Grilled Catfish Skewers
Tender, juicy, zesty — the tastiest around! Grilled catfish skewers come out beautifully soft and fragrant. The marinade takes just minutes to put together from the most everyday ingredients. This recipe is a keeper for grilling season, to shake up your usual meat menu.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
How do you make grilled catfish skewers? Gather your ingredients. Boneless catfish fillet is best; if you have a whole fish, fillet it yourself. You can swap the olive oil for any vegetable oil.
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Step 2:
Rinse the fish, pat it dry, and remove any remaining bones. Cut it into medium pieces — too large and they'll burn, too small and they'll dry out.
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Step 3:
Make the marinade. Rinse the lemon under hot water — it yields the most juice that way; you can also roll it firmly on the counter a few times for the same effect. Squeeze out the juice, keeping the seeds out. Stir the lemon juice together with the soy sauce and olive oil until smooth. The marinade is ready. If you like, add any herbs, spices, or onion or garlic to taste.
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Step 4:
Pour the marinade over the fish pieces and let them sit for 1–3 hours. The soy sauce provides plenty of salt, so we won't season the skewers separately.
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Step 5:
While the fish marinates, light the wood in your grill and let it burn down to coals. For grilling, I recommend good-quality wood — birch is best.
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Step 6:
Thread the fish pieces onto skewers and set them over the coals to grill. You can also use a grill grate instead — go with whatever you have on hand.
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Step 7:
Catfish cooks very quickly. Grill for 2–3 minutes on one side, then turn the skewers to the other side. All told, it takes about 20–25 minutes.
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Step 8:
Serve the finished catfish skewers with fresh herbs and seasonal vegetables. Enjoy!
- Catfish isn't the most popular fish, but it's remarkably tasty and good for you. It has more omega-3 fatty acids than most other fish. It's not as oily as salmon or mackerel, yet it still turns out anything but dry — very juicy, in fact. Worth noting, too: this marinade is versatile and works well with other kinds of fish.
- For this recipe, use fresh fish rather than frozen, or the finished dish risks coming out dry.
- How do you fillet a whole fish? Remove the tail, head, and fins, then cut down along the backbone. Turn it on its side and slice the flesh away from the backbone with a sharp knife. Flip the fish and cut the fillet from the other side. Clean the inside, removing the black membrane — it's bitter and will ruin the flavor. Rinse and be sure to pat it thoroughly dry.
- When adding soy sauce to a dish, keep in mind that it's quite salty. Cut back on the total salt, or you risk over-salting.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Soy sauce - 51 kcal/100g
- Boiled catfish - 196 kcal/100g
- Catfish puffed - 121 kcal/100g
- Fresh catfish - 143 kcal/100g
- Lemon juice - 16 kcal/100g
- Olive oil - 913 kcal/100g
