Sole meunière
Whole Dover sole dusted in flour, fried in butter until golden, then finished with browned butter, lemon and parsley. Ten minutes in the pan.
Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Rest
- None
- Total
- 25 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Spice
- No chilli
- Cost
- Treat yourself$28+ USD · indicative, not a store price
About
Sole meunière is the plainest of the great French fish dishes: a whole Dover sole, skinned on the dark side, dusted in flour, fried in butter until golden on both sides, and served with the pan butter cooked to nut-brown and sharpened with lemon and parsley. Meunière means the miller's wife, for the flour. The method is simple and the margin is small. The butter must foam without burning while the fish cooks, so start it with a little oil, then make fresh brown butter at the end. One fish per pan is the honest home limit; for two people, use two pans or cook one after the other and keep the first warm.
What you'll need
8 ingredients. Tap each one once it's out on the bench.
Ingredients
- Dover sole, about 450 g each, dark skin removed, fins trimmed2
- Wheat flour, for dusting40 g
- Butter, 30 g for frying, 50 g for the brown butter80 g
- Neutral oil15 ml
- Lemon, half juiced, half in wedges1
- Parsley, flat-leaf, chopped30 ml
- Salt4.9 ml
- White pepper1 pinch
Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.
Steps
Step 1
Pat the fish dry and season both sides with salt and white pepper. Just before cooking, dust them with flour and shake off every bit of excess.
3 min
Tip: Flour too early and it goes pasty on the damp fish.
Step 2
For each fish, heat half the oil and 15 g of butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until the butter foams. Lay the fish in, skinned side down, which is the side you will serve uppermost. Cook 4 to 5 minutes until golden, shaking the pan now and then.
5 min
Watch: If the butter starts to smell burnt, lower the heat. Burnt butter at this stage turns the crust bitter.
Step 3
Turn the fish carefully with a wide spatula and cook 3 to 4 minutes more, until the flesh at the thickest part near the backbone is white right through. Lift onto warm plates, golden side up.
4 min
Step 4
Wipe out the pan. Add the 50 g of fresh butter and cook over medium heat until it foams, goes nut-brown and smells of hazelnuts, about 2 minutes. Take it off the heat, add the lemon juice, which will spit, and the parsley.
3 min
Step 5
Pour the brown butter straight over the fish and serve at once with lemon wedges and boiled potatoes.
1 min
Nutrition
Per serving · estimate
- Calories
- 816 kcal
- Protein
- 84.1 g
- Carbs
- 20.1 g
- Fat
- 45.6 g
- Saturated fat
- 22.9 g
- Fibre
- 2.1 g
- Sugar
- 1.4 g
- Sodium
- 1427 mg
Calculated from canonical ingredient data (USDA FoodData Central averages and equivalent published tables). Estimates only.
Allergens
Informational only. Not a medical guarantee. Cross-contamination happens in real kitchens.
- Fish
- Milk
- Wheat
- Pescatarian
- Nut-free
Adapt this recipe
The original recipe stays as it is. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are simple maths.
Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 13 November.
Substitutions
Dover sole → Lemon sole, plaice or flounder, whole or as fillets
Softer and cheaper. Whole fish need 2 to 3 minutes a side; fillets about a minute a side.
Tips
- To fillet at the table, run a knife down the line of the backbone, push the top fillets off to each side, lift the bone out from the tail, and fold the fillets back.
- Warm the plates. Brown butter sets fast on a cold plate.
History & culture
It is a restaurant dish of the old school, served whole and filleted at the table with two spoons in Paris brasseries and Normandy seaside hotels. At home it is a dinner for two, cooked for someone you like. Boiled potatoes and nothing else is the usual side, with a glass of white Burgundy.
Cooking fish à la meunière, floured and fried in butter, is old home cooking from the parts of France where butter was the everyday fat. The dish grew famous through the grand Paris restaurants of the 19th and 20th centuries. Julia Child described a sole meunière in Rouen in 1948 as the meal that made her want to cook.
Traditional — Restaurants cook it in clarified butter and fillet it in front of you. Lemon sole or plaice is often sold for meunière more cheaply. It is softer and cooks faster, and it makes a fine dish, but it is not the same fish.
Provenance: Editorial adaptation.
Questions about this recipe
Answers taken from this dish's times, amounts, swaps and tips.
How long does Sole meunière take?
25 min all in — 10 min prep, 15 min cook. Cook and rest follow the method. Leftover storage and optional extra waits are not included.
How many does it serve?
The recipe is written for 2 plates. Scale the ingredient list on the page if you are cooking for a different number.
How hard is it?
Medium.
How spicy is it?
No chilli.
What allergens should I watch?
This recipe is labelled for Fish, Milk, Wheat. Labels are informational — check the packets in your kitchen. This is not medical advice.
Does it fit a diet?
The published recipe is labelled Pescatarian, Nut-free.
7 more questionsFewer questions
What does it cost to cook?
Treat yourself — about $28+ USD, as a grocery budget for this recipe, not a restaurant price.
What equipment do I need?
Frying pan.
How much salt do I put in?
The recipe lists Salt at 1 tsp.
What can I use instead?
Dover sole → Lemon sole, plaice or flounder, whole or as fillets. Softer and cheaper. Whole fish need 2 to 3 minutes a side; fillets about a minute a side.
What should I watch for?
If the butter starts to smell burnt, lower the heat. Burnt butter at this stage turns the crust bitter.
Any tips from this recipe?
To fillet at the table, run a knife down the line of the backbone, push the top fillets off to each side, lift the bone out from the tail, and fold the fillets back. Warm the plates. Brown butter sets fast on a cold plate.
Can I use an air fryer?
This method is not written for an air fryer. The core technique on the page still applies.
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