Julia Child’s Filet Of Sole

Make Julia Child’s famous filet of sole with buttery lemon sauce, parsley and capers. This easy French sole meunière recipe is ready in just 20 minutes.

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🔎 A quick look at this recipe

⭐️ Why this recipe works

• 🐟 Simple ingredients let the delicate flavor of the sole shine. Butter, lemon and parsley are all this elegant fish needs.
• 🍋 A classic French sauce comes together in minutes. The buttery lemon sauce is rich, bright and perfect for spooning over every bite.
• ⏱ Ready in about 20 minutes. It’s a restaurant-worthy dinner that’s surprisingly quick enough for a weeknight.
• 👩‍🍳 Easy enough for beginner cooks. If you’ve never cooked fish before, this is a wonderfully forgiving recipe to start with.
• 🇫🇷 A true French classic. Julia Child famously fell in love with sole meunière during her first meal in France, and it’s easy to see why.
• 🍽 Elegant enough for company. This recipe looks and tastes impressive without requiring complicated techniques or hard-to-find ingredients.

If you’re looking for the best filet of sole recipe, this classic French dish is hard to beat. Julia Child’s famous sole meunière combines delicate sole fillets, butter, lemon, parsley and capers for an elegant seafood dinner that’s ready in only 20 minutes.

And so welcome to the recipe I have decided is the most perfect seafood recipe of all time, and as the story has it, the one that Julia Child created after she had one of her first glorious dinners in France.

If there was ever one recipe that changed someone’s life, this might be it. In 1948, Julia Child and her husband Paul arrived in France for the first time, and their very first meal was sole meunière at a restaurant in Rouen called La Couronne. Julia later described it as “the most exciting meal of my life.”

The delicate fish, browned butter, fresh lemon and simple French cooking completely captivated her, inspiring a lifelong love of French cuisine that eventually led to culinary school, her famous cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and a television career that introduced generations of Americans to French cooking.

Every time I make this recipe, I like to think about that unforgettable meal that started it all. 🇫🇷🐟

This classic French sole meunière recipe (also called filet of sole meunière) features delicate fish in a simple lemon butter sauce. It’s perfect for everything from a cozy date night to a special dinner party, bringing classic French flavor to the table in just 20 minutes.

It’s surprisingly simple to make at home and tastes like something from your favorite French restaurant.

There are very few ingredients involved, which lets the mild, sweet flavor of the sole remain the star. A light flour coating helps create a delicate golden crust without overwhelming the fish.

An easy lemon-butter sauce adds richness and brightness at the same time and capers give everything a salty, tangy flavor that balances the buttery sauce.

It’s the perfect easy elegant dinner, and here’s how it made its way to my kitchen!

One of the things the Southern husband and I actually love doing together is the weekly food shopping.  (I know. But we do!).  

I make up the menu for the week before we go, and each week the Southern husband gets to pick out one dinner that he is longing for me to make.

And one fateful weekend he picked out…filet of sole.  And I drew a blank in terms of what to do with it.  I’d never made filet of sole before, and couldn’t remember having had it at a restaurant….but I bought some and off we went.

When I got it home, I started searching for the best filet of sole recipes, and the same thing kept coming up, which is that Julia Child’s way of cooking sole was pretty much perfection.

So I hauled out my copy of The Way To Cook and after much paging around I found her recipe for Sole Meuniere, the classic French way of preparing filet of sole with butter, lemon, parsley and capers.

🧐 What is Sole Meunière?

Sole meunière is one of the most famous classic French fish dishes. The fish is lightly coated in flour, sautéed in butter until golden, then finished with fresh lemon juice, parsley and capers.

Julia Child helped make this simple recipe famous in America because it was inspired by that first unforgettable meal in France.

🐟 Ingredients you need

📝 Ingredient notes and substitutions

• Filet of Sole: Traditional sole meunière is often made with Dover sole, but any delicate white sole works beautifully. Dover sole can be tricky to find…you might get lucky at your grocery seafood counter, but your best bet is a seafood specialty store. And if you can’t find filet of sole you can substitute another mild white fish like cod or flounder.
• Capers: These salty little green buds are an explosion of savory flavor! You can find them in the condiments aisle of your super market.

💡 Ingredient substitution ideas

Missing something or want to swap in something different? Check out the links below to find more ingredient substitution ideas. 👇🏻

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities and nutritional information.

👩🏻‍🍳 Here’s how you make this recipe

STEP 1: Start by patting your fish dry and sprinkling your sole fillets with a little salt and pepper.

STEP 2: Dredge your filets in flour. I like to do this by putting the flour in a pie plate and ever so gently laying the fish in the flour, patting it on, and then turning it over.

