Miso Glazed Cod

Sometimes the most delicious meals are the easiest to make. Good ingredients, bold flavors, and proper cooking technique will never let you down. Just like this miso glazed cod. Make it and serve it as a simple, complete meal with rice, salad, and miso soup. It’s a perfectly comforting home cooked meal that’s both elegant and simple.

What is miso glazed cod?

Miso glazed cod is, as the name suggests, cod that’s glazed with miso. Classically, miso glazed cod is marinated with a specific kind of sweet white miso called Saikyo miso, mirin, and sake. After marinating, the cod is cooked until tender and flaky on the inside and beautifully burnished and caramelized on the outside. The resulting dish is a sweet and savory deliciously coated piece of fish that’s soft, buttery, and full of flavor.

Who invented miso glazed cod?

Miso glazing fish or meat is a classic and beloved Japanese preparation. It’s simple to do and yields a deeply flavorful result. In the USA, Miso glazed cod was popularized by Chef Nobu Matsuhisa at his famous Japanese restaurant Nobu. 

Miso glazed cod ingredients

You only need two ingredients to make this amazing dish:

black cod filets - look for thick cut, skin-on, black cod filets. You’ll want center cut filets, about 4-6 ounces for each serving. Skin-on is best as it will provide a layer of protection for the fish from direct heat, ensuring that the fish is tender and juicy.

Bachan’s Miso Japanese Barbecue Sauce - The famous Nobu miso marinated black cod uses three ingredients: miso, mirin, and sake. In this version, we’re going to intensify the flavor by using Bachan’s Miso Japanese Barbecue Sauce, which has two kinds of miso and aged mirin sourced from Japan. Using Bachan’s eliminates the need to go out and buy miso, mirin, and sake, while giving us a rich, sweet and savory umami flavor that pairs perfectly with black cod.

What is miso and why does it make everything taste good?

Miso is a Japanese seasoning that’s made from fermented soy beans along with other ingredients. It’s used for sauces, glazes, pickling, mixing with dashi to make soup, and is generally an all purpose seasoning. Because miso is a fermented food, it has an abundance of probiotics. It tastes good because it’s pure umami. The aging process is what contributes to its deep flavor.

How is miso made?

Miso is made by fermenting soy beans (and in some cases other grains like barley or rice). The process starts with combining soy beans, salt, and koji. Koji is a fermentation agent that allows the mixture to age and develop. The mix goes into a warm and humid environment where the fermentation takes place. As a result, the umami naturally found in the soy beans grows exponentially.

Types of miso

There are three major types of miso: red, white, and mixed. Red miso, also known as akamiso, is aged for over a year, making it saltier and more umami forward. White miso, or shiromiso, is the more common of the miso varieties and is fermented for a shorter time, making it sweet and lighter in umami. Mixed miso is a mix of akamiso and shiromiso called awasemiso. The beauty of awasemiso is that you get both of the flavor profiles of white and red miso. 

Bachan’s Miso Japanese Barbecue Sauce contains both red miso and white miso, technically making it an awasemiso sauce. It has the light and sweet flavor notes of white miso as well as the deep saltiness and complexity of red miso.

Why marinate overnight?

Coating the black cod filets in Bachan’s Miso Japanese Barbecue Sauce and letting them marinate overnight ensures that the sauce coats and penetrates the entirety of the fillets. Miso has the ability to lightly cure by drawing out moisture and intensifying the inherent flavors of what you’re marinating. The marinade also doubles as a glaze when the fillets are cooked, caramelizing into a deeply burnished sweet and savory coat.

What other kinds of fish can you use?

The best choice of fish for this dish is black cod, which is actually another name for sablefish. Black cod and cod are not the same fish and taste quite different. Cod is firm, flaky and dryer, whereas black cod is rich, buttery, and silky. The difference in flavor is due to the difference in fat content, which is directly related to where cod and black cod are fished from.  Sablefish, aka black cod, are fished from the Northeastern part of the Pacific Ocean, near Alaska. Because the fish live in such cold waters, they have an especially high fat content, making them rich and flavorful. As a bonus, black cod is one of the most sustainable types of wild fish.

How to make miso glazed cod

Marinate. Coat the fillets of cod completely with Bachan’s Miso Japanese Barbecue Sauce, making sure that all surfaces have been coated. Even better if you submerge the fillets into the sauce. Place in an air tight container and marinate in the fridge for 24 hours.

Cook. When ready to cook, heat the oven to 400°F. Remove the black cod from the marinade and use a spoon to gently scrape off some of the marinade (it has a tendency to burn when broiling). Place the fillets, skin side down and bake until the fish is cooked through and easily flakes with a fork, about 20 minutes. For that classic burnished look, turn the broiler on and keep an eye on the fillets until the surface blackens and caramelizes.

Enjoy. Remove from the oven and finish with extra Bachan’s Miso Japanese Barbecue Sauce if desired and enjoy!