Smoked Swordfish Steaks with Lemon and Garlic

Learn how to make smoked swordfish on ANY grill or smoker!

Swordfish is a deliciously meaty fish that tastes GREAT when smoked.

It's also incredibly easy to prepare and to smoke, whether you are using a pellet grill like a Traeger, Camp chef, or Pit Boss, a propane or electric smoker like a Masterbuilt, or just a conventional kettle grill like a Weber. 

Let's go!

Swordfish is considered by many to be the steak of the sea.

Well at least we consider it to be that around Mad Backyard, much like smoked mahi mahi, smoked swordfish holds up well to stronger flavors compared to more delicate fillets like tilapia and halibut.

In fact, we are going to prepare it much like say a smoked ribeye steak, by first smoking it and then reverse searing it to get a nice chargrilled texture on the outside.

But it IS seafood after all, so we need to take some other steps with our smoked swordfish first we wouldn't necessarily with a steak, like brining it first and then marinating it for maximum flavor before throwing it on the smoker.

Let's get started!

Jump to:

• Seasoning Swordfish Steaks
• Brining the Swordfish Steaks
• Marinating the Swordfish Steaks
• Best Wood for Smoked Swordfish
• Smoking Temperature
• Target Internal Temperature
• Cooking Time
• Cedar Planks, Grill Baskets, or Grill Mats
• Monitor your Grill Temperature
• Reverse Searing the Smoked Swordfish
• Serving Suggestions
• 📖 Recipe

Seasoning Swordfish Steaks

Below you will see that we are going to brine and marinate our swordfish before smoking.

This is for maximum flavor and juiciness but is by no means 100% necessary, especially if you want to make your smoked swordfish tonight and not tomorrow.

You can go gentle and delicate with a simple blend of salt and pepper on smoked swordfish if that's your thing. You can also add in some smoked paprika for more color and depth of flavor.

Alternatively, if you want strong Cajun blackening flavors, you can use a spicier like our current favorite blackened  rub Traeger Blackened Saskatchewan Dry Rub.  It holds up very well on smoked swordfish without overpowering it.

Just sprinkle some on the swordfish steak after brushing both sides with some olive oil.

Brining the Swordfish Steaks

For our recipe below though, we are going to brine the swordfish for 2-4 hours before smoking it.

This is incredibly easy to do.

Simply mix together:

• 4-6 cups cold water (enough to cover the swordfish steaks in whatever container you use).
• ½ Cup Kosher Salt
• ½ Cup Brown Sugar
• 2 tablespoon Coarse Ground Black Pepper

You may need to double this if you are making more than 4 smoked swordfish steaks.

Place the swordfish steaks in a sealable plastic or glass container with a lid and make sure they are submerged in the well mixed brine solution.

Place in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours.

Afterwards, take the swordfish steaks out of the brine and rinse them well under cold running water and then pat dry.

Don't worry, plenty of seasoning is still inside the swordfish. If you don't rinse them, they may be overly salty.

Marinating the Swordfish Steaks

The brining will make the smoked swordfish juicy and somewhat seasoned, but to add maximum flavor, we need to marinate these swordfish steaks before smoking them as well.

For our smoked swordfish marinade we are going to use:

• 2 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 2 tablespoon Fresh Minced Garlic
• 1 tablespoon Kosher Salt or your favorite Seafood Rub
• 1 tablespoon Coarse Black Pepper
• Juice of ½ a Lemon

Again, you may need to double this if you are smoking a lot of swordfish steaks.

You can place the ingredients with swordfish steaks in a resealable gallon sized bag and let them marinate for an hour or two in the refrigerator while you get your smoker set up.

Best Wood for Smoked Swordfish

Because we are only smoking the swordfish steaks for such a short period of time, you can really get away with any kind of smoking wood of your choosing.

If you want to keep it simple and straightforward, choose a lighter smoking wood like alder, oak, apple, or peach.

Want more smoky wood flavor? We also really like hickory, and especially cherry, for smoking swordfish.

