Here’s Nobu’s world famous miso black cod dish, reverse-engineered and simplified for home cooks as miso maple salmon.
Nobu Matsuhisa is among the world’s most famous chefs. He specializes in Japanese food with a Peruvian twist and operates more than 50 Nobu restaurants around the globe, each of which serves his most celebrated dish: miso black cod. The fish is marinated in a mixture of sake, mirin, miso, and sugar. When broiled or grilled, it develops a thick, dark crust on one side, rich with caramelized flavors from maple syrup and savoriness from Maillard browning.
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I have reverse engineered this famous Nobu dish to make miso maple salmon. I swapped the black cod for more widely available salmon, shortened the marinating time, and added layers of flavor with smoke, maple syrup, and touch of hot sauce. Instead of a simple marinade for this miso maple salmon, I use a brinerade, which is a brine that doubles as a marinade. It does wonders for the flavor and texture of fish.
Miso Maple Salmon à la Nobu
Makes:
Takes:
Equipment
- 1/2 cup wood pellets, chips, or hardwood sawdust or dried herbs—something that will smoke rapidly
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons white miso
- 2 tablespoons real maple syrup not pancake syrup
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce your favorite
- 4 skin-on salmon fillets 8 ounces each
- Japanese pickled ginger for garnish
These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page
Method
- Make the brinerade. In a coffee cup, mix the miso, syrup, and hot sauce with a fork.
- Gash and paint. With a very sharp knife, gash the meat side of the fish by drawing the blade across it every 3/4 to 1 inch, making cross hatches about halfway through the meat. This will help the brinerade penetrate. With a brush or spoon, spread the brinerade on the fish making sure to get it into the gashes. Place the fish on a plate in the refrigerator for 2 hours, and every 30 minutes or so paint it again.
- Fire up. Set up the grill for 2-zone cooking but keep the heat energy down on the direct heat side. Do not oil the grates (or the fish). Lift up the grate over the heat source and toss some dried herbs, pellets, wood chips, or sawdust on the coals or burners.
- Smoke and serve. As soon as you see smoke, lay the fish skin-side down on the grate above the smoke source and place a metal pan upside down over the fish to trap the smoke. Close the lid. After about 5 minutes, take the temperature of the meat just below the top surface. The bottom near the skin will be hotter than the top. When the top layer hits 125° to 130°F, remove the fish from the heat. The skin may stick to the grate. Great! If not, you should be able to peel it off easily or, what the heck, just serve it and let your guests eat off the half shell. Garnish with the pickled ginger.
Nutrition per Serving
This recipe is adapted from Meathead’s book, The Meathead Method, published May 13, 2025. It is available now on Amazon.
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