Barbecued Side of Salmon
ByPublished on June 15, 2022
Yield
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
Before You Begin
The cooking grate must be hot and thoroughly clean before you place the salmon on it; otherwise, the fish might stick. Use the back of a large rimmed baking sheet to get the fish onto the grill. If you'd like to use wood chunks instead of wood chips when using a charcoal grill, substitute 2 medium wood chunks, soaked in water for 1 hour, for the wood chip packet.
Instructions
- Dissolve sugar and salt in 7 cups cold water in 1-gallon zipper-lock bag. Add salmon, seal bag, and refrigerate for 3 hours. Remove salmon from brine, pat dry with paper towels, and rub thoroughly with oil. Lay salmon skin side down on the back of a rimmed baking sheet and season top and sides with paprika and pepper.
- Just before grilling, soak wood chips in water for 15 minutes, then drain. Using large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, wrap chips in 8 by 4½-inch foil packet. (Make sure chips do not poke holes in sides or bottom of packet.) Cut 2 evenly spaced 2-inch slits in top of packet.
- FOR A CHARCOAL GRILL: Open bottom grill vent halfway. Light large chimney starter half filled with charcoal briquettes (3 quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour evenly over half of grill. Place wood chip packet on coals. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent halfway. Heat grill until hot and wood chips are smoking, about 5 minutes.
FOR A GAS GRILL: Remove cooking grate and place wood chip packet directly on primary burner. Set cooking grate in place, turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot and wood chips are smoking, about 15 minutes. Leave primary burner on medium and turn off other burner(s). (Adjust primary burner as needed to maintain grill temperature around 275 degrees.) - Clean cooking grate, then repeatedly brush grate with well-oiled paper towels until black and glossy, 5 to 10 times. Gently slide salmon from baking sheet onto cooler side of grill, skin-side down and perpendicular to grate bars. Cover (position lid vent over fish if using charcoal) and cook until heavily flavored with smoke, about 1½ hours.
- Using 2 spatulas, gently remove salmon from grill. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Yield
Serves 4 to 6Ingredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
Store-bought smoked salmon is inconsistent in quality and also incredibly expensive. We wanted to create an easy recipe for moist (but not too moist), nicely crusted salmon with a hint of smoked flavor—that could be achieved in just 2 hours. Surprisingly, impatience turned out to be the key to our success. Instead of the traditional cold-smoking technique, which keeps the salmon moist but lacks flavor, we developed a “hot-smoked” method, and kept the salmon moist by brining. We achieved full smoked salmon flavor on the grill using a whole side of salmon. To get a firm but not overly dry texture, complemented by a strong hit of smoke and wood, we slow-cooked the salmon with wood chips or chunks for more than an hour over a half-grill fire, but kept the fish on the cooler part of the grill the whole time. Using two spatulas to transfer the cooked fish from the grill prevented it from falling apart, and cutting through the pink flesh, not the skin, to divide individual portions kept the meat intact while leaving the skin behind.
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