Pescado a la Veracruzana
Delicious, beautiful, healthy, and easy to prepare, this white fish “a la Veracruzana” covers all the bases.
Any dish that is served ” a la Veracruzana,” which means Veracruz style, is served with a mild tomato sauce prepared with olives and capers.
This is one of the few sauces served in Mexico that doesn’t have any chile in it.
Ready to Cook?
Start by gathering all of your ingredients. For this dish, you will need white fish fillets, tomato, onion, olives, capers, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, and chicken broth.
The full ingredient list is below in the recipe. The traditional fish for this dish is red snapper. When prepared with red snapper the dish is called, “huachinango a la Veracruzana.” We used tilapia but any firm mild white fish works well.
Prepare the Sauce First
Over medium heat, fry the onion and garlic in 3 tablespoons of cooking oil for 4 minutes. You are starting to build flavor in the sauce.
Add the tomato, black pepper, and salt.
Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes until the tomatoes have given off much of their liquid.
Crush the tomatoes, onion, and garlic with a bean or potato masher.
Next, add the spices and stir.
Add the chicken broth.
Add the chopped olives and capers and stir. Simmer for 15 more minutes. It’s starting to look good, isn’t it?
Cooking the Fish
After the sauce has simmered for 15 minutes, start cooking the fish. In a separate pan over medium heat, lightly brown each side of the fish in 3 tablespoons of oil.
Don´t let the fish get too brown.
Once you have browned the fish on both sides, place each fish fillet in the simmering sauce.
Cook for 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened slightly and the fish is fully cooked and has taken on the flavor of the sauce. Check the flavor of the sauce and adjust the salt if necessary.
Now it’s looking really good!
Serve and Enjoy
Serve the fish with white rice. First, put the rice on the plate then place the fish next to the rice. Gently spoon about 1 cup of the sauce over the fish and serve immediately.
Veracruz Style White Fish
Ingredients
- 4 white fish fillets 4 to 6 ozs. each
- 5 medium tomatoes
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp. dried thyme
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tsp. epazote
- 1 tsp. salt + as necessary
- 6 bay leaves
- 28 green olives
- 12 capers
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
Instructions
- PREPARING THE SAUCE
- Over medium heat, fry the onion and garlic in 3 tablespoons of cooking oil for 4 minutes.
- Add the tomato, black pepper, and salt.
- Reduce the heat to low and cook the sauce for 15 minutes until the tomatoes have given off much of their liquid.
- Then, crush the tomatoes, onion, and garlic with a bean or potato masher.
- Next, add the spices and stir.
- Add the chicken broth.
- Add the chopped olives and capers and stir. Simmer for 15 more minutes.
- COOKING THE FISH
- After the sauce has simmered for 15 minutes, start cooking the fish. In a separate pan over medium heat, lightly brown each side of the fish in 3 tablespoons of oil.
- Once you have browned the fish on both sides, place each fish fillet in the simmering sauce.
- Cook for 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened slightly and the fish is fully cooked and has taken on the flavor of the sauce.
- Check the flavor of the sauce and adjust the salt if necessary.
- SERVING
- Serve the fish with white rice. First, put the rice on the plate then place the fish next to the rice. Gently spoon about 1 cup of the sauce over the fish and serve immediately.
Nutrition
More Mexican Fish and Seafood Dishes
You might enjoy preparing one of our other recipes.
- Curried Rice with Shrimp
- Fried Fish Sandwich with Spicy Chipotle Mayo
- Garlic Shrimp Tacos
- Fish Tacos
- Shrimp Ceviche Acapulco
Did you enjoy this recipe for Veracruz Style White Fish? Any questions about the preparation?
Please let us know in the comments below if you have prepared this dish and how it turned out for you. Also, if you have any questions on preparation you can let us know in the comments too. We think you will love this recipe!
Mark says
Hola Doug,
If this is half as good I think it will be we will make it this week. Question: where to buy good fish? Please drop a note when you have a minute.
Kanisha says
This recipe just looks and sounds amazing! Its like a Mexican version of chicken picata but with fish and tomatoes. This is most definitely a drool worthy recipe that must make it onto my weeknight cooking list and soon! By the way, the pictures and details are just amazing. The best part of any new recipe is a picture worth a million bucks that can instantly instill some serious hunger!
Rhonda says
Can you use oregano in place of epazote?
Douglas Cullen says
Rhonda,
Oregano will work really well in the recipe. I would use 1/2 teaspoon. Cheers!
Merlinda Guerra says
Epazote: are you using fresh or dried? And how many servings approximately is this for? Thank you!
beejay says
We used to always do this with snapper, but that’s getting hard to find in my area. I switched to tilapia which is usually available, but this week I am trying rockfish. Wish me luck.
Lee says
It would be helpful to know how much onion to put in the dish.
Wendy says
What kind and how much onion is used?
I did not see it in list of ingredients.
I made this recipe last month and family loved it. Just don’t remember about the onion.
Jeff says
Request #3. How much onion?
This is actually a Mediteranean dish thst made it’s way to Mexico. I doubt epazote was in the original recipes. Bay leaves are Mediteranean, too.
I have dried oregano, Mexican and Mediteranean along with some dried epazote.’ll have to see what works best.
Rich says
I added a red pepper with the onion (I guessed 1 medium onion😁 ) and did not use epazote. I only used 6 olives but that’s because my wife is not a big olive fan, and I was too lazy to chop 28 of those suckers. But it came out great!
Ash says
I absolutely love this recipe. This is my go to when I want to cook for family and guests. Everybody always loves it. I switch the recipe up and bread the fish and put the sauce on top. Thank you for this world class recipe!
Douglas Cullen says
That’s fantastic! We love the recipe too. Thanks for sharing with us. Cheers!
Jamie says
where is amount for onions?
Joseph Martinez says
This is the first time I’ve ever made this dish. But, also did a bit of research and added a few ideas from a few others I read. So, I mostly followed your recipe. I added a bit of cayenne pepper (to my taste) and three tablespoons of tequila blanco when I added the chicken broth. And, just a pinch of dried oregano. And, for the onion, I used half a of a med red and a small yellow onion. Otherwise, I followed it to the “T”. Came out delicious.
Linda says
We used Calamata olives because the green olives were not Pitted as we discovered too late to go back to the store , also used Cod loins which actually worked well. Mexican Oregano 1 tsp instead of Epazote. It was delicious ! I will make this again! Has anyone tried this with chicken or other proteins?
Barry Young says
In The Narrative you say to sauteed fry The Onion. What you forgot to do was mentioned how much onion in the ingredients section should I use half an onion quarter of an onion or whole onion?
Larry says
The photo shows one smallish white onion.
Karen Knapp says
This is one of our favorite dishes; I’ve made it three times now. It makes boring white fish taste rather exciting. I did add half of a chopped serrano chile- no seeds. Thanks so much.
DarbyBlue says
Love this recipe, I make it frequently. We make it in the summer when we have lots of tomatoes from the garden.
Douglas Cullen says
That’s awesome. We’re glad you like the recipe! Cheers!
Janet Cunningham says
I made this with green olives packed in water and served it over cuali-rice. It was very light and refreshing.
Douglas Cullen says
Sounds delicious. We are glad you liked it!
Sean Robertson says
I can totally vouch for this recipe – absolutely 🤬ing nailed it on the first try. 😀
Thank you!
Lori Alcalá says
Yay! So glad you liked it, Sean!
Unk Shine says
This recipe made my wife sleep for three days. Try it out.