Chinese Steamed Fish

Name: Chinese Steamed Fish
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 12 min
Ingredients: 1 lb bone-in whole sea bream or white fish fillets (, prepped); 1/4 cup less sodium soy sauce; 1 tbsp mirin; 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil; 1 tsp sugar; 1/4 tsp white pepper; 2 thumb sized ginger (, julienned); some spring onion (, julienned); 1 chili (, sliced); 3 tbsp oil (, preferably mild flavored with high smoke point)

Tender and juicy Chinese steamed fish just like in the Chinese restaurants! This fragrant, mild, and healthy recipe is way easier to prepare than you think. Whole fish or fish fillets work amazingly! No worries if you don't have a steamer because we've written out the alternative method which is oven-steamed, that gives equally tender and juicy steamed fish.

Chinese steamed whole fish on a serving plate.

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Chinese-Style Steamed Fish
Why This Recipe Works
What Type Of Fish To Use
What If I Don't Have A Steamer?
Ingredients For This Recipe
Step-By-Step Instructions
Recipe Expert Tips
What To Eat It With
Recipe FAQs
More Asian Recipes
Watch How To Make It
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

Chinese-Style Steamed Fish

Did you know that this Chinese-style steamed fish with ginger and scallion is one of the lucky foods that are often served at Chinese New Year dinners? This dish requires simple and cheap ingredients, representing the action of "saving" money to be used for the new year. Interesting, right?

The ginger and scallion or spring onion give fresh and fragrant flavors to this dish, toning down and taking away the fishy flavor. The fish is perfectly cooked so it maintains its freshness and juiciness. The mild soy sauce with toasted sesame oil brings everything together, giving it an amazing umami touch.

Also known as Cantonese steamed fish, this dish should also be served at the last during the dinner course, preferably leaving some as leftovers afterward. This represents entering the new year not empty-handed. However, the leftovers part is quite difficult as this steamed ginger fish is so amazingly delicious that usually there are no leftovers whenever we make it!

Why This Recipe Works

Ginger steamed fish fillets on a serving plate.

We're all about easy recipes with easy ingredients! Marco is not such a big fish or seafood fan, so it's a bit tricky when cooking fish or seafood meals for him. I'm happy to say that he devours this steamed fish and even says "We should have this more often!" as if we're not having it often enough! Here's why it's the best-steamed fish, ever.

Easy and fast - Perfect for fast weekday dinners, this Chinese steamed fish goes perfectly with some rice, and veggies on the side. It takes 5 minutes of preparation and 12 minutes of cooking. More easy and fast dinner ideas for you are our delicious, easy beef pho, 30-minute chicken massaman curry, and quick lentil coconut curry.

Suitable for everybody - Since this steamed fish recipe uses white fish and mild sauces, the flavors of this dish are not strong or pungy. Easier to serve anybody!

Whole fish or fish fillets - This recipe works for both! Ideal for kids or anybody who doesn't know how to eat around the fish bones.

Works in a steamer or an oven - Not everybody has a steamer in their house, right? We've improved the way to cook this Chinese-style steamed fish by providing an alternative way to show how to steam fish without a steamer, which is oven-steam! The fish comes out equally juicy and tender!

What Type Of Fish To Use

The combination of flavors for this Asian steamed fish is mild, nothing pungy or strong. To match these amazing flavors, we recommend using fresh white fish like hake, carp, sea bream, pomfret, snapper, tilapia, or anything similar.

We also highly recommend using whole fish, bone-in as it gives more flavor to the dish. However, fish fillets are also doable, as I tend to use them whenever I want even with fewer hassles. It's also easier for people who are not that good at eating around the fish bones, like my husband!

What If I Don't Have A Steamer?

We know not everybody has a steamer handy in their house, so don't worry. We've got your back! Instead of a steamer, we've also been making this steamed fish many times using the oven-steamed method, also known as "en papillote". We've written out the instructions below.

"En papillote" means "in parchment" in French. It's a cooking method where you put the ingredients like veggies, fish, or chicken breast, in a parchment paper parcel, and bake it in the oven. The ingredients' moisture is trapped in the parcel, and the heat will create steam, and cook them. So you get oven-steamed fish or Chinese steamed fish en papilotte. We like the fanciness! Oui oui!

Ingredients For This Recipe

Ingredients to make Chinese steamed fish.

Fish - Fresh white fish like hake, carp, sea bream, pomfret, tilapia, or anything similar. Preferably whole fish, bone-in; however, fish fillets, even frozen ones, also work amazingly. In this recipe, we use whole sea bream to show the steaming method and hake fillets to show the oven-steamed method. This type of fish and method also works with our amazing Thai-style steamed fish with lime and garlic.

