Here's an easy way to grill salmon without the fish sticking to the grates. Promise! And mix up your approach with 4 different marinades while you're at it.

Photography Credit: Elise Bauer

With warmer weather comes grilling season and one of the easiest and healthiest foods you can prepare on a grill, whether it’s gas or charcoal, is salmon. There is a trick to grilling salmon, though, that once you know will transform your success with grilling this fish forever. The secret?

Use skin-on fillets and place the salmon fillets on the hot grill skin-side up first.

The fillets, when raw, won’t flake and fall apart like they will when they are cooked. So, you sear the raw skinless side first, only enough to get some good grill marks and an edge of cooked fish, then you carefully flip it and finish your cooking at a lower temperature with the skin-side down.

This way, the skin will help keep the fillet together and help keep it from flaking apart and falling into your grill while the fish cooks.

A friend of mine taught me this approach years ago and it makes a huge difference. If you do it the other way? Skin-side down first? It’s a mess.

VIDEO! How to Grill Salmon

Oil Your Grill Grates Well

Also, make sure you coat the grill grates and the fillets well with oil to help prevent sticking. Some sticking is likely to happen anyway, which is why you need to be careful when you flip the fillets over. But having a well-oiled hot grill and well-oiled fillets will help.

Best Salmon Marinades

There are plenty of marinades you can use with salmon; I’ve included four favorites here below. We often just use a simple soy sauce and minced garlic marinade. Sometimes I get a little fancier and add mirin rice wine, ginger, and sugar.

Do you have a favorite way to prepare grilled salmon? A favorite salmon marinade? If so, please let us know about it in the comments.

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