Breaking Out the Grill? Try One of These 15 Seafood Recipes

Grilling season is synonymous with summer, but really, in most climates you can grill outside all year, even if there’s a little snow on the ground. Many of us tend to focus on burgers, brats, and kebabs when cooking alfresco, but the brave and daring may go for fish and seafood. Marine proteins have a reputation as being especially tough to get right on the grill, easily falling apart and turning bone dry, so it’s understandable why so many people categorically shy away from cooking them that way. But with a little know how and practice, fish and seafood can also be among the most rewarding grill items to make.

Just make sure you start off with a clean, well-oiled grate, a thin, nimble spatula for easy flipping, and high heat so that it will cook quickly before losing its natural juices. It also helps not to prod and poke it too much: stay calm and just let it do its thing.

We’ve got a number of seafood recipes for the grill that will show you how it’s done. Whether you’re fancying salmon or a whole wriggling octopus, these recipes are sure to break you out of any burgers ‘n brats rut.

Campfire Trout with Herbs and Bacon

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If you’re a little apprehensive about throwing fish directly onto the grates. a grill basket will ease you into the process. The tool makes them a cinch to flip, keeping everything intact in this stuffed trout recipe. Get our Campfire Trout with Herbs and Bacon recipe.

Corn-Husk-Wrapped Grilled Halibut with Charred Corn Salsa

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You can also wrap your fish into neat little packages, which allow them to steam in their own juices. Here, corn husks form boats around these halibut pieces, which also make it possible to load them up with toppings like chunky salsa. Get our Corn-Husk-Wrapped Grilled Halibut with Charred Corn Salsa recipe.

Foil Pouch Sea Bass

Evan Sung

If you don’t have corn husks, try the same basic technique with aluminum foil packs. Sea bass and other fish comes out perfectly moist every time, and clean up is a breeze. It’s a great option for camping, but perfect for easy weeknight dinners too. Get the Foil Pouch Sea Bass recipe.

Salmon Asparagus Kebabs

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Kebabs don’t have to be full of steak or chicken—try a meaty fish like salmon, with a simple sweet-salty glaze. And speaking of kebabs, don’t risk hurting yourself when you’re skewering your ingredients; just give this easy onion trick a shot. CNET’s Executive Editor, Sharon Profis, shares J. Kenji López-Alt‘s ingenious solution for skewering kebabs, which helps prevent stabbing your hand while threading ingredients onto the skewer. Get our Salmon Asparagus Kebabs recipe.

Grilled Salmon with Lemon-Pepper Compound Butter

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Hardy salmon really is one of your best bets for the grill, holding itself together on skewers, or in pieces, while its skin gets crackly crisp if you leave it on. All it needs is a simple sauce to go with it, like the lemon compound butter in this recipe. Get our Grilled Salmon with Lemon-Pepper Compound Butter recipe.

Grilled Blackened Catfish with Creole Mustard Butter

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Packing in tons of spice and smoke, blackening can turn even the mildest of fish into something with chutzpah. Here, paprika and cayenne give this grilled catfish lots of soulful zest. Get our Grilled Blackened Catfish with Creole Mustard Butter recipe.

Grilled Swordfish with Cucumber-Melon Salsa

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This one’s about as summery as it gets: see those perfectly criss-crossed grill marks and the cubes of diced cucumber and melon? You can practically feel the sunny warmth emanating out of this one. Get our Grilled Swordfish with Cucumber-Melon Salsa recipe.

Easy Fish Tacos

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Tacos are perhaps the most forgiving vehicle for fish prepared on the grill. If you’re still getting the hang of flipping your fillets just so, not to worry. These puppies are designed to hold all the flaky bits and pieces. And don’t forget the slaw for a perfect crunchy contrast. Get our Easy Fish Tacos recipe.

Whole Grilled Bass with Olives, Onion, and Artichoke

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Although it may look intimidating, whole fish is actually easier to grill than individual fillets. Just let it hold itself together while it cooks and leave the carving for the tableside. Get our Whole Grilled Bass with Olives, Onion, and Artichoke recipe.

