This Grilled Croaker Fish is very juicy and filled with many herbs and spices. Well marinated, super easy to make, and ready in 30 minutes. This is for you if you love whole fish to suck on those bones.
Grilling fish in foil is one of the best ways to ensure a juicy, well-cooked fish, and the foil traps in all the flavors making it succulent. Also, it avoids splashes making cleaning up very easy.
Important tips.
- Choosing the right fish: When choosing the right fish to grill, look for meaty fish with eyes on each side of the head like red snapper, mackerel, tilapia, croaker, trout, and many more.
- Scale, gut, and wash: This is the part that many people are scared of, tell your fishmonger to do it or buy already scaled and gutted fish. Just make sure to rinse again before cooking.
- Pat dry: Make sure you pat dry with a paper towel to get rid of water or excess moisture.
- Score and marinate: Make deep cuts on both sides of the fish and marinade deep inside the cuts. Stuff the belly of the fish with fresh herbs and lemon slices for extra flavor.
- Cook to Perfection: Check doneness in the thickest part of the fish. The flesh should easily pull off from the bones, flaky, firm, and opaque.
In this recipe, I used the yellow croaker. Any croaker works, even the Atlantic croaker.
Can I use fish fillets for the same recipe?
Yes, you can. Place lemon slices or lemon juice and herbs on top of the fillets before wrapping the foil. Fillets require lesser baking time.
Ingredients to use:
- Whole fish
- Peppers
- Ginger and Garlic
- Salt and seasoning powder
- Fresh herbs
- Onions
- Spices
Grilled or baked fish can be served with roasted vegetables, potatoes, rice, and many more.
How to store leftovers:
Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days and freeze for up to 3 weeks.
This recipe has a lot of positive feedback on youtube. Check it out
Grilled Whole Fish in Foil
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 whole Fish scaled and gutted
- ½ thumpsize Ginger
- 4 Garlic cloves
- ¼ Onion
- 2 Mini peppers or ½ bell pepper
- 2 Green onion
- 2-4 sprigs Cilantro
- 1 tsp Seasoning powder or bouillon
- ½ tsp Blackpepper
- ¼ tsp Whitepepper
- 1 tsp Chilli Flakes optional
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 tsp Thyme dried
- ¼ Cup of Cooking oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- In a blender, blend the onions, ginger, garlic, peppers, some green onion, and some cilantro until smooth. Save some green onion and cilantro to stuff the belly.
- Add the blended mix to a saucepan, and add the salt, seasoning powder, thyme, black pepper, paprika, white pepper, and oil. Stir with a spoon till well combined.
- Let it simmer on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes till some of the water dries or the oil floats. Set it aside so it cools.
- Spread an aluminum foil on the working surface and place the fish on top. Pat dry the fish to get rid of any moisture or water.
- Using a knife, score the fish by making deep cuts of 1 inch apart down to the bone. Pat dry again.
- Now apply the cooked marinade on both sides of the fish and belly using a brush or hands. NOTE: At this point, the marinade might still be hot, if you can't handle the heat, use a brush or spoon to apply the marinade.
- Put the remaining green onion and cilantro in the belly of the fish.
- Wrap the foil well and place inside a preheated oven.
- Let it grill at 400°F for 15- 20 minutes depending on how large and thick your fish is.
- Remove from the oven, and open carefully because the heat might cause burns. You can serve it right away or if you want it to have a charred look, put it in the oven again "open" for 3-5 minutes at 400°F.
- Remove from the oven and serve with the remaining marinade as a dip and your choice of side.
Video
Nutrition
AMAZING
Thank you
This was my first time cooking a whole fish. The dipping was very spicy be aise I added too much Chili flakes by error (double the recipe). I still loved it and kept the rest of it for my tomato sauce. My man is Italian and always adds spicy peppers in in his pasta. So it worked out just great. Thank you and I look forward in trying your other recipes.
Thank you so much for the feedback. More amazing recipes coming.