Cedar-Planked Grilled Salmon

Salmon on the grill is one of my favorite ways to prepare salmon. But put that salmon on a cedar plank, and then on the grill, and it takes it up to another level altogether. When we lived in the Northwest region of the U.S., it was easy for us to get delicious, wild Alaskan salmon. My favorite of all is sockeye. It has a brilliant red color that stays around even after cooking. It has more of the brain-boosting omega 3's than some other varieties of salmon, and it just tastes so darn good. The photo to the right is a pic I took last year of some freshly-grilled sockeye.

Here, if we want wild Alaskan salmon, the only variety available is frozen Coho salmon. Coho is my least favorite kind of salmon, but it still very yummy when grilled on a cedar plank. (The first pic on this post is the coho we grilled last night- it's not as brilliantly colored as the sockeye. I used dried dill, too, since it's hard for me to find fresh here.)

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I used this post from Eating, Etc. as a guide when making this. Since my pieces of salmon were small (no more beautiful, huge slabs of it for me) I used the rest of the rub on some chicken and grilled that too.

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Your plank may catch on fire, even if you have soaked it enough. It's a good idea to have a spray bottle of water by the grill, to put out the flare-ups that might happen.

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Cedar-Planked Salmon

adapted from http://eatingetc.blogspot.com/

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Salmon Rub:

4T olive oil
3 fresh garlic cloves, minced
2T dried or 1/4c fresh dill
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp ground black pepper
1T fresh lemon juice
1tsp lemon zest

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2-3 lb salmon filet, scored to the skin

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1) Soak untreated plank(s) in water, weighting it down so it is completely submerged, for 30 minutes to 24 hours (I used a jelly-roll pan and it worked great-just make sure the plank is completely covered by water).
2) Preheat grill on high heat.
3) Mix Salmon Rub ingredients together and rub over scored salmon to coat.
4) Place soaked wood plank on hot grill grate. Close lid & watch closely until wood starts to smoke (about 5 minutes).
5) Place salmon on hot plank. Reduce heat to low & cook covered until salmon is opaque throughout (about 20-25 minutes).