Mexico · Fish and Seafood Dishes · Keto

Spicy Fish

Name: Spicy Fish
Prep time: 12 min
Cook time: 28 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 4 fillets white fish; 2 tomatoes; 1 onion; 2 cloves garlic; 1/2 cup olives; 2 tbsp capers; 2 jalapeño peppers; 1/4 cup olive oil; 1 lemon juice; 1 bay leaf; to taste salt and pepper; for serving fresh cilantro

This dish combines the spiciness of jalapeños, the sourness of tomatoes and capers, and the delicate flavor of fish, characteristic of Mexican coastal cuisine.

40 min 325 kcal 4 serves Medium🥑Keto🇲🇽Mexico★★★★☆4.4· 5 reviews

Ingredients

ServingsMetric

4 filletswhite fish
2 tomatoes
1 onion
2 clovesgarlic
½ cupolives
2 tbspcapers
2 jalapeño peppers
¼ cupolive oil
1 lemon juice
1 bay leaf
to tastesalt and pepper
for servingfresh cilantro

Note from Sergei

Sergei Martynov

“This Veracruz-style spicy fish is one of Mexico's greatest contributions to seafood cooking — a vibrant tomato sauce studded with briny olives, tangy capers, and pickled jalapeños. What I love about it is the layered complexity: you get sweetness from the tomatoes, salt from the olives, acidity from the capers, and heat from the chili peppers. The fish simply poaches in this sauce, absorbing all those flavors without any fancy technique. I use a firm white fish like snapper or grouper that won't fall apart. It's the kind of one-pan dish that looks like you spent hours but comes together in 30 minutes.”

Toast the olives and capers in dry heat for a minute before adding the tomato sauce — this concentrates their flavor and removes excess brine, giving the final dish a deeper, more balanced taste.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Sauté the onion and garlic until soft.
Add the tomatoes, olives, capers, jalapeños and bay leaf. Cook for 5-7 minutes.
Place the fish fillets in a baking dish. Drizzle with lemon juice, season with salt and pepper. Place the vegetable mixture on top of the fish.
Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the fish separates easily into pieces. Serve sprinkled with fresh cilantro.

FAQ

Firm varieties work best: tilapia, cod, sea bass, or sea bream. Delicate fillets like pollock or pangasius tend to fall apart in the spicy tomato sauce.

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Comments (1)

Sergei Martynov✍ Author
29d ago
Don't move the fish once it's in the pan for spicy fish. If it sticks, it's not ready to flip — the proteins haven't released yet. When it's ready, it slides freely. Patience prevents broken fillets.