Walnut Crusted Mahi Mahi

This Walnut Crusted Mahi Mahi is one of my favorite ways to make this delicious fish. It comes together in about 20 minutes staying nice and crisp on the outside and tender and flaky on the inside.

Mahi Mahi is one of my favorite fish to eat. I order it almost every time I’m eating out at a seafood restaurant. But eating out can get pretty expensive, so I’ve been trying to cut down costs by making this at home more.

Even though I live by the coast and can get fresh fish daily at the market, I actually choose to buy Mahi Mahi frozen. Yep. I think the frozen fish tastes just as good, and it’s usually cheaper.

I also like to wait until they go on sale, because you know me I love a good deal.

So relatively speaking this can be a very low cost ‘gourmet meal’ to make at home.

Now if you’re using frozen fish make sure you thaw it out first. Just add the Mahi Mahi (still in the wrapper) to a large bowl of cold water. Change out the water every 10 minutes until fish is thawed. This can be done in less than 30 minutes.

Then I like to create a little assembly line to make this go fast (you can do this while the fish is thawing). I get everything prepped and ready to go before I heat up my pan.

First I finely chop up some Walnuts, I use a Food Processor to make this easier. You want them to be the consistency of bread crumbs.

Add the Walnuts, Paprika, and the Gluten Free Panko (you can use regular Panko if you don’t need this to be Gluten Free) to a large plate and mix together.

Add an Egg to a small bowl and whisk.

Add your thawed Mahi Mahi (removed from wrapper) to a large plate next to the Egg and Panko plates creating an assembly line.

Dip the fish into the Egg coating all the sides well.

Then dip it into the Panko/Walnut mixture coating all the sides of the fish. Set aside until ready to cook.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Fill the bottom of a 9 inch Cast Iron Skillet with Grapeseed Oil. I used Grapeseed Oil because it’s made for high heat cooking. Plus it has a light nutty flavor which I think enhances the flavor of the fish a bit. And it’s high in Vitamin E, so it’s a good healthy oil.

Note: If you’re not using a cast iron skillet, make sure the skillet you use is oven proof.

Heat the skillet over med-high heat on the stovetop. Make sure the oil is nice and hot before adding the fish.

Once the oil is hot add the coated Mahi Mahi to the pan and cook 3 minutes on each side.

Then place the skillet in the oven (don’t forget to use oven mitts, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve grabbed the handle of my hot cast iron skillet and burned my poor hands).

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until fish is firm and flaky.

Remove the fish from the pan with a slotted spatula and add it to a plate of sautéed greens along with some rice.

I actually sautéed some fresh Spinach and Shallots to go along with this which was absolutely Delish!

If you try this recipe let me know what you think! Leave a comment, rate it, share it on social media, or take a picture and tag it #tastefulventure on Instagram! I LOVE seeing what you guys cook up.

Cheers!

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