molly
Molly – I actually got my grouper up in Pensacola when visiting my SIL, I took home a bunch of seafood and froze it. You all have the best fish! 🙂
Just thought I’d stop by the new site and congratulate you on your move! Your blog looks really, really good. Looking forward to lots of new recipes!
Dan
Casual Kitchen
Wow, love the new digs (and this recipe!) Everything looks great.
This looks amazing! I’m always looking for new fish recipes! Can’t wait to try this one! Thanks for the post.
I’ve never cooked with grouper – looks awesome!! and the ingredients sound awesome!
Your grouper looks cooked to perfection! Miam!
i love what you’ve done with your blog! this looks wonderful! i need to try some grouper!
Well, you know what I’m making this weekend. This looks so healthy and delicious Aggie! You know how much we love fish and I really like using my cast iron skillet for fish. So glad you tried it this way and that you are still enjoying the fish from our area.
Oh my goodness does this look fabulous, I have not had grouper is ages….. it looks PERFECT.
We are picking up some fresh fish tomorrow – I am definatley using my cast iron skillet to cook it.
The new site looks great! I love the colors.
This fish also looks great… and I like the idea of doing it in cast iron. I don’t have a cast iron pan at home, but at work we end up using them all the time.
That fish looks so tasty! I have been wanting to get into creole cuisine.
Hi Aggie
Emeril’s Creole Seasoning: Is this the original recipe or is it your version.
I am new to reading blogs and I came across yours about a month ago. I made the cast iron grouper recipe using tilapia and it was delicious! I had tried making fish at home before, but it was never that good. I’ve since made salmon in the cast iron skillet too. Yummy!
I also made your beef bourg. and it was great too. I’m actually making it again for dinner tonight.
Thanks for all your great recipes!
Great simple fish recipes, I can’t wait to try these….I don’t know why I never cook fish!!! And funny you mentioned it, I live in Pensacola, just a few minutes from one of the major seafood suppliers, Joe Pattie’s. And how cute, my high school was called the Aggies. 🙂
Joe Patties is FANTASTIC for the Freshest of Fish and an assortment like no others. Great place!
Are you supposed to brush both sides of fish with the mixture?
Love the flavor, will decrease the amount of salt to 2 tsp in the essence ingredients.
Well sounded good and photo look great but
1 2/2 pounds of grouper went in the garbage..
Calls for 2 TB Salt to salty could not eat.
If that should read teaspoons it should say 2 Tea chafe salt ant please for others
I am so incredibly sorry. I believe there was a misunderstanding and I updated the instructions so that they are clearer and it doesn’t happen again. The 2T of salt is part of the Emeril Essence seasoning recipe. That makes a good amount and is intended to be stored and saved for a few uses. Then, 2-3 tablespoons of the mixed Emeril Essence seasoning is what goes on the fish. Hope that makes more sense.
Again, please accept my apologies!
This sounded so good using the cast iron skillet. I had a beautiful piece of grouper. We were so disappointed as with 2T of salt it was so salty we could not eat it. Tried to scrape the salt of but it was
still too salty and we had to throw it out. I would use 2 teaspoons of salt. Costly dinner! Please update this for others!!! I will try it again with the cast iron skillet in the oven but will use another receipe.
I am so incredibly sorry. I believe there was a misunderstanding and I updated the instructions so that they are clearer and it doesn’t happen again. The 2T of salt is part of the Emeril Essence seasoning recipe. That makes a good amount and is intended to be stored and saved for a few uses. Then, 2-3 tablespoons of the mixed Emeril Essence seasoning is what goes on the fish. Hope that makes more sense.
Again, please accept my apologies!
