Grilled Whole Fish | Food Wishes

Grilling a whole fish is much easier than grilling it in smaller pieces. Plus, I think a whole grilled fish tastes better, and makes for much more impressive presentation. I like to use branzino, which is a delicious, and relatively easy to find Mediterranean fish, but this simple method works with other whole fish as well. Enjoy!

For the fully formatted, printable, written recipe, follow this link: https://www.allrecipes.com/grilled-whole-fish-recipe-11742832

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[Music] hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with grilled whole fish that’s right i’ve always thought grilling a whole fish is much easier than trying to grill small pieces i also think it looks better tastes better and there’s much less of a chance that the meat falls through the grates which according to a recent madeup study is where 40% of America’s grilled fish ends up and to get started let’s mix up a very simple seasoned salt which will include some kosher salt some freshly ground black pepper some paprika some garlic powder and last but not least a few shakes of cayenne and that’s it we’ll take a freakishly small wooden spoon and we will give that a mix and then we’ll set that aside for now and we’ll move on to the fish and one of the keys to the operation is choosing the right hole fish which is why I’m recommending we use bronzeno which is easy to find it’s also the perfect shape and the perfect size and you want to be sure you tell your fish person to make sure it’s scaled and gutted and this one was oh and if they’re nice and fresh the eye should be nice and shiny and glistening and I’m trying to find the right angle to show you that and by the way that’s actually the same way you can tell if a chef is fresh and what we’ll do first is generously season the inside cavity with our seasoned salt and then besides that I also recommend we stuff the inside with some nice fresh herbs which can be a lot of things but this time I’m using fresh chive some terri some Italian parsley and finally some coriander flowers which is what you get when you let your cilantro plant go to seed but no matter what you use what we’ll do is kind of wad that up and stuff it into the cavity and besides providing flavor and a great aroma that’s also going to add some extra moisture to the inside although using this technique it’s actually not easy to dry out the fish which is why I like it so much but anyway once the inside is seasoned and packed with herbs we’ll go ahead and drizzle the outside with a little bit of olive oil and once that’s been rubbed over we will season the outside generously with our salt and spice mix oh and I highly recommend we do this on a piece of parchment paper and you’ll see why very soon and by the way be careful we should probably use a pastry brush for the olive oil since the gills and ends of the fins can be very sharp and you can actually cut or poke yourself so please don’t do that since I’ll get blamed and then once our fish is prepped we could head right to the grill and start cooking but what I’d rather do is sort of roll and wrap this up in the parchment paper and pop it in the fridge for about a half hour or so while we’re building a fire and getting our grill ready which is exactly why I like to do the seasoning on the parchment paper and like I said this is optional but it is nice to give those flavors time to mingle together and that’s it about 30 minutes later we’ll head to the grill and we will place this over a not too hot very mature charcoal fire all right we want those coals very ashy and the other key is to make sure you place that down perpendicular to the grates and not parallel to the grates since that’s going to make it a lot trickier to get your spatula under and what we’ll do is give that first side about four minutes or so which should be enough time for that skin to release from the metal so we want to be a little bit patient here and what we’ll do is give it a quick check to make sure it is in fact not sticking and then the best way to flip is to put our spatula right under the belly with our tongs on the other side bracing the fish and we will flip that over towards the backbone and because that’s rounded it should flip over quite easily and that’s it once that’s been repositioned we will let that second side cook for about four minutes oh and by the way if the entirety of the skin is black your fire was too hot so we want to be careful not to overdo it with the coals which we can always push to the sides and use more of an indirect heat and speaking of heat reduction usually about halfway through the second side cook I will pop on the lid with a vent open to create more of a roasting environment and to decrease the amount of oxygen getting to the coals but anyway at this point I’m going to uncover and after about four minutes per side we’ll give it a test and what I’m looking for is an internal temp of 135 in the thickest spot and this was a little bit under so I decided to flip it over and continue cooking and that’s it we’ll simply wait till this reaches our desired dness at which point we’ll carefully pull that off the grill and it’s probably easier if somebody holds the pan and you use two spatulas but I was alone so I used the pan to brace the fish and I was able to pick it up with no problem and I’m going to go ahead and transfer that onto a nice roasted potato and radish salad or at least that’s what I’m calling it and then before we serve I like to drizzle on another touch of olive oil just to shine things up and then we’ll do maybe one more sprinkling of our seasoned salt and that’s it i’m going to grab a fork and spoon and squeeze on a little bit of fresh lemon before I go ahead and tear in which I mean literally and if you cook this to the right temp and you followed our instructions that fish should flake off the bone beautifully yet still be nice and moist and not dry at all and I know a lot of you are going to peel that skin off but I hope you don’t okay sure it’s going to be a little easier to get the meat but that skin is so flavorful and if you eat this right off the grill it’s still going to be a little bit crisp and if you’ve never tried fish skin before this is definitely the time to try it and no you don’t have to eat like a primitive savage right on the platter all right that’s how Michelle and I always enjoy it but you can if you want slide those fillets off the bone and then plate up some nice big neater looking pieces and I’ll kind of show you that in a minute but take my word for it this method is much more fun but anyway you’ll have to decide i mean you are after all the naked and afraid of how this is played but either way you’re in for a big treat and once we’ve eaten all the meat off one side including that sweet cheek meat and also don’t forget to gnaw around the tail which is basically the chicken wing of grilled fish but anyway once that first side’s been enjoyed we can grab the backbone and we can pull that straight up all the way to the head which is going to leave us with pretty much a boneless second side which we can if we want cut in half and plate up as a whole piece although as I already admitted Michelle and I like to eat it right off the bone right on the platter in fact I have to thank her for this video’s rhyme since as we were eating that first half she said “This is just like Naked and Afraid except we’re clothed and not scared and drinking wine.” But whether you plate up or go full savage grilling up a whole fish is easy fun and delicious and we really do hope you give it a try soon so please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts a printable written recipe and much more info as usual and is always enjoy oh boy [Music]