Grilled Mackerel with Tomato, Fennel, and Capers

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Firm-fleshed mackerel is a pro at handling flaming heat. It also loves meeting up with other flavor-forward ingredients, getting along swimmingly with fennel, tomato, and caper in this recipe. Get our Grilled Mackerel with Tomato, Fennel, and Capers recipe.

Grilled Tuna with Cucumber Salad

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Tuna is the prime beef of the fish world: meaty and tender, a quick sear on the grill will give you all of the qualities of a good, rare steak. The accompanying Vietnamese style salad in this recipe, dressed in fiery bird’s eye chili, lime, and fish sauce, isn’t too shy, either. Get our Grilled Tuna with Cucumber Salad recipe.

Smoky Grilled Shrimp with Marie Rose Sauce

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Shrimp cocktail gets a smoky makeover here, going through a pimenton rub before it hits the coals. The brandy-spiked dipping sauce provides a sweet and creamy counterpoint to all that fire. Get our Smoky Grilled Shrimp with Marie Rose Sauce recipe.

Grilled Shrimp Tacos with Avocado-Corn Salsa

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The char on grilled shrimp also is a match for deep spices like cumin and chipotle powder. Served in tacos, the accompanying lime-drenched salsa adds a tangy, acidic lift to it all. Get our Grilled Shrimp Tacos with Avocado-Corn Salsa recipe.

Grilled Paella

Chowhound

Paella on the grill? That’s right, you can put the whole shebang over the flames and let it simmer away while it picks up the scent of smoke. Loaded with shrimp, mussels, and clams (plus some chicken and chorizo to fill it out), this one packs in all the flavors of the Mediterranean. Get our Grilled Paella recipe.

Grilled Octopus

Chowhound

When done right, tender and chewy grilled octopus is a delight to sink one’s teeth into. We let it go for a slow braise to soften it up, then give it a final sear to add a crust to all those cups and crevices. Get our Grilled Octopus recipe.

Related Video: How to Make Grilled Snapper with Corn-Okra Relish

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Grilled Pizza with Red Peppers, Broccoli, and Onions

Making pizza on the grill takes a little bit of courage the first time. Tossing uncooked dough directly onto the grate over live fire? Topping the pizza while it’s on the grill? Seems a bit daunting.

But once you try it and see how delicious it is, you’ll go back for more.

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Everything You Didn’t Know About Chicken of the Sea, as Not Told by Jessica Simpson

When you hear the brand name “Chicken of the Sea,” what comes to mind? For some, it’s nostalgia; for others, it’s simply the name of their preferred brand of canned tuna. To a third group, it represents a momentous misunderstanding for a certain blonde celebrity in the early 2000s (we’ll get to that later). Regardless of its role in your life, Chicken of Sea has certainly been a mainstay in American grocery baskets for a long time!

The Brand

Over 100 years old, the business started out as Van Camp Seafood Company back in 1914, when Frank Van Camp bought a California canning company with his son, Gilbert. The “Chicken of the Sea” brand name came about in 1930, when the company’s fishermen thought to compare tuna’s mild flavor and color to that of America’s favorite versatile poultry (of the land!).

The Mermaid

Chicken of the Sea

Along with the Jolly Green Giant and the Morton Salt Umbrella Girl, Marketing Dive includes the Chicken of the Sea mermaid mascot in its list of “10 brand mascots that stood the test of time.” She was first created in 1952, with a look inspired by the actress Grace Lee Whitney, known for her role as Yeoman Janice Rand from the original “Star Trek” series. A few years later, Chicken of Sea hired pin-up icon Bettie Page to pose as the mermaid in Southern California supermarkets as part of their 40-year anniversary celebrations.

For the brand’s 100-year anniversary, it held a contest to finally give a name to its beloved mermaid mascot. The winning entry determined she would be called “Catalina,” selected, in part, for its reference to a historic island off the coast of California, not far from the company’s San Diego headquarters.

The Disneyland Restaurant

Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship at Disney

In 1955, Disneyland opened a Peter Pan-themed restaurant called “The Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship and Restaurant,” which served a wide variety of tuna dishes, including tuna burgers, tuna pies, and even tuna salad served in mini boats! While the name changed to “Captain Hook’s Galley” in 1969, and ultimately the restaurant was removed in 1982, its nostalgia lives on. This recipe for Disneyland Tuna Burgers is one of many endeavoring to recapture that flavor memory so many people recall from the pairing of Chicken of the Sea and Peter Pan.