Grouper is one of my favorites, but this was not edible due to the extremely high levels of salt. Tony Chachere’s Seasoning has 340 mg of Sodium in every 1/4 tsp. that means this recipe calls for 8-12 grams of salt for 1 lb of fish. we couldn’t eat it.
good morning Phil, I’m sorry about your experience with this recipe. I am not sure if you mixed up the seasoning that I shared in the recipe itself, but if you did I want to make sure that you used 2-3 tb of the mixed seasoning on the fish – not the entire seasoning recipe. There seems to be confusion on that which is why I left a note in the recipe to be clear. After your comment I separated the recipe of the Essence from the fish recipe so it’s more clear to not use the entire amount of salt on the grouper – that is definitely not the intention.
I apologize for your wasted fish, that’s a shame – I do feel bad for that. Thank you for your feedback.
Phil…I tried this tonight too, using Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning (2 Tablespoons), with the oil, garlic and Parmesan. EXTREMELY salty and ended up trashing it too. It smelled great cooking though! 🙂
You need to revise the directions on this dish. Do not put the cast iron skillet in the oven first and do not mix the olive oil with the seasoning mix. That’s going to end up with a nothing bunch of gunk caked onto your fish when you remove it from the oven.
Mix the “Creole” seasoning (Emeril’s recipe) with the Parmesan then rub thoroughly onto the top of the Grouper fillet. This seasoning mix is used for “blackening” purposes. It does meant to be mixed with oil as a topping to be baked in the oven.
Preheat oven to 425. While that’s hearing up, put only 2 tablespoons of olive oil in your skillet and heat over medium to medium high heat. When oil is heated, place the Grouper fillet with the seasoned side down into the skillet for 2 minutes then flip over and place the skillet into the oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees. Remove from oven and let set for a couple of minutes. It will reach 145 while resting during that time.
We could not eat the fish….it was WAY overseasoned and salted from the Creole Season
I am SO sorry Sarah! this is an older recipe and I am going to rework it and update it. Please accept my sincere apologies for your ruined meal.
Please take this recipe down. I made this verbatim before reading the reviews and wasted a good amount of money on grouper because it was so salty it was inedible. Several reviewers have said the same, so I am not sure why it is still here and coming up as a top pick in a search for grouper recipes. Please be responsible and remove it from your site before more people lose money on it.
thank you for your comment – after the feedback from the original way the recipe was written I have taken down the homemade seasoning recipe that was included with this recipe. It seemed there was a misunderstanding and some people were using ENTIRE amount of seasoning on the the grouper when then seasoning recipe was meant to be a batch, using only a small amount for the actual fish. I changed the ingredients now so that the cook uses 1 Tablespoon of their favorite Creole seasoning, whether it be store bought or homemade.
Thank you for your valid concern for others wasting ingredients on a bad recipe – I appreciate it.
This was so salty I couldn’t eat the fish. Very unhappy about it since since the fish was fresh from the coast. Even with half the mixture it was THAT salty. Who would put a tablespoon of salt on anything, let alone 2 tablespoons! I see now that others have complained about the same problem. I think 1 tspn for the batch would suffice.
I’m sincerely sorry your fish turned out too salty. The recipe reads 1 tablespoon of the creole seasoning to be added to the fish. I think it is a misunderstanding.
Caught a 40lb Grouper in the Sea of Cortez last weekend, followed this recipe but cooked the fish on tin foil in the BBQ’er. It was delicious. Just didn’t have Thyme…
Thanks.
Looks amazing! I love fish! I love grouper, but I’ve never made it at home! Your recipe looks like a major winner. Can’t wait to try! This grouper looks super tasty and full of flavor!
Do you put the mixture on both sides of the fish? I’m afraid it will burn or stick on the pan side.
I am trying to subscribe. Says nl longer
I’m not much of a fish person. My husband loves grouper, and we both loved this recipe!
Hi Aggie,
I can’t wait to try this recipe! Grouper is one of my favorites, and it’s been such a long time since I’ve had it. I’ve never made fish in the cast-iron skillet before, but I’m sure it comes out delicious. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Great technique! I love Creole seasoning but I tried it with a teaspoon or so of Cavender’s Greek seasoning and it was delicious. My grouper was perfect after 10 minutes.