Name: Hot-smoked salmon on the barbecue
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Irish
Ingredients: 1 fresh salmon side, 1 to 1.5kg, skin on, pinboned; 30g flaky sea salt; 30g soft light brown sugar; 1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper; 1 unwaxed lemon, zested; 1 small bunch fresh dill, fronds picked; 200g oak or applewood chips, soaked in water for 1 hour, drained; 1 cedar plank, soaked in water for 2 hours (optional but recommended)

Hot-smoking a side of fresh salmon on the barbecue turns it into something halfway between fresh and traditional cold-smoked. Twenty-five minutes over indirect heat with wood chips smouldering on one side of the coals, and you end up with warm, flaky, smoky fish that holds together beautifully. You need a kettle barbecue with a lid, a handful of wood chips (oak or applewood), and ideally a cedar plank. Worth doing once and you’ll do it for the rest of the summer.

Ingredients

1 fresh salmon side, 1 to 1.5kg, skin on, pinboned

30g flaky sea salt

30g soft light brown sugar

1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 unwaxed lemon, zested

1 small bunch fresh dill, fronds picked

200g oak or applewood chips, soaked in water for 1 hour, drained

1 cedar plank, soaked in water for 2 hours (optional but recommended)

Method

Pat the salmon dry with kitchen paper. Mix the salt, sugar, pepper, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Rub the mixture evenly over the flesh side. Leave for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Set up the barbecue for indirect heat. Bank the lit coals to one side. Aim for a lid temperature of around 110°C. A simple barbecue thermometer is worth its weight in gold here.

Drain the wood chips and scatter half over the hot coals. They should start smoking within a minute.

Place the salmon on the cool side of the grill, skin side down, on the soaked cedar plank if using. Close the lid.

After 12 minutes, lift the lid and add the remaining wood chips to the coals.

Total cooking time is 25 to 30 minutes. The salmon is done when the thickest part reads 55°C on an instant-read thermometer and flakes easily under gentle pressure.

Lift the plank off the barbecue. Rest the salmon for 5 minutes. Scatter the dill fronds across.

Tips from our kitchen

Use a thermometer. Hot-smoking is the one place where eyeballing the doneness goes wrong.

Indirect heat is the whole point. If you put the salmon over the coals it will burn before the smoke flavour develops.

Don't flip the fish. Skin side down the whole time. The skin protects the underside from drying out.

Hot-smoked salmon on the barbecue

Ingredients

Method

Tips from our kitchen

Irish Organic Oak Smoked Salmon by Wrights of Howth

Irish Organic Oak Smoked Salmon 900g with Wooden Serving Platter

Wrights of Howth Smoke House Box

More smoked salmon recipes

10-minute lemon and dill smoked salmon pasta

Smoked salmon and avocado niçoise

Smoked salmon fishcakes with caper mayonnaise

Smoked salmon and horseradish wraps

Smoked salmon and spinach roulade

Smoked salmon picnic grazing board