Easy Chinese Steamed Fish Recipe

Chinese steamed fish was a staple food for me growing up. I’m pretty sure I ate it at least once a week at my pau pau’s house, as part of a typical Chinese family style meal that included several other dishes. As much as this soy sauce steamed fish is an easy home cooked dish, you can also find steamed fish at Chinese restaurants as well, even at fancy banquets. Traditionally in Chinese cuisine, you’d steam the whole fish – head, tail, and all. That’s how my grandma did it at home too. But I don’t like having to pick out all the bones, especially when feeding my toddlers, so this recipe uses fish filets instead. This steamed fish recipe is super easy and super delicious, so give it a try!

Ingredients for Chinese Steamed Fish – What Kind of Fish to Use?

For this recipe, you can use any type of delicate white fish. My Cantonese grandma, however, always uses tilapia, so that’s what I use too. Like I said before, traditionally you would steam the fish whole, head and everything still attached. I remember as a kid going to the Chinese market with my grandma and pointing to a fish swimming in a tank, then watching in morbid fascination as the fishmonger scooped it out with a net and gave it a nice solid whack on the head.

If you’re going for presentation points, I definitely recommend doing the whole fish. After all, is it not strangely impressive to have your meal staring back at you as you scoop its delicate white flesh into your mouth?

But if you are like me and not particularly keen on having to fish out all the tiny bones prior to feeding tiny humans, using filets may be a better option. Plus, they cook faster.

Cantonese Steamed Fish Seasonings

For seasoning steamed fish, all you need is some soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and green onions. Those are some pretty foundational ingredients for any Chinese cooking, so I usually have them all on hand. To be super honest, I usually don’t measure when I cook this, but in this case I did measure my soy sauce especially so I could write it down in this recipe. I usually use 3 tbsp of Chinese light soy sauce. If you have Japanese soy sauce or Hawaiian, that’ll work fine too. I just wouldn’t recommend using dark soy sauce.

I also wrote the ginger as “1 teaspoon,” but again, this is a guestimate. I usually take a knob of ginger about the size of my thumb (I have small fingers..?) and slice it.

I know a lot of classic Chinese steamed fish recipes would have you heat oil up in a skillet with green onions. This fragrant hot oil gets poured over the fish at the end to season it. I make my fish the same way as my grandma, though. We put the green onions on the fish along with the ginger and soy sauce and steam it all together. No need to dirty an extra dish and no need for oil. I sometimes sprinkle more chopped green onion on top of the fish after it’s done steaming for freshness. Don’t worry too much about measurements or technique here. Just plop it all on the plate and steam!

How to Steam Fish

You do not really need any special equipment for steaming fish. My usual steaming apparatus includes a large skillet and a steamer rack that came with my Instant Pot, filled with about 1/2 inch of water. I heat the water on the stovetop, and when I’m ready to steam, I place the entire dish that has my fish and seasonings right onto the rack. Then I cover with a lid until it’s cooked through. Two tilapia filets takes about 15 minutes.

By the way, don’t burn yourself getting your plate in and out of the steamer! I love my handy dandy steamer tongs that I got off Amazon (*affiliate link).

What to Serve with Chinese Steamed Fish

If you’re eating a typical Chinese family meal, steamed fish would be just one of the entrees. My grandma would usually serve it with another protein, like her famous soy ginger fried chicken or char siu ribs. You would also definitely have some veggies as well – try my 5 minute Chinese vegetables or my grandma’s broccoli beef! And don’t forget the rice, of course.

That’s it, folks! Wasn’t that so simple? I hope you give it a try. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below or come find me on Instagram!