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Baked Pompano

Dinner 🍽️Lunch 🥪 Chinese 🇨🇳Thai 🇹🇭Vietnamese 🇻🇳 Pescatarian 🐟

Baked Pompano features a whole fish stuffed with lime and roasted over napa cabbage, soaking up a savory soy, rice wine, and ginger sauce with subtle hints of hoisin, fish sauce, and oyster sauce. The flesh turns tender and flaky, balanced by bright citrus and aromatic ginger. Serve it for a weeknight dinner or a special gathering when you want bold, Asian-inspired flavors with minimal fuss.

  • Prep25 mins
  • Cook40 mins
  • Serves4
  • DifficultyMedium
Baked Pompano
  1. 1

    Whisk together the soy sauce, rice wine, 1 tablespoon olive oil, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and the juice of 1/2 the lime in a bowl.

  2. 2

    Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir the shallot and ginger until they start to brown, about 2 minutes. Pour in the soy sauce mixture; simmer until slightly thickened, 5 to 10 minutes.

  3. 3

    Score both sides of the pompano in a crosshatch pattern. Pat it dry with a paper towel. Season both sides and the inside of the pompano with dill, salt, and pepper. Slice the remaining 1/2 of the lime and arrange the slices inside. Drizzle the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over the pompano; rub it over both sides.

  4. 4

    Layer cabbage leaves in the bottom of a large baking dish; place the pompano on top. Pour the soy sauce mixture over the pompano. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil. Let it marinate as the oven preheats.

  5. 5

    Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

  6. 6

    Bake the pompano in the preheated oven until fragrant, about 20 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil; continue baking until the pompano flakes easily with a fork, about 10 minutes more.

  7. 7

    Peel back the skin and lift the pompano flesh off the bones using a fork. Transfer to a serving plate.