Ingredients:
- 2 quarts water
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup kosher salt
- 1 big Costco Salmon filet
Preparation:
- In a 1 gallon Ziploc bag, combine 2 quarts of water, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/3 cup of kosher salt.
- Seal bag and shake until all the sugar and salt are dissolved.
- Open bag and put salmon filet in the brine mixture.
- Seal the bag while simultaneously pushing out all the air.
- Put sealed bag with salmon and brine in a bowl and let sit in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours. Longer is better, overnight is best.
When it’s time to cook, set up your grill for indirect heat. I do most of my grilling on a Green Egg but I use my Weber for salmon with two charcoal baskets placed on the outside edges of the kettle and the salmon in the center. I have never owned a gas grill but think you could use the burner on one side of a gas grill and put the salmon on the other side away from the direct heat and get good results. Either way, temperature should be 300 to 350 degrees when cooking.
Cook it up.
- When ready to grill, I pour the salmon filet and brine over a grate that spans my kitchen sink to drain. This works well but you could just as easily dump it in a clean sink to drain off the brine.
- Once the liquid has drained off, place the filet on tinfoil and curl up all the edges so the juices don’t run off in your grill. Since the Costco filets are big, I usually roll up my tinfoil right to the edge of the fish so none of the foil is over my coals. The trick is the indirect heat; you just don’t want anything above the coals (or hot side of the gas grill) cooking the salon from below.
- I usually throw a few (dry) chunks of wood on the coals right before putting the Salmon on the grill. This is optional but the smoke does add a beautiful color and extra flavor to the fish. You can use hickory or something sweeter like cherry, pecan, apple or peach wood. But don’t buy an overpriced bag of wood chunks just for this if you are not going to use it for other grilling, the salmon will still be very good without it.
- Put it on the grill, close the lid and let it do its thing. I have found the best way to transport to and from the grill is sliding a large cookie sheet under the tinfoil with the fish.
- It takes about 30 or 40 minutes on the grill. Leave covered for at least 30 minutes. It’s done when you see the fat from the salmon ooze up and form little white droplets on top of the fish.
- Don’t overcook it! Taking it off the grill too soon is much better than leaving it on too long. Salmon is funny, the more you cook it the stronger the “fishy” flavor. The best salmon you’ll ever eat is medium rare with just a warm center!
That’s it, serve it up and enjoy!
