This recipe would probably work for many of the thin white fishes. Unfortunately, ocean perch curls up and makes for a poor presentation, along with not crisping up at all effectively. Dover sole fillets tend to be very tender, and fine-fleshed. Count on one and a half, or possibly two, per serving.
I served mine with a simple watercress salad – my salad topped by a splash of extra virgin olive oil, and a dash of lemon, as I was interested in letting the tangy watercress dominate. Other salads can handle a robust vinaigrette if you choose.

Deliciously light and easy.
Typically, one makes this sort of recipe using a dusting of (wheat) flour on the fish, but in the interests of gluten-free experimentation, I chose to use rice flour. Rice flour works well!
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 6 minutes max
Rest Time: unnecessary
Serves: 2
Pan Fried Dover Sole
- 3 Dover sole fillets, rinse pat dry with a paper towel.
- 1 tablespoon butter or ghee, one tablespoon cooking oil (ie avocado).
- 1/4 – 1/3 cup of rice flour
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 slices of lemon
Use a 12 inch / large skillet. Otherwise you will have to do as I did, and cook in divided batches. For ease of manipulation, I’d cut any larger fillets in two. (This will also yield 1.5 fillets per person.)
Heat the butter and oil in your skillet until it shows ripples, and sizzles upon the addition of a drop of water, medium/medium high.
Place the flour and ground pepper in a large bowl or on a large plate, and mix with a fork.
Take the dried fillets and coat them in the flour. This will be a thin, fine coat, it should not be thick.
Place fillets in the sizzling pan, sprinkle on half the thyme
Allow to cook on one side for 2.5 -3.0 minutes.
Flip gently with a spatula, and sprinkle on the rest of the thyme.
Cook for another 2.5 minutes and plate. The fillets should be lightly golden, although sometimes a first batch will be less golden. The heat will have been high enough that the fillets should not be greasy, and it will have a light, but not heavy, crispiness to it.
Provide a lemon slice or wedge per plate… lemon should not be added except by the person dining, in order to keep the crust to a level of crispness. A light drizzle as you go suffices.

Enjoyed! (Which I hope I did as I went through about four iterations before I got this right for blogging about!)
Serve and savor! Makes a great weekend lunch for two.
And don’t forget to visit this week’s Fiesta Friday link party. Co-hosts this time are Sarah and Liz.
this looks so good! I’ve actually never cooked sole before, but I need to give it a try 🙂
I was wondering if you were on FB at all? It would be amazing if you could share your recipe in our group, would love for you to join our community of food lovers! Check us out here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OnlyGoodEats/
I’ll check out your group on FB later this weekend, and thanks for the invite.
sounds so awesome! Let me know when you join the community 🙂
This looks delicious and alarmingly easy 🙂 I love the use of rice flour making it gluten free and the watercress look like a perfect pairing. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I just love the fresh springtime flavor of watercress. It did work very well with the sole.
I keep forgetting about rice flour, it would make a nice crisp coating. Thank you! I am putting this on the menu for next week. I also look forward to reading more adventures of the “future you”. This is a wonderful dish for FF.
Thanks! And indeed the “future me” is looking forward to the first meal I can cook in my soon to be not so future any more home! (I’ll be posting that meal here, whatever it is.)
I look forward to reading it!
Watercress is wonderful! A great dish and Dover sole is always a treat, a lovely combination 🙂
And watercress feels so SPRING-like to me… (Well, it looks like we’re going to get socked in with over a foot of snow on Tuesday, so maybe this is wishful thinking, eh?)
It absolutely has a taste of spring! A foot of snow? We are due a week of warm weather and sunshine, I am ready for some warm weather! I am sure it will come to you very soon! 🙂
This is so my simple yet very flavourful fish dish. Yum Yum Yum!
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