Six Seafood Suppers For Busy People

We’ve all been there: It’s a busy day and you forgot to pull something from the freezer before heading out in the morning. It’s suppertime and stomachs are growling, the kids are grumbling, and you need to feed them STAT. All you want to do is fill their mouths long enough to keep them quiet for a few blessed minutes of peace after the day you’ve just had.

While we can’t necessarily guarantee tranquility at the table, we can help you get dinner on the table with these simple seafood recipes that go directly from freezer to oven (or pot).

This simple and delicious roasted cod recipe is seasoned with a fragrant spice mixture before being popped into the oven and served with a tangy slaw, tortillas, and avocado. For fully thawed fish, the roasting time is about 10 minutes, but you can roast the cod from frozen, adding about 10 minutes in the oven.

Forget to thaw your fish and need to get dinner on the table pronto? No worries. This last-minute sheet pan salmon recipe, using frozen salmon, pantry-friendly ingredients, and longer cooking vegetables like potatoes and Brussels sprouts makes dinner-time stress a distant memory. Since the salmon is frozen, you’ll have to pick out the pin bones after cooking.

Popular in coastal towns throughout Mexico, this light and brothy seafood soup is a staple in many kitchens. Traditionally, whole fish, fresh from the markets are cut into large pieces and add depth of flavor to the soup. Chunks of boneless fish fillets (thawed or frozen) and good quality fish stock or clam juice is a great alternative. By the time the fish needs to go into the broth, it will be thawed just enough to cut into chunks.

This simple all-in-one sheet pan supper requires an eye on the timing to make sure all of the components are perfectly cooked at the same time. Frozen roasted potato wedges make prep and cooking even easier, so all you need to do is bake and enjoy. In fact, you can even bake fish straight from the freezer in case you forgot to thaw it the night before. You just need to add a few more minutes in the oven.

In this simple recipe, sablefish (black cod) is marinated and glazed with a sweet, sticky soy sauce called tare, which is the basis for teriyaki sauce. Since the fish needs to marinate anyway, why not just pop it into the marinade straight from the freezer? Let it sit at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes before cooking, even if it’s slightly frozen in the center. Of course, if you marinate it overnight in the fridge, the fish will be perfectly thawed the next day.

In French, sous vide means “under vacuum” and refers to a cooking method of vacuum-sealing (removing all of the air) food in a plastic bag and cooking it at a precisely-regulated temperature. Popular among restaurant chefs, especially those who love gadgets, this technique is ideal for home cooks because it takes the mystery out of knowing when your fish is cooked and cooked to your personal preference. The good news is that you can go directly from freezer to pot without thawing first. Just add an extra 15 minutes in the water bath.