I’m not sure on the details about how the whole blackened fish thing first happened, but I’ll bet there’s someone out there who could enlighten me. By most accounts, the credit goes to legendary chef Paul Prudhomme, who introduced us to his own style of Cajun cuisine at his New Orleans restaurant, K-Paul’s. Chef Prudhomme dunks pieces of fish in melted butter and then dredges them in a blend of seasonings that include salt, herbs and several types of pepper. They’re placed into a screaming-hot cast iron skillet for a couple of minutes a side, just long enough to burn the spices and cause shortness of breath for anyone caught in a poorly ventilated room. You’ve heard of pepper spray? Well, you get the same effect if you hover over a pan of cayenne pepper rubbed burning fish. Let’s start by opening the windows before you start cooking.

If you’ve ever tried blackening a piece of fish, poultry or meat in a lightweight Teflon skillet, I’ll bet you were disappointed with the result. What you got was browned, not blackened. If you want to do it right, you need to fire up the old cast iron skillet over high heat for at least 20 – 30 minutes. You can’t get it too hot. OK, I know some of you will test this statement, so don’t go to extraordinary measures like placing the pan in a blast furnace. Just put the skillet on the kitchen burner or a portable high-BTU burner that doesn’t exceed 30K BTUs and heat the pan until it’s white hot. Once you’ve inhaled burning pepper, you’ll understand why I mention ventilation a time or two. You should consider doing it outside…really.


During my early years of demonstrating my style of wild game cooking, I made the mistake of firing up a few spicy dishes in a restaurant banquet room with low ceilings. Bad idea. Everyone started choking on the fumes from the seared peppers and seasonings. To everyone who was in Mentone, Alabama that night…sorry.

The good thing about blackening fish and game yourself is that it does taste good. If you do it at home, you can make it as black or as spicy hot as your taste buds can handle. The process is simple and it doesn’t require any special equipment. If you want to add something to take the edge off the hot stuff, top it off with a tablespoon or two of sour cream or any type of mild salsa.

The accompanying video will show you how to blacken a hunk of fish. For another blackened fish recipe and the ingredients to make your own blackening spice blend, go here.