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.
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.

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