- 2 days ago
Chef and pitmaster Matt Abdoo joins Epicurious to break down everything you need to know about grilling perfect salmon. Learn how to prevent salmon from sticking to the grill, achieve irresistibly crispy skin, cook it to the perfect temperature, and finish it with a simple honey glaze.
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00:00I'm Matt Adbu, chef and pit master.
00:02Today, we're firing up the grills to teach you guys
00:03how to make perfect and simple grilled salmon
00:06so you'll never have to worry about that salmon
00:08falling apart on your grill ever again.
00:10We're gonna show you that crispy skin
00:11and finishing it with an amazing honey glaze
00:14that's gonna pair so well with that salmon flavor.
00:16This is Grillin' 101.
00:21Grilling fish is something that everyone
00:23gets really intimidated about.
00:25It's sticking, it's falling apart,
00:26and you're making an absolute mess.
00:28You might even have the same issue
00:29when you're cooking it in a pan at home.
00:31Salmon is great for grilling
00:32because it's a really oily fish,
00:33and that oil helps prevent the fish from sticking
00:36if we do it the right way.
00:37It's also probably the most iconic fish
00:39that's on the market.
00:39There's so many different types of salmon
00:41that are out there, from wild salmon to farm-raised salmon.
00:43Today, we have some farm-raised Chilean salmon, skin on.
00:47It's about a six-ounce filet.
00:49I think that's a perfect portion size for your dinner.
00:51We left most of the belly meat off,
00:53so it's a uniform thickness as best as we can be
00:56with a piece of fish, so it's all gonna cook even.
00:58If you have the belly meat on,
00:59it's a little bit thinner,
01:00that part might be a little bit more cooked
01:01than the center of the fish.
01:03Still no problem.
01:04It's all gonna eat delicious.
01:05Things we're looking for
01:06when we're trying to select our fish.
01:07You want it to have a nice color.
01:09It should have good firmness to it.
01:11If it's mushy, it's not gonna be good.
01:13Fresh fish should smell like the seawater.
01:15It should smell bright and vibrant and flavorful.
01:17Anything in the category of grouper, snap, or a bass,
01:19you can cook it up in exactly the same way
01:21with leaving the skin on, doing the same procedure.
01:23The biggest takeaway, guys,
01:25is that once it goes to those grill grates,
01:26you don't want to fuss with it.
01:28You don't want to fidget with it.
01:29You don't want to move it around.
01:30You want to let it cook
01:31because that skin's gonna tell you
01:32when it's ready to release.
01:33First things first, let's get our salmon oiled.
01:36This simple step of adding a little bit of oil
01:38to that skin is really gonna help that skin
01:40not stick to the grates.
01:42I have a little brush,
01:43and we're just gonna brush the skin side
01:45with a light layer of this olive oil.
01:48This could be vegetable oil.
01:49It could be avocado oil.
01:51I just love olive oil.
01:52I'm an olive oil guy.
01:53Cooking it with the skin on,
01:55it really helps make that fish not stick to the grill,
01:58and it also insulates the inside of the meat.
02:00Now let's season it up.
02:01The biggest difference between professional chefs
02:03and at-home cooks is we season aggressively.
02:06And when we are seasoning,
02:07always season from up high
02:08so that the seasoning, the salt and pepper,
02:11rains down onto that piece of meat
02:12as if it was falling from heaven
02:13to give it a perfectly even layer of seasoning on that fish.
02:16Now we're gonna flip it,
02:18and we're gonna do the same thing to the top side of the meat.
02:21It also kind of helps add as like a little adhesive
02:23for that salt and pepper to stick to.
02:25Let's season the top side,
02:26and then it's gonna be time to preheat our grill.
02:32Make sure that the grill top, the lid is open
02:35before we're lighting the grill.
02:36We're gonna put it onto medium heat.
02:38I don't need any sort of zone cooking for this.
02:40I just need even, consistent, medium heat
02:43to cook that skin so it'll slowly get nice and crispy
02:45while cooking up from the bottom
02:47to perfectly cook that salmon to that juicy interior.
02:50Now that our grill is lit, we'll close the lid,
02:52we'll let it get preheated,
02:53and we'll get ready to get cooking.
02:58Our grill is finally at at 375 to 400 degrees zone.
03:02We're gonna put the salmon skin side down for a few reasons.
03:04First, the skin's gonna help act as a natural barrier
03:07to prevent the salmon from sticking to the grill.
03:09It's also gonna help insulate it as it slowly cooks
03:12from the bottom up to get that perfect juicy interior.
03:14We should hear a nice sizzle.
03:17That means our grill is nice and hot.
03:19But we're not seeing big flare-ups or big smoke happening,
03:22which would indicate the grill is too, too hot
03:24for cooking salmon.
