Smoked Trout Tacos

[CDN]

I had the good fortune this past week of spending the day on the Chattahoochee River with one of my best friends in the world, fishing from float tubes for rainbow and brown trout. He and I used to make this float trip just about every other weekend, but work, family and other factors have limited our time to do it in the past few years. So we decided that no matter what, we were gonna do it that day! The Good Lord gave us a beautiful day and we caught a few fish too!

We made the float from Buford Dam to the Georgia Highway 20 Bridge, and amongst all the hustle and bustle of the North Georgia sprawling development and traffic is this pristine stretch of river, virtually untouched by anyone other than trout fishermen. The water is clear and cold, coming out of Buford Dam at about 50 something degrees, even on this day in June when the air temp was about 95! There are alot of deep pools, swift runs and even a couple of whitewater type rapids to navigate through. I was about to go through one those whitewater rapids and decided I better snap a picture of myself, so that my family could have comfort in knowing that I was still alive before I entered the rapids!

We cast spinners, minnow crankbaits, flies and even a few bait eggs to hook up with around 20 fish for the day. Not a banner day, but fun none the less and a great opportunity to spend time with a great friend and put some food on the table! I decided to take a few of the trout and smoke them and make some tacos. Sound good? Well here's how I did it.

What you'll need:

Four medium size fresh trout

Grill Mates Mojito Lime Marinade Mix

Olive Oil

2 tablespoons Water

2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

Tortillas

Chopped lettuce

Shredded Cheese

Salsa

Sour Cream

Fresh cilantro

Hickory or apple chunks

Start out by mixing the Mojito Lime mix with the olive oil, water and apple cider vinegar per the instructions on the package. You could subsititute this marinade with Mojo Criollo. Place the trout in a zip-loc bag and pour the marinade over them. Shake it around to completely cover them and place in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Now it's time to get your grill or smoker going. You could smoke trout on any type of equipment that you have, and I could have easily done mine on my offset stick burner smoker. But I wanted to show you all how easy it can be on a Weber Kettle. I started out with about a half a chimney of lump charcoal, only allowing it to get about halfway burning before I dumped it in the Weber, banking it on one side. The idea here is to cook pretty cool, around 200 degrees is ideal. I placed a chunk of hickory on the coals, then put a water pan over the fire. You want to let the fire burn just a little so the the hickory is burning clean, not "yellow smoking" or smoking too heavy. Place an oven thermometer on the grate to check the temp. With the water pan over the coals, I was able to maintain 200 degrees throughout the cook. Coat the cooking grate opposite of the coals with olive oil and your ready for your trout.

Smoke the trout until they are flaky and the flesh is opaque. They only take about an hour if you maintain around 200 degrees. Bring them in and let them cool, then use a fork to rake the meat off of the bones.

Close down the vents on the Weber Kettle, and toss the tortillas on the grate to lightly toast them, if you like. They will only take about 1 minute on each side, so don't burn them. Bring them in and assemble your tacos however you like. For me, that's gonna be some smoked trout, shredded cheese, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, and garnish with a little fresh cilantro. Serve it up with a side of grilled corn, tomato and cucumber salad, which I will post the recipe for here on the website coming up.