Dinners for Beginners: 4 Easy Seafood Recipes

Put another way, we put so much effort and testing into our recipes that we want you to follow them exactly, verbatim . . . until such a time that you don’t need to and can improvise and adapt them to suit your personal needs and tastes. 

Fish and shellfish may seem like intimidating ingredients, but the truth is that they are great for inexperienced cooks because they cook quickly, often don’t require much adornment, and are easy to shop for frozen. 

The seafood recipes below are relatively easy; don’t require a lot of special ingredients or equipment; and taste really, really good. We hope you enjoy them—and take the lessons you learn making them along with you on your cooking journey.

Seared Scallops with Butternut Squash

Sea scallops are one of the classic “look fancy, but are surprisingly simple to cook” ingredients. As long as you start with good scallops and don’t overcook them, you can’t really go wrong.

For this recipe, you get some chunks of peeled butternut squash going in a saucepan with broth and butter, and then when the squash is tender, you mash it—basic mashed-potato technique, except this is even easier because you use a measured amount of liquid that you mash right into the squash, no draining required. 

The searing of the scallops is hot, fast, and straightforward: Pat scallops dry (so they’ll brown more readily), heat oil in a nonstick skillet, and add half the scallops. Flip after 90 seconds, cook another 90 seconds, and you’re ready to repeat with the remaining scallops—easy. 

To take this dinner over the top, make an easy sauce right in the same skillet by cooking butter until it turns brown and then adding a little chopped fresh sage and grated lemon zest. This truly feels like restaurant food . . . except you don’t have to leave a tip.

Potato-Crusted Halibut with Tartar Sauce

The coating of even well-fried fish rarely has any real crunch to it. Well, this easy recipe packs plenty of crunch from an ingredient—crushed potato chips—that at first may seem gimmicky but actually makes a lot of sense. The chips add a nice crunchy texture that works well with the soft, tender fish. They also add seasoning (we don’t specify flavored chips, but we’re also not saying to not use your favorite flavor) and savory potato flavor. 

The method here is refreshingly simple. Stir together some tartar sauce, and then brush a separate portion of the base of that sauce (mayo, lemon, Dijon mustard, and cayenne) all over the halibut filets to serve as a tasty “glue” for the crushed chips. Roast the coated halibut filets in a hot, 450-degree oven for about 15 minutes and serve (with a simple green salad, if you like). That’s it. It’s soooo tasty. 

Sweet Chili Salmon with Cauliflower and Lime

Salmon is a full-flavored dish that takes well to myriad preparations. This particular preparation produces an outsized amount of flavor with very little work.

The key to this recipe is a simple spice mix—salt, pepper, and chili powder—that seasons both the cauliflower (which roasts at the same time as the salmon) and the salmon, which also gets a generous slather of honey to create a nice sweet-savory vibe here. The “hardest” part of this supper might be cutting a head of cauliflower into florets; some people find that easier to do with scissors than a knife. This recipe is simple and straightforward, but the flavor payoff is large.

Spicy Soy-Bourbon Shrimp

This is an easy recipe, trust me, but you do have to buy shell-on shrimp and peel them yourself. That’s because you make a simple shrimp stock/sauce by microwaving the peels with soy sauce, water, and bourbon. Then to that sauce you add a little sugar, cornstarch for thickening, and pepper flakes for a kick of heat. 

Cook the shrimp with some scallion whites in a skillet until the shrimp are just done, about 3 minutes, and pour the sauce over. Let the shrimp bubble in the sauce for about 3 minutes, scatter over scallion greens, and serve. That. Is. It. Who knew a delicious dish could be so easy?