The Dolphins!

In April of 1990, the public was made aware of the fact that 100,000 dolphins were killed each year from tuna fishing using purse-seine methods, where a large net is cast around tuna and then drawn closed, similar to how your close a drawstring purse. As a result, tuna-canning companies agreed to source tuna using only dolphin-safe methods. Chicken of the Sea specifically promises that it “will not purchase tuna from vessels that net fish associated with dolphins, and [it] require[s] certification of dolphin-safe fishing practices from all tuna suppliers.”

The Newlyweds

All this history, and what many of us most associate to Chicken of the Sea is that iconic moment that took place on August 19, 2003. On the premiere of the MTV reality show “Newlyweds,” pop stars and new spouses Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson were eating together in their living room when Jessica Simpson uttered those infamous words: “Is this chicken, what I have, or is it fish? I know it’s tuna, but it says ‘Chicken by the Sea.’”

Thankfully, Nick Lachey was able to clear up the confusion and ultimately summarize the origin of the brand name by explaining, “Chicken of the Sea is the brand. You know, because a lot of people eat tuna. It’s like and a lot of people eat chicken, so it’s like chicken of the sea.”

Well said, Nick.

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Why Do We Eat Crabs While Spiders Gross Us Out?

Yes, some people enjoy eating insects and find them delicious. And true, intentionally consuming bugs is probably in all of our futures. But right now, if an eight-legged creature appeared on your dinner table, you’d more than likely react with revulsion, or at least unpleasant surprise. Unless, of course, that multi-legged creepy-crawly was a crab (maybe you’d also be cool with an octopus). But there’s a bit of cognitive dissonance going on here. Why is it that so many of us can happily eat crabs and lobsters while being grossed out by spiders and other bugs?

After all, you can tell they’re related just by looking at them. Technically, they’re not that closely linked, although crabs and spiders are both members of the arthropod family, as are other insects, and lobsters. Basically, they’re classed together because they all have exoskeletons and jointed legs. Evolution has made them all much different on the inside, and behaviorally as well, but this is a case where it’s all too easy to judge a book—or a bug—by its cover. Crawfish are nicknamed mud bugs, and lobsters are often called sea bugs too; we all know they have far too much in common for comfort, yet we generally try not to dwell on it. Even Alton Brown has likened lobsters to cockroaches of the ocean—in part to reassure those squeamish about killing live crustaceans that there’s no reason to get in a moral quandary about it if they think nothing of smashing bugs beneath shoes, newspapers, heavy books…

Adorable(?) baby red crab, Christmas Island Tourism Association

I love eating crabs, and have since I was little; ditto shrimp steamed in the shell with tons of Old Bay, even though, just as house centipedes are orders of magnitude worse than spiders, shrimp, with so many more bristly little legs, should be far creepier than crabs—yet I wouldn’t hesitate to rip apart a dozen of either briny creature, whiskery antennae and all. I guess I was just good at compartmentalizing from an early age, because I don’t recall ever being put off by any seafood (except when it came to whole soft shell crabs caught between buns, with their long legs jutting out the sides, because that is just grotesque—yet also weirdly tempting, when they’re perfectly golden-brown and crisp).

Of course, there’s an element of learned behavior too; I grew up watching my whole family joyfully tear into messes of often-insectile seafood on countless occasions, but I also probably saw many of them recoil at spiders and whack them with their flip flops. I definitely saw “Arachnophobia” at way too young an age—repeatedly, because as much as it freaked me out, it fascinated me too.

Leggy soft shell crab sandwich, Vodka & Biscuits

A scientific study from 2017 suggests that humans may be born with an innate fear of spiders, and there’s evidence to suggest it’s existed for centuries, at least. During the Middle Ages, spiders were thought to be diseased, and any food or water that came into contact with them was considered infected or poisoned (both of these examples, of course, apply only to Western societies; many other cultures around the world revere spiders, either as lucky symbols or as tasty food). Meanwhile, even as they despised arachnids, Westerners have been eating crustaceans for eons—although in certain areas, crabs were once relegated to the realm of lowly, cheap food for the poor, and lobsters were famously served to both prisoners and livestock.

