Grilling a whole fish is an impressive, if slightly intimidating, display of grilling prowess.
Wrapping your fish in thin strips of center cut bacon before grilling mitigates both of these potential disasters.
It also keeps any stuffingfresh herbs, lemon slices, sliced ginger rootsecurely inside the fish.
Best of all, theres no flipping involved.
Dont worry about springing for expensive thick-cut bacon.
The thinner bacon needs to sit out for about 20 minutes until it loses its chill.
That way it will wrap easily around the fish and require no messy toothpicks to keep it in place.
Center cut is important
because it is leaner
.
Bacon that is too fatty will shrink as it cooks, leaving your fish naked in spots.
I bought my fish at my local bougie grocery store, which only had thick, fairly fatty bacon.
Still, despite the wrong choice of bacon, the cured pork still did its job.
The fish came off the grill without sticking.
The flavor was as promisedslightly smokey, but not so bacon-y as to overpower the trout.
I could still taste the tarragon I had stuffed inside the fish quite well.
Overall, it was a delicious, low-effort trout.
I used trout for this experiment because I live in Oregon, and the trout here is quite good.
You could also use branzino or snapper.
Season lightly with salt and pepper, and stuff the cavity with your stuffing of choice.
Wrap each fish in bacon, starting near the head just behind the gils, overlapping the bacon slightly.
End about an inch from the end of the tail.
If your grill only has two burners, heat one burner to medium-high and leave the other off.
Aim for a temp of 400F.
Remove from the grill and serve promptly.