Soy sauce - Less sodium soy sauce, we can't recommend it enough! You'll get more flavor with less salt. We've been using it for years, like in our crispy air-fryer soy sauce chicken, Thai basil beef, and our peanut sauce stir-fry noodles. It's the only seasoning soy sauce we have in our kitchen. Nobody wants to have 4-5 different soy sauce bottles in theirs, right?

Mirin - Traditionally, this steamed fish recipe uses Chinese Shaoxing wine, which is nutty, earthy, savory, and sweet. Mirin is a great substitution, as we use it in our delicious 10-minute beef lo mein noodles. It has very similar flavors, and since we always have it in our pantry we're using that. Dry sherry (use half the recipe's amount and adjust to taste), apple cider vinegar, or white wine vinegar also works.

Oil - Any mild flavored oil with a high smoke point is perfect! We've used sunflower oil and vegetable oil; they work amazingly. We don't recommend olive oil as it tastes stronger and has a low smoke point.

⭐ See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Steam the fish - Prepare your steamer pot. We're using a wok. Place the steamer rack in, followed by water just until 1 inch before touching the rack. Bring the water to a boil. No need to season the whole fish or fish fillets. Place the fish on a heatproof serving plate on the rack. Cover with a lid and steam for 10-12 minutes.

2. Discard the steam water - Once the fish is cooked, carefully remove it from the steamer and discard the steam water in the plate.

3. Prepare the sauce and garnish - You can do these while the fish is steaming. Add soy sauce, mirin, sugar, white pepper, and toasted sesame oil in a bowl. Mix well. Slice ginger, scallion (or spring onion), and chili thinly and set aside.

4. Assemble - Pour the sauce on the steamed fish. Place the ginger, scallion, and chili on top. Heat oil in a pot until it's very hot, and then pour on top of the garnish and watch them sizzle! Serve immediately with some rice. Enjoy your amazing fragrant and delicious steamed fish!

5. Oven-steamed - Place the whole fish or fish fillets on a large parchment paper on a baking tray. Fold the paper in half, fold the sides upwards, and secure them. We love to do it with a paper stapler! Place in a preheated oven at 430ºF (220ºC), on the middle rack, for 8-10 minutes, or until the fish is fully cooked. Carefully open the parcel, place the steamed fish on a serving plate, and discard the steaming water. Follow the recipe instructions for the sauce, garnish, and assemble.

Recipe Expert Tips

Use a heatproof serving plate to steam. This prevents it from melting, bending, or cracking with the hot steam. We love to steam the fish on a serving plate so we don't move the fish too much, and it also heats the plate!
To know when the steamed fish is done. The meat flakes easily when you push it with a fork. The meat and bones are also not transparent in color. It usually takes around 10-12 minutes. Our whole fish is around 1-1 ¾-inch thick. Whole fish takes longer to cook than fish fillets. It also depends on the thickness.
Discard the steam water. It contains the impurities of the fish and doesn't taste good.
To get beautifully curled sliced scallion or spring onion. Put them in a bowl of cold water with ice! They will curl in 5-10 minutes, adding a unique touch to this Chinese steamed fish.
Make sure the oil is very hot. This will give you the amazing sizzling sound and effects when you pour the hot oil on top of the trimmings!

What To Eat It With

This amazing Chinese steamed fish is usually eaten with white rice, which is why it's on the saucy side. The sauce is thought to also give flavor to the natural-flavored rice. You can also serve it with some mild-flavored veggies like steamed veggies or grilled asparagus, for example. The idea is to avoid strong-flavored rice or side dishes, not to overcome the mild flavors of this delicious Cantonese steamed fish.

Do you have problems cooking rice, or don't oven a rice cooker? Well, we cook our jasmine rice without a rice cooker, and get fluffy rice every single time! See our easy method and tips.

Recipe FAQs

Can I use fish fillets instead of whole fish?

Absolutely! My husband is not that good at eating around fish bones, so whenever he wants to eat this Chinese steamed fish, I always use fish fillets. You can use the steamer or oven-steamed method with no problems.

I don't have a steamer. What can I use instead?

No worries, we get you. We've been using the oven-steamed method many times and have gotten equally juicy and tender fish! You put the fish on parchment paper, fold it, secure it, and bake it in the oven. The fish's moisture is trapped in the parcel, creating steam, and eventually cooking the fish. See the detailed instructions below.

How do you know when a steamed fish is done?

Depending on the thickness of the whole fish, ours is around 1-1 ¾-inch thick. It's done when you can easily flake the fish meat with a fork, the meat and bones are not transparent in color. Always make sure steamer water is boiling the whole time. The bigger the fish, the longer it takes to cook. Fish fillets take less time to cook, depending on the cut.

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