Whole grilled fish is one of my favorite ways to eat fish because you get a nice smokey flavor, crispy skin, and moist and tender pieces of fish that you can customize based on your preference. This recipe will give you a good starting point on how to prep your fish and what flavors and herbs to add.
Grilling fish over a fire or coals is easy because all you need to do is pick your fish (have the fishmongers clean it up at the store), pick your herbs and flavor infusers, stuff your fish, and grill over a bbq.
Types of fish that are great grilled
Some of my favorite places to eat grilled fish are California Fish Grill and my favorite Thai restaurant in Orange County, Thai Nakorn. I’ve ordered it plenty of times in the past, but it wasn’t until a camping trip when I figured out how easy and convenient it was to make this dish.
At many restaurants, you can typically get various types of whitefish (like halibut or mahi-mahi) or catfish, but don’t let that stop you when you make it at home. I’ve grilled salmon, rainbow trout, mackerel, branzino, and other types of fish in the past.
My favorite type of fish to grill is rainbow trout because it’s a little on the fatty side, inexpensive, and doesn’t have a crazy amount of bones like branzino. You want to stick with fish varieties that are more firm and sturdy like trout and salmon.
Seasoning and stuffing the fish
For this bbq fish recipe, I used a variety of different herbs and spices I had at home. I like to prep my fish by cutting about 3-4 slits (depending on the size of the fish) on each side to make room for lemon wedges and other ingredients. This makes sure that the fish meat is fully infused with flavor.
Here are some of my favorites to add to this fish:
- lemon wedges
- minced garlic
- scallions
- shallots
- rosemary
- parsley
- leeks
- salt and pepper
You can easily customize this based on your preference too. For example, you can add red onions, butter slices, chile peppers or sliced jalapenos, limes, basil, sage, dill, ginger, paprika, and more. The list of what you can add seems endless, which makes it so much fun!
How long to grill the fish
If you’ve never done it before, grilling fish might seem like a daunting task. To learn how to cook fish on the grill, follow these tips below:
- Thoroughly clean your grill grates and oil them before cooking the fish. This will help prevent skin from sticking too much on the grates.
- Don’t forget to also oil your fish
- The USDA recommends hitting an internal temp of 145 °F so this is what we’re going for. When taking temperature measurements, go for the thickest part of the fish.
- Whole fish directly on the grill: Place the fish directly onto the grill and sit tight (don’t try to move the fish around before it crisps and cooks or you’ll end up breaking the skin). Each side takes about 6-8 minutes with the lid covering the bbq. Once the first side crisps and is easier to lift, you can carefully turn it over. Once the whole fish registers with an internal temperature of about 145 °F or the meat is firm and opaque, then it’s finished.
- Whole fish in foil: Wrap the fish with foil and place it onto the grill. Each side takes about 6-8 minutes with the lid covering the bbq. After about 7 minutes, carefully turn it over. Slightly open the packet and use an instant-read thermometer to check the fish. Once the whole fish registers with an internal temperature of about 145 °F or the meat is firm and opaque, then it’s finished.
Grilling fish on coals vs gas grill
For this recipe, you can grill the fish on a gas grill or over coals, but if you want a charcoal flavor infused into your fish, then coals are the way to go. If you need any tips on how to start a charcoal grill, read all about them here.
Should you grill in foil or uncovered?
If you are worried about having the fish stick to the grills and for whatever reason don’t trust oiling the grills, you can wrap the fish in foil. However, this will not give you as much of a smoky flavor or crisp texture on the skin as directly cooking over the grills. This is why I prefer grilling uncovered.
Wrapping the fish in foil will give more of a steamed texture, which is also good. But it’s also something you can achieve in a foil pouch in the oven with no real need to be grilling it except if you’re going to be hanging in your backyard, or on a camping trip anyway.
How to serve and store
I like serving bbq fish with a side of rice, garlic noodles, veggie kabobs, grilled clams, crab cakes and sauce, a nice refreshing beer, and raw shucked oysters. (If you want to learn how to shuck oysters at home, read about it here.) It’s best served fresh off the grill, but if you have extra fish you can keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Grilled Whole Fish Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lb rainbow trout or other whole fish
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1 lemon sliced thinly and cut into wedges
- 1 leek sliced into ⅛ inch rounds
- 1 scallion cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 shallot cut into thin slices
- 2 rosemary sprigs
- 4 stalks parsley
- vegetable oil
Equipment Used
- Knife & cutting board
- toothpicks, soaked in water for 5 minutes
- grill (charcoal or gas)
- tongs or spatula
Instructions
Preparing fish
- As you choose your fish, pick fresh fish on ice at your grocery store. Choose fish with clear eyes (fish that have cloudy eyes are less fresh). If you can smell the fish, it should smell like the sea and not fishy. Have the fishmonger clean the fish, also removing the gills and tail.
- Dry your fish with paper towels and use a knife to cut 3 slits on each side of the fish. Each slit is about 1 inch deep.
- Add salt and pepper all over the fish (on the skin, slits, and inside of the cavity).
- Add minced garlic in the cavity and the slits.
- Add the lemon wedges and green onions in each of the slits and the cavity.
- Finish stuffing the fish with leeks, scallions, shallots, rosemary, and parsley.
- Use the soaked toothpicks to keep the stuffing inside the cavity.
- Add a generous amount of vegetable oil all around the fish.
Grilling
- Heat your charcoal. I like to use natural chunk charcoal and fill about 50-60% of my chimney starter. This fills about 40-50% of my small charcoal grill with about 2-3 inches distance from coals to the fish.
- Once your coals have a nice white coat from heating up, they’re ready to pour onto the grill. If the coals aren’t covered in white yet, they may not get hot enough on the grill and if you heat them for too long before pouring out, their life is shortened. Cover the grill for a few minutes so it warms up.
- Scrub the grill grates on the top and bottom with a metal grill cleaner.
- Whole fish directly on the grill: Place the fish directly onto the grill and sit tight (don’t try to move the fish around before it crisps and cooks or you’ll end up breaking the skin). Each side takes about 6-8 minutes with the lid covering the bbq. Once the first side crisps and is easier to lift, you can carefully turn it over. Once the whole fish registers with an internal temperature of about 145°F or the meat is firm and opaque, then it’s finished. Whole fish in foil: Wrap the fish with foil and place it onto the grill. Each side takes about 6-8 minutes with the lid covering the bbq. After about 7 minutes, carefully turn it over. Slightly open the packet and use a thermometer to check the fish. Once the whole fish registers with an internal temperature of about 145°F or the meat is firm and opaque, then it’s finished.
- Serve the fish fresh off the grill with some rice and garlic noodles.
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