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Pescado Zarandeado

A traditional Baja California dish — Pescado Zarandeado is a whole butterflied snapper or grouper lacquered in a guajillo-lime adobo and grilled over live coals, skin side down.

⏱ 25 minPrep time
🔥 25 minCook time
🍽 4Servings
🏷 Baja KitchenCategory
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Pescado Zarandeado - Baja cuisine

A traditional Baja California dish — Pescado Zarandeado is a whole butterflied snapper or grouper lacquered in a guajillo-lime adobo and grilled over live coals, skin side down. The technique, born on the Nayarit coast and beloved all the way up to Baja, delivers impossibly moist fish with crisp, charred skin. It is the grand centerpiece of a Baja beach cookout.

Step by stepInstructions

  1. Toast the guajillo chiles in a dry skillet until fragrant, then soak them in hot water for ten minutes.
  2. Blend the chiles with the garlic, lime juice, olive oil, mayonnaise, Worcestershire, oregano, salt, and pepper into a thick adobo.
  3. Butterfly the fish through the belly so it lies flat, and score the flesh in a diamond pattern.
  4. Slather the adobo all over the fish, working it into the scores, and marinate for thirty to sixty minutes.
  5. Build a medium-hot fire and oil a wire rack or grill grate well.
  6. Grill the fish skin side down, covered, for fifteen to twenty minutes, until the skin is crisp and the flesh flakes easily.
  7. Carefully transfer to a platter and serve with lime wedges and salsa.

💡 Chef tips & storage

The fish is done when the flesh near the backbone flakes with a fork — do not flip it; skin-side-down cooking keeps it moist. Ask your fishmonger to butterfly the fish if you are not handy with a knife.

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Recipe details

Prep25 min
Cook25 min
Servings4
CategoryBaja Kitchen
PublishedAugust 17, 2026
Emily — the cook behind My Comfort Recipes

Hi, I'm Emily 🧡

Hi, I'm Emily — the cook behind My Comfort Recipes. Simple, tested comfort food for real weeknights, written down the way grandma would. Pull up a chair. More about me →