Easy 20 Minute Oven Baked Trout
How to cook trout in the oven. This oven baked trout is incredible easy to make. The baked fish is tender, juicy, and flavorful thanks to lemon and herbs. Jump to the Easy Oven Baked Trout Recipe or watch our quick recipe video showing you how to make it.
Watch How To Cook Trout In The Oven
How to Make The Best Baked Whole Trout
Trout is one of my favortie fishes to cook at home. It cooks quickly, is easy to season, and the fish tastes sweet and is tender. You can buy trout as whole fish that have been gutted and cleaned (like in our photos) or as fillets. For this recipe, we’re using whole trout.
Baking whole trout in the oven is genius — especially when you do it in foil packets. With our easy trout recipe, dinner will be on the table in 20 minutes. You can’t beat that.
After sharing this recipe with friends, some were a little overwhelmed with cooking whole trout (with the skin, tail, and sometimes head still attached). If you’re thinking that, too, stop. I promise it’s all going to be okay 🙂
When it comes to shopping for trout, it’s easy to find trout that is already cleaned and butterflied. By butterflied I mean that the fish is opened up down the middle, but still has the halves attached.
Buying the trout butterflied allows us to add a few fresh ingredients to the middle. In our stuffed trout recipe below, we add lemon slices and lots of fresh herbs to the middle. You can also add thinly sliced garlic, onion, or greens (like spinach). Since we are adding so much flavor to the packets, there isn’t much need for a marinade or additional seasonings.
To make the packets, we use heavy duty foil. Parchment paper works, too.
How Long Does It Take To Bake Trout?
The bake time depends on how large your fish is. In our recipe below, we call for small to medium rainbow trout and find that they take between 10 and 15 minutes in our kitchen. If you have extra large fish or a steelhead trout, the bake time will be longer. Use our tips for checking for doneness as a guide.
By the way, you could put the trout packets on a grill instead. I’ve shared a note for temperature and cook time in the recipe below.
How To Fillet Cooked Trout
In the video above, we show you how to fillet your trout once it has finished baking. It’s really easy — and I think, much easier than when the fish is raw.
It’s a simple process. I use a spoon and butter knife to do it. Here are the basic steps I follow. I highly recommend watching the video:
- Pull away all the fins. Since the fish is cooked, they come away easily.
- Press the knife into the soft flesh just before the head and cut up to the bone. Repeat this with the soft flesh just before the tail.
- Use the knife to follow the line down the middle of the trout (this follows the spine). Just cut up to the bone.
- Following the line you just made down the spine, use a spoon to carefully pull/push the top and bottom fillet away from the bones.
- Pull the tail up and away the fish. By doing this the spine and bones will come away with it.
- Clean all the fillets of small bones and transfer to a plate for serving.
Recipe updated, originally posted October 2009. Since posting this in 2009, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
Easy 20 Minute Oven Baked Trout
- PREP
Baking rainbow trout in foil packets helps the fish cook perfectly. While they bake, juices form at the bottom of the packet. This is delicious when spooned over the cooked trout when serving. Other ingredients to consider adding to the middle of the fish are thinly sliced garlic, onion, or greens (like spinach). If you have large fish or have steelhead trout (usually much larger than rainbow trout), you can still use our method, but the bake time will be longer.
Makes 2 Servings
You Will Need
Olive oil
2 small rainbow trout, cleaned and butterflied (opened up with the halves still attached), about 1 pound
1 lemon, sliced
4 fresh parsley or dill sprigs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Prepare Trout
- Bake Trout
Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cut two sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil that are larger than your fish.
Place trout, skin side down, on each piece of foil. Lightly oil both sides with oil. Season both sides, inside and out, with salt and pepper.
Place two parsley (or dill) sprigs and two lemon slices down the middle of each fish.
Fold up the foil by grabbing at the edges and crimping together to make a packet.
Place packets of fish onto a baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, checking one packet after 10 minutes. The flesh should pull apart easily with a fork.
Place each packet on a plate. Carefully open the foil packets — take care not to let the steam burn you. Slide the fish away from the packet and onto the plate and pour juices over it. Serve with more fresh herbs and lemon slices.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- If you do not have heavy duty foil, use two sheets of regular foil to make each packet.
- How to Make Grilled Trout: Follow the directions in the recipe above to make each packet. Heat grill to medium-high heat. Place the packets over indirect heat. Grill 10 to 15 minutes, or until cooked through.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving: Calories 285 / Protein 32 g / Carbohydrate 1 g / Dietary Fiber 0 g / Total Sugars 0 g / Total Fat 16 g / Saturated Fat 4 g / Cholesterol 87 g
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We do the same with bass but to add a more Asian flavor you can cut up thai peppers and green onions and cilantro and dilfer a more flavorful dish
Really good
I’ve been cooking trout this way for over 35 years, mainly at campfires along trout streams. Most fresh or dried herbs work great with trout (dill, thyme, tarragon, oregano, etc.). What makes my trout stand out is I add a few pats of butter to the inside of the fish before wrapping them tight and cooking them. The butter obviously melts and helps the herbs seep into the meat, enhancing the flavor.
Great idea, Rob! A little extra butter would be wonderful.
A friend who loves to fish gave me two trout. Having never cooked freshly caught fish before,I went searching for a recipe. Your recipe and instructions were fantastic. They were absolutely amazing. I felt like a real Pro. Many thanks!
The recipe is very good! Are used Dill seed and lemon pepper plus lemons, sea salt, and olive oil. I believe the dill seed added just a little more tartness. I loved it! Thanks
I love love love trout! However I have been tentative at preparing it myself mostly because of not knowing how to remove the bones. If I wanted good trout I used to have to go to a Fish Market restaurant. However, I will not have to ever do that again! This recipe and instructions really will allow me to prepare trout myself deliciously! I don’t need another recipe because this one is perfect. The trout is tender moist flavorful. The recipe allows you to put your own spin on it. Thank you so much!
Beautiful meal, tasted delicious and removing the bones was made really easy after watching the video. I added sun dried tomatoes and olives which went well with the lemon, spring onion and herbs
Great video guys!
We have just finished eating our gourmet trout having followed your recipe and instructions. We stuffed it with garlic, spring onion, thyme, sage and a celery-type herb from the garden. Wow! It was wonderful! We are feeling very pleased at the moment . . . we will definitely use this recipe again. (The trout was freshly caught in the lake where we live). Thanks for sharing.
I love the baked trout recipe. I added a number of fresh spices and was able to filet more easily than ever. I can hardly wait to try some more of your recipes.
Thank you for the great explanation on how to filet the trout! It was a breeze to do at home.
Delicious and so easy! I used one clove of minced garlic per fish instead of the herbs since I didn’t have them on hand. The meat pulls right off the bones. 5 star recipe.
Love your site. It’s like a breath of fresh air. I have just stumbled on it while looking for a recipe on the best way to bake a trout given to us by a friend. Will be trying your one tonight. Thanks.