Chinese Steamed Fish Fillets

I worked in China some years back, close to the coast, so I ate a lot of beautiful, but simply cooked fresh seafood. One dish I loved to order was steamed fish served with a warm soy dressing. It remains one of my favourite ways to enjoy fish.

This recipe cooks the fish "en papilotte" (in a parcel) with a variety of aromatics. This simple method of cooking seals in all the flavour and steaming the fish keeps it moist. Start to finish, this dish comes together in about 25 minutes.

In China the fish is cooked using a bamboo steamer, which I have and use often. However, I've cooked this in the oven to show how easily it can be prepared and cooked without a steamer. I do include instructions for using a traditional steamer later in this post too.

Recipe ingredients

Find the full list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card below.

• Fish - I used 2 haddock fillets in this recipe, with the skin removed. I use a serving of approx 200g per fillet.
• Aromatics - I flavour the fish with fresh root ginger, a red finger chilli (de-seeded), and 3 spring onions (green onions).
• Oil - I use a light flavoured sunflower oil when making the dressing.
• Sesame oil - I flavour the dressing with sesame oil which has a great flavour.
• Soy sauce - I use dark soy for flavour and light soy sauce to season the dressing.
• Wine - I add Shaoxing wine to the dressing for acidity, you could also use dry sherry.

How to cook Chinese steamed fish

• Preheat the oven to 200C/180CFan/390F. Line a baking tray with a large sheet of parchment paper (or use kitchen foil). Ensure the piece of paper is large enough to fold up over the fish into a parcel.
• Place half of the ginger, chilli and spring onion onto the baking sheet.
• Place the fish fillets on top of the vegetables, then take the remaining aromatics and sprinkle over the top of the fish. 

• Add a splash of cold water to help the fish steam. Then fold up the parcel taking care to ensure the paper is not touching the top of the fish. There needs to be space at the top of the parcel to allow air to circulate so the fish will steam.
• Place the tray in the oven and cook the fish for 12-15 minutes. Note, cooking times will vary depending on the size and thickness of the fish fillet.

• Meanwhile place all the ingredients for the dressing into a saucepan and gently heat up.
• Once the fish has cooked, remove from the oven, open the parcel and place the fish, along with the aromatics, gently onto a serving dish. Pour over the warm dressing and serve immediately.

LESLEY'S TOP TIP: When properly cooked the fish should be opaque and flake easily with a fork. The easiest test is to use a probe thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the fillet, it should read 63C/145F when properly cooked.

How to steam fish using a bamboo steamer

If you have a bamboo steamer this recipe works really well.

• Place the steamer on a rack, over a wok of gently simmering water - ensuring the base of the steamer doesn't touch the water - the steam should have room to circulate.
• Prepare the parcel as per recipe, and place in the steamer.
• Cover wok with a lid and cook gently for 15 minutes.
• Heat the dressing ingredients in a small saucepan.
• Once the fish has cooked through, remove from the steamer and place on a serving dish. Pour the warm soy dressing over the fish and serve.

Recipe variations

• White fish - this recipe uses haddock fillets but you can use any white fish. Cod, hake, pollock, basa would all work. Just alter the cook times depending on the thickness of the fish.
• Oily fish - oily fish like salmon, tuna or trout fillets would all work with the Chinese flavours in this dish too.
• Whole fish - if you want to steam a whole fish you can do that too! Sea bass or bream would work well here. Just cut some slits into the skin of the fish, taking care not to go all the way through. Then place some of the aromatics into the cavity of the fish and scatter the remainder on top, before adding a splash of water and wrapping up the parcel.
• Aromatics - I use chilli, ginger and spring onion but you could also add a little garlic, or fresh herbs like parsley or coriander (cilantro).
• Soy sauce - use a low sodium soy sauce if you prefer and if you are coeliac or follow a gluten free diet, swap regular soy sauce for a gluten free variety.
• Shaoxing wine - if you can't find this wine, or you follow a gluten free diet, swap for a dry sherry.

Serving suggestions

This steamed fish makes a light lunch, served with some stir fried vegetables. I've opted for Stir Fry Pak Choi, but you could also serve some Stir Fry Broccoli with Garlic. For a more substantial meal add steamed rice or my Easy Egg Fried Rice.

For a Chinese sharing style meal add some other Chinese dishes, try my Stir-fried Beef & Black Bean Sauce, Pork & Peanut Stir-fry or Easy Stir -Fried Chicken & Cashew Nut. Serve each dish in the middle of the table and leave guests to help themselves!

Useful hints and tips

1. If cooking more than one fillet, I recommend going for fillets that are the same size and thickness, this means they will cook at the same time.
2. Baking parchment makes a great parcel, but you could also use kitchen foil.
3. If the parcel won't stay closed I use a cocktail stick to secure the parcel shut.
4. Always allow space over the fish when wrapping the parcel up. This space allows the steam to properly circulate in the parcel, which is what cooks the fish.
5. Don't overload the parcel I will cook 2 regular sized fish fillets in a parcel, but no more than that. So make up extra parcels if serving a larger group of diners.
6. For gluten free diners please ensure you use gluten free soy sauce and swap the Shaoxing wine for dry sherry.
7. Containing no dairy this recipe is suitable for dairy free diners.
8. Allergy advice: gluten free, dairy free, egg free, and nut free. For comprehensive and detailed allergy advice go to Allergy UK.

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Additional recipe suggestions

If you like this fish dish then try these quick seafood recipes:

• Hake with Lemon Couscous
• Mediterranean Fish Soup
• Smoked Salmon Pasta
• Sweet & Sour Prawns
• Oven Baked Salmon with Parma Ham
• Easy Fish Pie
• BBQ Devilled Mackerel

Looking for quick and easy recipes for feeding the family mid week, then take a look at my Ultimate Guide to Family Dinners, which is full of useful hints, tips and recipes.