Miso Marinated Fish is an easy, elegant entree that is perfect for every occasion. It’s a great weeknight meal for you family but feels fancy enough to serve at a dinner party for friends.
When I was living in NYC modeling, I used to splurge with my girlfriends once in a while and dine at Nobu. Nobu is a Japanese restaurant co-owned by Robert DeNiro which features the cuisine of world-famous chef, Nobu Matsuhisa. Every dish at the restaurant is fantastic, but the miso cod is by far the crown jewel on the menu!
It has been copied by many restaurants, but I have yet to taste one that comes close to matching the flavor and snap of the original. I was reading Saveur magazine one time and they rated the top 10 restaurant dishes ever and this dish was one of them. Yes, it is a unique recipe but you can make it at home for a fraction of the restaurant price. And with only 4 ingredients, what’s not to love?
Over the years I’ve tested tens of different variations on the recipe — marinating the cod for an hour up to 3 days, cooking the marinade ingredients over heat or just whisking them raw in a bowl. The original recipe uses tons of sugar which I didn’t think was the healthiest idea, so I substitute agave with fantastic results.
You can also use different varieties of fish or even try scallops, but black cod is always my first choice. It’s high in omega-3 fatty acids and has a mild flavor which is perfect for kids. I served this to my family and friends recently over some Brown Rice and a heap of greens and it was like heaven in every bite! You could also roll pieces of fish in leaves of Bibb lettuce and eat it like a sandwich.
A fancy meal at a nice restaurant is always a treat, but there’s no reason why you can’t have the world’s best dishes at home. Try this one out and let me know what you think!
Miso Marinated Fish
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup yellow or white miso
- 2 tablespoons agave
- 1/2 cup mirin
- 1 1/2 pounds (4 filets) black cod or salmon (you need to use an oily fish)
Instructions
- Place the miso, agave and mirin in a bowl and whisk to combine.
- Pour over the fish, cover, refrigerate and marinate for at least 30 minutes (can be marinated up to 3 days).
- Preheat oven broiler to high.
- Remove from marinade and place skin side down on a foil lined cookie sheet.
- Broil fish 6 inches from the heat source for 8-10 minutes or until golden and bubbly.
- * Agave can be replaced with 3 tbsp sugar.
Loved this recipe! I should have left marinade on longer (only did 30 mins on regular cod). Will make again.
Yes! 30 minutes “works” but the longer the better on this one! Glad you still enjoyed 🙂
Would this marinade work for chicken? We love this marinade for salmon!
Made this last night with a big slab of Alaskan halibut. Let it marinade for a couple of hours. I subbed part of the mirin with sake as I had some on hand and saw that in another recipe. This was excellent. Will definitely be on repeat. I want to try on scallops as mentioned.
Yes, you can boil the sauce!
Once the fish is done marinating, can we boil the marinade to use as a sauce like in the 1,2,3 Scallops recipe?
Thanks and can’t wait to taste this recipe with regular cod. I don’t think I can find black cod in Europe so I might try salmon next time depending on the outcome.
Thank you for your response! I could not find black cod so I used sea bass and it turned out great. Excellent recipe!
I usually get 4 filets… about 1/3 pound each!
What size should pieces of fish approximately be or is it just dividing the 1.5 lbs of fish into 4 pieces? That would help me a lot.
How can I maximize the fish I buy for my toddler? I usually get a nice fresh piece of wild salmon at Whole Foods (around $12-$13 a pound). When I get home, I immediately slice up portions, wrap them tightly in plastic, then freeze right away. Then I defrost 1 chunk in the morning on the day I’m planning to cook it. However, I realize that this is not the best or freshest way. I know I *should* be buying fresh fish and eating it on the day it is purchased. But for me.. it’s a 1-hour round trip drive to Whole Foods. I would like my toddler to eat fish at least once a week, but it’s not always possible to make a mid-week trip just for fish. I usually do my grocery shopping for the entire household on Saturday, which is when I would usually get the salmon and do the freeze method. I feel like I’m making this more difficult than it should – maybe the freezing method is the way to go? – but I’d love to hear other people’s suggestions on how to serve the freshest fish for your toddler.
Will brown rice miso work?
I think that would be okay!
Would halibut work? I wasn’t sure if it would be oily enough. Thanks : )
This was absolutely delicious and healthy too! My family loved it! Thank you so much for posting this!