STEP 3: Melt some butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Julia of course made clarified butter, but I just relied on my trusty Kerrygold. You pick the best butter you know for this special dish. Gently add your lightly floured sole fillets.

STEP 4: Cook the sole for two minutes per side. Flipping it over is the trickiest part because sole is so delicate – I use a super thin fish spatula, gently run it under the fish, say a tiny prayer and turn it over. Once it has cooked for two minutes on each side, place each filet on a dinner plate.

STEP 5: Now for the sauce! Add a little more butter to that same skillet, along with some fresh squeezed lemon juice and some chopped parsley.

Whisk it all up until the butter is melted…Julia famously loved butter, and she was right. I always add a few capers because the Southern husband loves capers, and I love him…and that is it!

Now all that’s left to do is spoon that buttery lemon sauce over the fish, scatter on the parsley and capers, and serve it right away while everything is warm and silky.

10 minutes of prep time, less than 10 minutes of cooking time and you have a gourmet seafood dinner on the table!

So with heartfelt admiration for the brilliant Julia Child (and if you don’t have The Way To Cook, it’s a must-have for your cookbook collection)… Bon appétit! 🇫🇷

🧐 Recipe FAQs

🍽️ Want to round out your meal?

I absolutely love asparagus with this recipe, especially this recipe for kind of fancy asparagus with parmesan bread crumbs. We also love some whipped cauliflower, and/or some carrots with thyme.

And since we are so far down the French food road, how about some mini chocolate croissants for dessert?

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Julia Child’s Filet Of Sole

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This simple recipe for Julia Child’s filet of sole pairs tender filet of sole with a lemony, butter sauce for the perfect seafood dinner.

• Author: Kate Morgan Jackson
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 20 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: French

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 4 boneless sole filets
• Salt and pepper
• ½ cup flour
• 8 tablespoons butter
• Juice from ½ lemon (cut the rest of the lemon into slices for garnish)
• ½ cup fresh chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons capers

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Instructions

1. Season the fish with salt and pepper on both sides.
2. Put the flour on a plate or a pie pan and press each filet lightly into the flour on both sides.
3. Put 4 tablespoons of the butter into a large skillet over medium high heat. When the butter is melted and foamy, add the filets and cook for 2 minutes.
4. Using a fish spatula or other large spatula, carefully turn the filets over. Don’t use tongs – sole filets are delicate and need to be turned with a spatula.  Cook for another 2 minutes and place each one on a serving plate.  Cover with foil to keep warm while you make the sauce.
5. Add the rest of the butter to the skillet, along with the lemon juice and half the parsley. Whisk until the butter is melted.
6. Drizzle the sauce generously over the filets, sprinkle on the capers and the rest of the parsley, add the lemon slices as a pretty garnish and serve!

Notes

Capers: These are little pickled tender seeds that add a slightly tart punch.  You can usually find them near the pickles or the condiments.

Fish Spatula: This is a super thin, long spatula that is one of my favorite kitchen tools!  I use it for everything from brownies to, well, fish!  Making this filet of sole recipe is a great reason to get one if you don’t have one already.

Skillet: You know I adore my cast iron one, but if you have a non-stick skillet this is the perfect time to use it.  Filet of sole is delicate and anything that helps flip it more easily is a winner.

Variations on this recipe

• 🐟 Try another delicate white fish. If you can’t find sole, flounder, Dover sole, petrale sole, or even thin tilapia fillets all work beautifully with the classic lemon butter sauce.
• 🌿 Add fresh herbs. Sprinkle the finished dish with chopped chives, dill or tarragon for another layer of fresh flavor.
• 🧄 Add a little garlic. Sauté a minced garlic clove in the butter for about 30 seconds before adding the lemon juice for a subtle garlic butter sauce.
• 🍷 Splash in some white wine. Add a few tablespoons of dry white wine to the pan and let it simmer for a minute before stirring in the butter for an even more French-inspired sauce.
• 🟢 Skip the capers. If capers aren’t your thing, simply leave them out. The buttery lemon sauce is just as delicious without them.
• 🦐 Make it seafood night. Add a handful of cooked shrimp to the pan during the last minute of cooking for an elegant surf-and-surf dinner.
• 🌶️ Give it a little kick. A pinch of red pepper flakes adds gentle warmth without overpowering the delicate fish.
• 🧈 Brown the butter. Let the butter cook for an extra minute until it’s lightly golden and nutty before adding the lemon juice for an even richer sauce.
• 🍊 Try a citrus twist. Swap half of the lemon juice with orange juice for a slightly sweeter variation that’s especially nice in the winter.
• 🧀 Finish with Parmesan. A light sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan over the finished fish adds a savory touch that’s surprisingly delicious.

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