Judaism deems crabs and lobsters, among other shellfish, unclean, and also prohibits conscious consumption of actual insects, including spiders (with exceptions for certain kosher locusts, grasshoppers, and worms)—and while you could assume that the dietary law was decreed due to inherent revulsion, it may also be true that this was because of common-sense hygiene concerns connected to these literal bottom feeders (and filter feeders).

Drawing parallels, xkcd

If crabs weren’t relegated to oceans (and fish tanks in restaurants and grocery stores), even those of us without kabourophobia might be a bit more wary of them; part of what makes spiders so scary to many is their tendency to pop up out of nowhere—since we moved to a house, I regularly have them drop down from the ceiling right in front of my face, which only gets slightly less traumatizing every time. They can also run really fast, and often move in unpredictable directions, while crabs mainly go sideways on land, and (generally) cannot crawl up walls and dangle from ceilings. Mercifully, crabs can’t fly either, while spiders kind of can—they can launch themselves up and glide through the air, at least (this is, rather adorably, called “ballooning”), so you’re basically never safe, except maybe under water. Where you might encounter giant spider crabs, of course, with their spindly, daddy long legs-esque appendages and bug-eyed carapaces—but probably not unless you went looking for them.

Then again, there are terrestrial crabs in certain coastal areas (gigantic coconut crabs are prime nightmare fuel), but most of us don’t have to worry about those. Even a mass migration of spidery, non-edible red crabs on Christmas Island, though certainly squirm-inducing, is somehow not quite as bad as an equivalent number of actual spiders would be:

They’re just less skittery. Maybe it has something to do, too, with the fact that unless they’re in soft shell stage during molting, there’s a greater sturdiness to crabs. They have harder exoskeletons and thicker legs, while spiders are relatively delicate and easy to squish—which, rather than making them less frightening, ups the ick factor for me. Drive over a mass of crabs and yes, you’ll crush them, but they can puncture your tires at the same time. (Perhaps in some way they seem like worthier opponents?) Plus, several species of spiders are venomous, whereas no crab is going to stealth-bite you and make your tissues (and maybe your entire body) die. Crabs and other sea bugs could potentially make you sick via food poisoning, but at least that’s a risk you willingly take, and have fun while doing so.

Crabs don’t spin webs, either, which on their own are creepy, at least when you accidentally walk through one. And the environment in which each creature lives could also be a factor—insects are often associated with dirt (especially cockroaches, but spiders commonly hang out in dank basements and crawlspaces), while crustaceans come out of the water, which seems cleansing, despite the fact that, even discounting pollution, the ocean is full of nasty stuff, and the crustaceans themselves will eat almost anything in it, including dead and rotting matter.

Preparing Dungeness crab, Chowhound

Another knee jerk response to the question of why people who are disgusted by spiders can still love eating crabs might be to say that the crabs are dead and cooked, hence turned into food, but chances are, you wouldn’t be any more thrilled about a dead-and-cooked tarantula burger than you would about a live one sidling up next to your dinner (and that’s even if you do enjoy soft shell crab sandwiches, which really aren’t nearly so far removed; Andrew Zimmern attests that fresh tarantula tastes “great, reminding me of sweet and delicate crabs”). So why should one be so appealing, and the other so deeply horrifying?

I think the biggest factor is exposure—most of us almost never see crabs unless we’re about to eat them, whereas spiders insist on scurrying into our lives regularly at the most inopportune moments. If you start watching a lot of GIFs and videos of writhing crabs, it gets uncomfortable pretty fast. And it’s definitely largely cultural as well, but maybe one day, when we have no choice but to embrace insect-heavy diets, spiders will inspire more yums than “kill it with fire” hashtags—or it’ll just become “cook it with fire” instead.

Until then, we’ll simply keep rationalizing—or flat-out ignoring—plenty of uncomfortable truths when it comes to what we eat. Besides, when it’s just about looks, if “ugly delicious” continues to be embraced, crabs are surely near the top of that heap. Or maybe we can make a new label for them and their buggy oceanic brethren. “Scary delicious” seems fitting, in more ways than one.

Related Video: How to Make Crab Cakes

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