Easy Seafood Recipes: 11 Seafood Recipes to Try at Home

Seafood is an umbrella term for sea animals that humans harvest and serve for meals. Seafood includes marine fish (from cod to halibut), mollusks (like clams and oysters), crustaceans or prawns (like shrimp and lobster), and echinoderms (like sea urchins). Nearly every cuisine features seafood, including Thai, Greek, Mexican, and North American foods.

Seafood ranges from fish to shellfish, but there are a few main tenets for working with seafood in the kitchen:

1. 1. Pat it dry before cooking. For many pan-fried seafood recipes, you want the flesh of the fish or shellfish to develop a thick, golden crust when cooked. Any excess moisture will prevent that crust from forming, so get in the habit of patting dry your raw fish and shellfish to ensure you’re in control of the moisture levels in your recipe.
2. 2. Fresh is best. Choose fresh fish options over frozen, especially in dinner recipes where the seafood is the main event. Fresh-caught fish and shellfish will have a much richer flavor.
3. 3. Cook for the occasion. Seafood dinners have a reputation for being challenging to cook—and reserved only for restaurant dining—but you can make many types of seafood for a simple weeknight meal. For instance, place a few pieces of tilapia on a sheet pan in the oven with citrus, Parmesan, and capers for a restaurant-worthy fish dish. For a celebratory dinner, try a more complex fish recipe like Spanish paella, bouillabaisse, or lobster bisque for a rewarding result.

From fish tacos to shrimp étouffée, here are some tasty seafood dishes to serve at your next dinner party:

1. 1. Classic bouillabaisse recipe: Bouillabaisse is a classic but challenging Provençal dish featuring fish cooked in boiling water and olive oil. Unlike a long-simmering seafood stew, chefs make bouillabaisse through rapid boiling, which forces the olive oil into tiny droplets suspended in the water to create a creamy texture further enhanced by the gelatin from the fish bones. Traditional bouillabaisse recipes call for fresh fish from the Mediterranean. However, you can use any fresh fish for this flavorful French bouillabaisse recipe. Serve the dish with a side of crusty bread.
2. 2. Easy fish tacos recipe: Along Mexico’s Pacific Coast, seafood is a natural choice for taco fillings. The Baja area, in particular, is famed for its fried whitefish tacos, often served with shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, jalapeños, cilantro, and sour cream, all atop a tortilla. You can use almost any white fish for fried fish tacos, so long as its flesh is firm enough that it won’t fall apart during frying. Some of the most common types of whitefish for Mexican fish tacos include mahi-mahi, cod, red snapper, tilapia, halibut, and flounder. If you’re not a fan of whitefish, swap it for shrimp to make fresh shrimp tacos. Try this simple fish tacos recipe.
3. 3. Gordon Ramsay’s lobster ravioli recipe: This lobster ravioli recipe helped put award-winning chef Gordon Ramsay on the map. The dish is still on the menu at Gordon’s flagship three-Michelin-star restaurant in London, almost two decades after opening. While most lobster recipes focus on the lobster tail, this lobster ravioli recipe is a perfect way to incorporate the less glamorous parts of the animal—knuckles, claws, and legs—transforming these “scraps” into a flavor-packed filling that is both luxurious and economical.
4. 4. Gordon Ramsay’s salmon with shellfish minestrone recipe: This salmon recipe from the acclaimed chef highlights how to slice a fish fillet perfectly. It can also help you make a delicious, light supper with an easy, elegant Italian-inspired shellfish and vegetable minestrone. Learn how to make Chef Gordon Ramsay’s salmon with shellfish minestrone.
5. 5. Maine lobster stew recipe: Lobster stew is a comfort food dish consisting of lobster meat, vegetables, and other types of seafood such as clams, scallops, and mussels, served in a flavorful broth. If you’re looking for new dinner ideas, learn how to prepare lobster stew at home.
6. 6. Mashama Bailey’s seafood middlins recipe: Middlins, also known as broken rice or rice grits, are a beloved food throughout the American South, similar to risotto. The creamy texture of middlins is perfect for soaking up rich stews. This seafood middlins recipe from Chef Mashama Bailey consists of shrimp stock, shrimp, snapper, middlins, white wine, tomato paste, and shallots.
7. 7. Pan-seared scallops recipe: Scallops are mollusks, like mussels, oysters, and clams. The scallop muscle cooks quickly and is naturally tender, with a mild, sweet ocean flavor, like a seafood marshmallow. A brief sear on the stovetop is the most common way of preparing scallops, high in free amino acids and sugars that easily form a deep, crispy golden-brown crust. Learn how to make pan-seared scallops at home.
8. 8. Shrimp étouffée recipe: Étouffée (from the French word for “smothered”) is a Cajun and Creole dish consisting of seafood—traditionally shrimp or crawfish—poached in a light gravy made from seafood stock, garlic, celery, onions, and bell peppers, served with rice. This easy, one-pan shrimp étoufée recipe is flavorful and packed with veggies.
9. 9. Simple fish sausage recipe: Fish sausage features finely minced fish meat and seasonings stuffed into a sausage casing or shaped into a fish cake or patty. Like meat sausages, seafood sausages may include other ingredients like scallops, pork fat, and binders like breadcrumbs, cornstarch, or egg whites. Learn how to make your own fish sausage with this easy recipe.
10. 10. Takoyaki recipe: Takoyaki is a round, fried Japanese street food or appetizer filled with pieces of grilled or broiled octopus, crunchy tempura scraps (tenkasu), green onions, soy sauce, and beni shoga (pickled red ginger). Cooks may serve traditional takoyaki on a skewer or piled into a takeaway container, with various toppings and garnishes available at any Asian market, including seaweed-guide' target='_blank' class='mc-text--link' data-mc-segment-trigger='true' data-mc-segment-event-type='Article Page Click' data-event-obj='{"textTag":"p","href":"https://www.masterclass.com/articles/aonori-\u003ca href='https://masterclass.com/articles/what-is-edible-seaweed' target='_blank' class='mc-text--link' data-mc-segment-trigger='true' data-mc-segment-event-type='Article Page Click' data-event-obj='{\"textTag\":\"p\",\"href\":\"https://masterclass.com/articles/what-is-edible-seaweed\",\"linkCopy\":\"seaweed\",\"category\":\"automated-link\"}' automatic='true'\u003eseaweed\u003c/a\u003e-guide","linkCopy":"aonori","category":null}'>aonori (dried, powdered seaweed), katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), Japanese mayonnaise, and a salty-sweet takoyaki sauce.
11. 11. Thomas Keller’s shrimp scampi recipe: One of the most beloved shrimp recipes, classic Italian American-style shrimp scampi is an easy weeknight dinner that traditionally features fresh shrimp cooked in a buttery, garlicky sauce made with butter, garlic, olive oil, dry white wine, crushed red pepper flakes, and lemon juice. Serve the scampi on a bed of linguine or angel hair noodles for a bright shrimp pasta, and top with chopped parsley for a pop of color. Learn how to make Chef Thomas Keller’s shrimp scampi at home.

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