The 10-Minute, Restaurant-Worthy Dinner I Make Several Times a Month

Many years ago, when my husband and I visited my parents in Hong Kong, we had lunch at a nondescript Japanese restaurant located in the basement of a mall. My husband was skeptical, but I had eaten there before and knew the food was good. We were there for one thing and one thing only: the miso black cod. Marinated in a salty-sweet mixture of white miso, sake, mirin, and soy sauce, the broiled fish arrived glistening and tender, its flesh flaking away easily with the gentlest prod of our chopsticks. Each bite was deeply savory, with nuttiness from the miso and a floral sweetness from the sake and mirin. 

When I came back to New York, I tried to recreate the dish and found numerous iterations of it on the internet. I wasn’t surprised: Miso black cod exploded in popularity after the Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa served it at his Tribeca restaurant in the 1990s. “The soy-slicked fish was a must-order, called out even in the restaurant’s earliest reviews,” the writer Hugh Merwin noted in New York Magazine in 2014. “A kind of fame ensued, and today, black cod with miso is essentially shorthand for the Nobu empire itself.”

Although Matsuhisa did not invent the dish—he tells Merwin that his preparation is a riff on a Japanese tradition of curing fish in sake lees—he popularized it among both restaurant aficionados and home cooks. Luckily, the dish is deceptively easy to make. So simple, in fact, that my husband and I make it regularly: All you have to do is whisk together a marinade of red or white miso paste, sake, mirin, soy sauce, oil, and sugar, then marinate the fish. You can marinate the fish for as little as 30 minutes or as long as two days, making it a great make-ahead weeknight meal or dinner party main.

A note on the fish: Despite its name, black cod isn’t true cod, but a different species entirely—more accurately known as sablefish. Its flesh is tender and buttery, unlike the lean, firm texture of Atlantic or Pacific cod. That richness is key to this recipe’s success. While you can try other fish, it’s best with something fatty, like black cod—or, more accessibly, salmon. 

Former Serious Eats editor Kenji’s miso black cod recipe, which he published on the site in 2013, is the version I’ve been making for as long as I can remember. Kenji recommends broiling the fish, but if you don’t have a broiler or don’t feel like preheating the oven, you can do as I do and crank the heat on the air fryer. If you opt for the air fryer route, keep a close eye on the fish: It typically takes about eight minutes for the fish to finish cooking, but the timing will depend on the size of your fillets. Served with rice and some sautéed greens, it makes for a simple and satisfying meal—and one that tastes restaurant-worthy.