How To Grill Snook To Perfection [VIDEO]

Thanks, Luke, for another great video. As usual, I have a few comments and suggestions. First, a lot of people like to grill fish with the skin on to help keep it from falling apart. Don’t do this with snook. The skin has a strong, unpleasant odor and flavor. In fact, some old Florida crackers used to call them “soapfish” for this reason. Skinless snook fillets hold together fine on the grill if they aren’t too thin.

Not really important, but I like a nice cross-hatch grill mark on mine and always rotate them a quarter turn once they begin to sear (a couple of minutes). It’s not necessary to cross-hatch the second side and I don’t recommend doing it because once the fish is nearly done, it’s more likely to fall apart if you handle it too much. When removing from the grill, Just flip the fish so the cross-hatching faces up on the serving platter. If using chimichurri (see below), drizzle a little over the fillets before serving and put additional chimichurri on the table.

As for your remark about fishy tasting fish, fresh fish should never smell or taste fishy. If it does, it’s not fresh or hasn’t been handled or stored properly. If it’s only slightly fishy, you can improve it by soaking it a minute or two in a couple of cups of cold water mixed with the juice of a lemon or lime but don’t exceed that. If the juice is too strong or you leave it too long, you’ll turn it into ceviche.

I agree with Troy about traditional Mexican and other Latin American recipes. I’ve lived in Costa Rica for the past 15 years and most of my recipes have been adapted for a little Latin flare. One of my favorite seasonings for both meat and seafood is chimichurri sauce. If you’ve ever eaten in an Argentinian or Brazilian steakhouse, chimichurri is the garlicky green sauce that looks like pesto which they always serve with their steaks. It’s fantastic with grilled beef, pork, chicken and seafood. I use it both as a marinade and as a finishing sauce. It would be great with grilled snook. No additional olive oil or other seasonings are needed. Just dip the fillets in chimichurri before grilling or, even better, place them in a Ziplock bag with chimichurri and marinate them for 15 to 30 minutes. You’ll love it!

Chimichurri Sauce:
2 cups packed fresh parsley leaves (preferably flat leaf Italian but regular curly leaf is fine))
4 or 5 medium garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1/4 cup packed fresh oregano leaves (or 1 tablespoon dried oregano)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Optional:
1. Substitute fresh cilantro for up to a third of the parsley.
2. Substitute one or two tablespoons of lemon or lime juice for an equivalent amount of vinegar.
3. Substitute fresh jalapenos or hot sauce for the red pepper flakes or leave out the heat altogether. In Central and South America they don’t generally add any picante (hot seasoning), which is really more of a Mexican/Tex Mex style. It isn’t traditional in most other parts of Latin America and I don’t add any picante to mine.
4. Substitute one or two teaspoons of Badia Sazon Completa (Complete Seasoning) for the salt, black pepper and oregano. You can find it in the Latin foods section of most supermarkets and it’s one of my favorite “go to” seasonings for all meat, seafood and frijoles. Sazon completa has become a “secret” ingredient for many professional chefs in North America. They use it instead of other seasoned salts and spice blends in many recipes, not just Latin food.

Directions:
Give the ingredients a rough chop then place them all into a food processor or blender and pulse until finely chopped and blended but not pureed. It should have some texture to it. If possible, prepare it ahead of time and leave it at room temperature for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. Store unrefrigerated for several days or refrigerated for several weeks. Serve at room temperature. I always have homemade chimichurri on hand and use it several times a week.