Easy Sole Meunière

Easy Sole Meunière is a delicious fish dish sure to please. Sole fillets are lightly browned and then served with a simple brown butter lemon sauce.

One of my favorite books of all time is My Life in France, the memoir written by Julia Child of her years living in Paris and in the South of France. In it, she reminisces about one of the first meals she ate in France, the simple but elegant Sole Meunière.

This dish sparked a deep interest in French cuisine, and awakened her passion for food and cooking. So of course I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Jump to:

• Why Make This Recipe
• 🥗 Ingredients
• 🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
• 🧐 FAQs for Sole Meuniere
• 👩‍🍳 Expert Tips
• Other France-Inspired Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• More About Molly

Why Make This Recipe

• Easy-to-make: This recipe uses sole fillets rather than preparing the whole fish.
• Sustainable: Sole ranks as a “best choice” in terms of sustainable fish according to Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch (for both U.S. and most worldwide fisheries).
• French elegance: Such a simple dish, but you'll see why Julia loved it!

🥗 Ingredients

This recipe is so simple, with just 6 ingredients, but because of that, quality is very important.

• Sole Fillets: The traditional preparation of Sole Meunière uses Dover sole, but other types of sole are fine alternatives. Dover sole can be quite expensive, so note that you can also try any other delicate white-fleshed fish. That said, if you can afford it, this is a fantastic Dover sole recipe!
• Olive Oil: Choose a mild olive oil for this recipe, so it does not overpower the delicate fish.
• Butter: The reason this dish may taste so delicious in France is partly due to the quality of its butter. If you can find a rich, locally made butter, it will really shine in this meal. I prefer to use unsalted butter, and adjust the salt levels in the sauce after cooking, but salted butter would also work.
• Flour: try using a gluten-free flour or cornstarch if you want a gluten-free sole meunière.
• Lemon Juice: Fresh-squeezed lemon juice is key to this recipe. One lemon will usually yield about two tablespoons of juice.

🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions

First, rinse your fish fillets gently and pat dry, then sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. Put 2 tablespoons of flour into a shallow dish. Press fish fillets gently into the flour on both sides to coat, brushing off any excess.

Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet. When butter melts, add sole fillets and cook over medium heat until bottom is golden-brown, about 2-3 minutes.

Flip carefully and then add another tablespoon of butter.

Cook, basting fish with the butter, until it is just done (another minute or so). Remove the fish fillets.

Add 2 more tablespoons of butter, turn heat down to medium, and continue to cook the sauce until butter is lightly browned (take care not to let it burn) and smells nutty, about 1-2 minutes.

Stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper.

If you use clarified butter, you’ll get a clear browned butter with no bits floating around. But it won’t be any more delicious. Pour lemon brown butter sauce over fish fillets to serve. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

🧐 FAQs for Sole Meuniere

👩‍🍳 Expert Tips

Have all your ingredients prepared and ready to go before you start because these tiny fillets will cook in just minutes.

Note that the classic Sole Meunière preparation uses whole fish. The advantage of using whole fish is that you can baste them in the butter sauce longer, and the flesh remains extremely tender. However, the disadvantage is that it takes some careful eating to remove the fish bones.

In a fancy restaurant, you might find your sole deboned for you table-side after cooking. But at home, with no waiter to debone your final dish, starting with fillets is an easier approach.

Sole is quite a delicate fish. Do yourself a favor and let your fishmonger do the work of preparing them for you. Sole fillets can be quite tiny, so look at the size before you order—at my poissonnière in Paris, a single portion size was 3 fillets.

The other change I’ve made from traditional recipes is to replace clarified butter with regular butter. Clarified butter does not burn as easily as regular butter, because the milk solids have been removed. But as long as you are careful, using regular butter works just fine, as long as you don’t mind a few browned bits speckling your sauce.

Note, if you want to make this Dover Sole Meunière for 4 people, it is easy to double. However, you will not be able to fit all the fillets in your skillet at once without steaming them. In that case, you will need to cook your fish in two batches.

You may want to have warm plates waiting in a very low oven, where you can keep your first batch of fillets until the second batch is ready.

Other France-Inspired Recipes

If you enjoyed this recipe, you may want to check out some of my other France-inspired recipes. Coq Au Vin Blanc and Hachis Parmentier are other delicious French dinners, while Frisée Salad, Salade de Tomates, and Green Beans Almondine make fantastic sides. Other favorites include:

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