Smoked Trout Recipe
This simple smoked trout recipe delivers juicy, flavorful results whether you're working with whole trout or fillets, thanks to a generous coating of Wildlife Seasonings Trout Freshwater Blend. It works just as well with steelhead, lake trout, or even salmon, making it a versatile go-to for any freshwater catch on the smoker.
Shop This Recipe: Trout Freshwater Blend (7.0 oz.)
Wildlife Seasonings Smoked Trout
This smoked trout recipe works well for rainbow, brown, brook, or lake trout, as well as steelhead or salmon, whole or filleted. Keeping the skin on helps the fish hold moisture on the smoker, and it's based on a family technique using a simple wet brine before smoking.
Ingredients
- 1.5 - 2 quarts water or enough to cover the trout
- Salt (roughly equal parts with brown sugar, enough to make a brine to cover the trout)
- Brown sugar (roughly equal parts with salt, enough to make a brine to cover the trout)
- Wildlife Seasonings Trout Freshwater Blend
Directions
- Combine the salt and brown sugar in an extra large zipper plastic bag or non-reactive dish and dissolve with a bit of warm water.
- Add cold water to the bag and add the trout so that they are submerged in the brine.
- Brine the trout in the refrigerator from 2 hours to overnight depending on the thickness of the fish.
- Rinse the trout in cold water and pat dry.
- Place the trout flesh side up on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet and put back in the fridge, uncovered, for 2-3 hours to form a pellicle on the surface. If using whole fish, prop them open with a few toothpicks so air circulates throughout.
- Add water to your smoker water pan if equipped, and oil your smoker racks so the skin does not stick.
- Pre-heat the smoker to 180 degrees Fahrenheit and add your smoking wood/pellets of choice — milder woods work well, like apple, alder, cherry, or maple.
- Add the trout to the smoker, keeping space between them for air and smoke circulation. Place on racks or hang by the gills if smoking whole trout.
- Each hour, bump up the smoker temperature by 10 degrees and rotate the racks so the trout smoke evenly.
- Check for doneness with an instant-read thermometer starting at 1.5 hours, then every half hour. You want an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove from the smoker and serve warm as a main dish, or chill for use on crackers or in smoked trout dip.
Cooking times may vary. Overcooking will result in dry fish. Do not consume raw or undercooked fish.
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