03:25It's gonna be about eight to 10 minutes to slowly cook.
03:28Now here's a trick.
03:29Don't move it.
03:29Don't touch it.
03:30Don't fuss with it.
03:31Just let it sit.
03:32That medium heat is gonna let it slowly cook
03:35from the skin side up.
03:36And as it's slowly cooking,
03:37that skin's gonna get nice and crispy,
03:39and the salmon's gonna be cooked perfectly inside.
03:41While I'm cooking my salmon,
03:43I wanna have something fun to go with it.
03:44And I love the flavor of some charred scallions
03:47or green onions.
03:48Here we have some traditional scallions
03:50that you can find at your local grocery store.
03:52You can see they're super consistent in size.
03:54They're all about the same shape.
03:55To prepare them,
03:56simply just a little bit of olive oil.
03:58I don't want a lot here.
03:59I don't want this to flare up on the grill
04:01and create those fires or those flares.
04:04And now we're just gonna season them
04:05with some salt and pepper.
04:07And that's all it takes.
04:08They're gonna go right to the other side of the grill.
04:10That's also set at medium.
04:11It's gonna cook in about the same amount of time
04:13as the salmon does.
04:14I put the scallions on an angle on the grill
04:16just because that's kind of how I like them
04:18to visually look in my brain.
04:19The only reason I'm not putting them perfectly perpendicular
04:21and up and down
04:22is I don't want them to potentially fall through those grates.
04:24So always just have them going across the grates
04:26at an angle or perfectly across.
04:28And now we're gonna close the lid
04:29and we're gonna let the magic happen.
04:31The salmon and the onions have been cooking
04:32for around seven, seven and a half minutes.
04:34Let's take a look.
04:35With the lid being closed,
04:36that salmon's cooking from the top and the bottom.
04:39And you can start to see
04:40it's starting to get that opaque color.
04:42The next thing I'm gonna check
04:43is just to see if the skin's gonna release from the grill.
04:46This is the important part.
04:47And if we've done everything correctly,
04:48it should release with no problem.
04:49And we're just gonna take it and turn it.
04:51And look at that.
04:53Perfect.
04:54That skin.
04:54Oh, it's crispy already.
04:56It's releasing no problem whatsoever.
04:57So now we're gonna take our digital
04:59instantly thermometer.
05:00We're looking for around that 125 mark.
05:03So when we glaze it with honey,
05:04it'll come up to 130.
05:05That's the perfect time that we wanna glaze it up.
05:08Now we're gonna take our honey.
05:10We're gonna just take a brush
05:12and just glaze on a little bit of honey
05:14to the top side of that salmon.
05:16That little sweetness from the honey,
05:18it really just makes that flavor of the salmon shine.
05:20It's gonna create that nice, shiny,
05:24slightly sweet glaze.
05:26The biggest thing though, guys,
05:27whenever we're glazing anything on the grill,
05:29we always wanna do it at the end.
05:31We don't want the sugars to burn
05:34and create a hot, sticky mess on our grill.
05:36Now that our salmon's glazed with that honey,
05:38the last thing I'm gonna do
05:38is I'm gonna give our scallions
05:39that are nice and charred up a quick flip.
05:41We're gonna close this grill lid in one minute,
05:43and we're gonna be ready to serve.
05:45Minute goes by fast,
05:46so make sure you're staying by the grill
05:47when it comes to this time.
05:48So let's lift up the lid.
05:49You can see how that honey's made a nice,
05:51cool, even chin on the top side of that salmon.
05:53We're gonna take our scallions off the grill.
05:55I'm gonna set them right on the platter just like this.
05:58Our salmon is perfectly cooked.
05:59It's time to take it off the grill using our fish spatula.
06:02And guys, I can't emphasize enough,
06:04we didn't move it.
06:05Outside of me turning it to show you the skin,
06:07we haven't moved this fish.
06:09It's perfect.
06:09It's releasing super easy.
06:11It's not sticking.
06:12The skin's gotten crispy.
06:13I'm gonna garnish it with a couple lemon wedges.
06:17Simple, perfectly, easily cooked salmon
06:19that lifted right off those grill grates
06:21without sticking at all.
06:22Charged scallions or green onions going with it
06:24with these gorgeous little lemon cheeks
06:26that are served on the side.
06:27You can see it's got that nice, sticky glaze of that honey,
06:30and you turn it slightly,
06:31and it's that soft, juicy interior of the salmon.
06:34This is gonna be a perfect bite.
06:35Let's go.
06:40Juicy, succulent,
06:41that light bit of sweetness from the honey,
06:43it really just brings all the flavor together
06:45so perfectly.
06:47Clean grill grates, skin side down the entire way,
06:50and every time you're gonna have perfectly cooked salmon
06:54with crispy skin.
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