How To Clean & Cook Cobia Like A Pro [VIDEO]

Catch…

Fillet…

Prepare…

Cook…

Eat…

Cobia!

Pa-POW!!!

My brother Luke and I absolutely love catching (and eating) cobia…

These weird looking fish known as cobia put up some amazing fights, and they just so happen to be one of the tastiest saltwater fish in all of Florida, if not the planet.

Recently, we have received quite a few questions regarding cobia fishing in our private Facebook group called the “Salt Strong Fishing Tribe” (you can ask permission to join the private fishing group here).

And the main two cobia related questions were along these lines:

1. “I need some tips on how to clean cobia without wasting any meat. Can anybody help?”
2. “Anyone have any great cobia recipes?”

So we decided to do this blog post and answer both questions at the same time, while providing some of the best cobia cleaning and cobia cooking tutorials we could find on the web.

Note: There have also been a few questions about how to catch cobia, and we will be doing a separate fishing tip post on that shortly.

Cleaning Cobia

How To Clean Cobia (Option #1)

This how to fillet a cobia is by the “Deer Meat for Dinner” couple out of Florida.

It is a nice and quick cleaning with the head off of the cobia.

This cobia cleaning is a bit quicker tutorial than the Option #2 video below, however, you do miss out on some extra tips that Karl explains below in Option #2.

How To Clean Cobia (Option #2)

This second option of how to fillet a cobia is by Big Rock Champion Karl Knudson… and he covers just about everything you could need to know to get a perfect cobia fillet.

He even shows you how to harvest the eggs of the female cobia (aka Roe, aka Caviar).

Check out Karl doing a great job getting a ton of meat from this cobia.

Cooking Cobia

How To Prepare Cobia

(Salt Strong Simple Version)

Now although we are providing two great cobia cooking recipes below, my brother Luke makes some of the best cobia with an incredibly easy way to grill cobia (with only a couple of ingredients).

Here is what we do at Salt Strong:

• Cut the cobia into small fillets the same size as a nice 10 – 12 oz. fillet mignon
• Pour olive oil into a pan to the point that there is a good 1/4 inch of olive oil all along the bottom of the pan
• Place the cobia fillets in the olive oil (make sure to flip and make sure the entire cobia is covered in olive oil) and let them marinate for a good hour in the olive oil (refrigerated)
• Sprinkle on garlic pepper and a touch of everglades seasoning for some added flavor
• Grill the cobia at approx 350-400 degrees with each side of the fillet getting approx 5-7 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fillet and the type of grill you have)
• Serve hot

Note: With really large cobia you will find that you have enough cobia meat for a couple of meals. In that case, make sure to immediately freeze any of the fillets that you are certain won’t be eaten at that sitting (you do not want these sitting in olive oil, and you want them to be freezing as quick as possible).

How To Grill Cobia

Here’s Captain Vincent Russell with an awesome grilled cobia recipe.

How To Cook Blackened Cobia

Here’s an easy to learn recipe on how to cook blackened cobia from a restaurant in Louisiana.

Conclusion

It’s a fact, cobia are some amazing tasting fish!

But just like any fish that you plan on eating, there are two pretty critical pieces of the puzzle that must be completed AFTER you catch the fish (unfortunately the job is not over after you land the cobia…)

1. Cleaning the fish while keeping as much meat and eliminating as much waste, bones, skin, etc
2. Cooking the fish to perfection

And we hope that these cobia cooking and cleaning tips will help you put even more smiles on people’s faces when they taste your delicious cobia meal.

Let us know if you have any other great cobia recipes, cobia cleaning tips, or any other questions you have on cobia.

And as I mentioned earlier, we will be putting together some “How to catch cobia” tips in the future.

P.S. – If you think your angler friends would like to see this, please Tag them or Share this with them. It would mean a lot to me.

Fish On!