Fish, in my humble opinion, is greatly overlooked and under-rated when it comes to cooking meals on the grill.

If people get hungry for fish, they usually don’t think twice about frying up some “Fry Daddy Fish” or heating up some fresh or frozen “Easy Bake”  fish sticks, or whatever, in the oven.

But sometimes if the words “fish” and “grill” are mentioned together in the same sentence, (let alone as an oxymoron)  you may just be looked upon at that moment as have instantly grown a third eyeball.

It’s not as if grilled fish is something you would eat only in a never- before heard of  foreign land.  Quite the contrary.  Restaurants do it all the time.   So, what’s the deal?

The Fish Sticks To The Grill!

…and what a mess!  It looks good, smells great, you may have even managed to turn it once, but now it is stuck and flaking apart and falling down between the grates and  @*&$%@*&$!!    Bring Out Some Hot Dogs!!

The Problem With Grilling Fish…

I have had a lot of people ask me about grilling fish, and the predominate question is almost always:  “How do you keep it from sticking to the grill?”

Even if you have a brand- spanking new grate, your fish will stick to it.   Not maybe,  not probably  it will stick to it,   it will stick to it.

You have seen Emeril and the gang do it a million times.  You have ordered it a bunch of times  in a restaurant.  Those people can grill picture-perfect fish every stinkin’ time –you know, those awesome grill marks?–but when you try it…?

The secret lies within the seasoning.   Not the kind of seasoning you shake from a spice jar–I’m talking about the seasoning on the grate itself.

If you want the secret to restaurant-quality grilled fish, then you have come to the right place!

Fat Jon’s Fool-Proof Grilled Fish Method…

Like I said-even if your grate is new, or even if it is in great shape, it just has to be clean.  Spotless clean.  If your grate is decomposed beyond recognition then you must replace it before grilling fish.  This Ancient Chinese Secret assumes you have a reasonably- normal food grate in your grill.

Light your burners and turn them on high.

Char-coalers:  get a hot fire burning.

Both:   (Once the fire is going and you have your fish ready to go)  Put a single piece of foil down covering the grate.  Close the lid for a full 5 (five) minutes. 

While you are waiting soak a rag or a wad of paper towel with cooking oil.

What is going on here is the same thing a that goes on with a self-cleaning oven.  The foil actually super heats the baked-on crud stuck to the grate and loosens everything up.

All you need to do after five minutes is remove the foil, turn the burners down to medium-high (Char-coalers:  close the intakes down a little bit) and brush the grate down real good with a grill brush.

Now take that wad of paper towel or rag and coat the grate with oil. (Use tongs! -duh-)

Close the lid and wait for a full two minutes.

Repeat.

Repeat again.

After the third time, go ahead and throw your fish on.

How Does This Work?

In a restaurant, the grill or skillet is used over and over again so nothing can stick to it.  By alternating layers of oil and heat you are effectively building up the layers , or seasonining on the grates needed to prevent sticking.

And, most grilled fish recipes use oil as a base so your fish should be stick-free.

Layers of seasoning.  Oil-based recipes.   That’s the secret!

Now go.    Grill.