Make sure to use wood pellets in a pellet grill or pellet tube, wood chips in an electric smoker, and wood chunks in a charcoal grill or firebox.

Smoking Temperature

We are going to set up the smoker or grill for indirect cooking at 225°F.

This will allow the swordfish to absorb plenty of smokey flavor for about an hour before we crank the heat and reverse sear our smoked swordfish steaks to a perfect finish.

Target Internal Temperature

You HAVE to use a good instant read meat thermometer to know where the internal temperature is of your smoked swordfish steaks, especially because they will cook relatively FAST!

We are particular fans of this one from ThermoPro because of its durability and affordable price.

While we have used and recommended ThermoPro for years, lately we have also become big fans of the MEATER leave in thermometer.

It is extremely accurate and has an incredible 165 foot Bluetooth range and works right with your smartphone so you don't need to carry a separate controller around with you like many other remote thermometers require.

It's got a great free app that is constantly being updated and even has an algorithm to predict how much longer your type of meat will take to cook based on cooking temperature, target temperature, current internal temperature.

It's like a GPS for your meat!

We are targeting a final internal temperature of 145°F on the smoked swordfish to know that it is finished cooking. 

Cooking Time

At 225°F, the typical swordfish steak will take about 90 minutes to cook and come up to 145°F internally, if you don't reverse sear it, depending on its thickness of course.

However, we are going to pull our smoked swordfish steaks off the grill or smoker when they reach 120°F, which should only take about 1 HOUR.

We will then reverse sear the smoked swordfish over high heat, either in a hot cast iron pan, on a Grill Grate if using a pellet grill, or over the hot side of a gas or charcoal grill, resulting in a good Maillard reaction and giving us the best texture and flavor!

Cedar Planks, Grill Baskets, or Grill Mats

Option 1: Cedar Planks

You can also experiment with smoking your swordfish steaks on cedar planks for some added woods flavor.

Check out our complete guide on how to grill with cedar planks HERE.

Make sure to soak the cedar planks in water for at least an hour before putting them on your grill or smoker so that they don't char and burn.

This also helps release steam and flavor the mahi mahi while they are smoking.

Option 2: Use a Grill Basket or Grill Mat

While swordfish is a heartier and meatier piece of fish, it is still seafood, and may need to be handled a little more delicately than say a big New York strip or ribeye.

You may be more successful if you place the smoked swordfish steaks in a grill basket rather than directly on the grill grates.

We are particular fans of the ORDORA Portable Grill Basket because it comes with its own handle, making it much easier to manage and move lots of delicate food around with one quick motion.

Another option is to use a grill mat, which are becoming increasingly popular in many BBQ circles, especially for delicate veggies and small seafood like shrimp and scallops.

Our personal favorite is the Grillaholics Mesh Grill Mat.

Just throw it down on your grill to keep your fish (or any other food) from falling through. It keeps your grates really clean, and when you are done, you just throw it right in the dishwasher!

Monitor your Grill Temperature

Almost every grill and smoker will have some sort of temperature gauge on them.

Now, if you are using a pellet grill or electric smoker, you should be able to pretty accurately dial in your desired temperature of 225°F with the turn of a dial.

This is what makes them so convenient!

If, however, you are using a charcoal or propane grill/smoker, you can't rely on the cheap lid mounted temperature gauge that come installed on them.

We have found these can sometimes be up to 30°F off from what the true actual temperature at the grill grate level.

This is unacceptable.

This is why you will always see competition cooks, and backyard chefs who know their stuff, using wireless digital probe thermometers to keep track of both their meat AND their cooking chamber.

And even if you have a fancy pellet grill like a Traeger or even an electric smoker, it can't hurt to double check how accurate your temperature settings are to the true temperatures you are getting.

We are big fans of the ThermoPro Wireless Digital Meat Thermometer series.

Reverse Searing the Smoked Swordfish

"Reverse Searing" is just a fancy term for searing your food at the very end, once it is pretty much all the way cooked through, in order to get a nice crispy exterior crust that you just can't get from low and slow smoking alone.

We've previously shown how reverse searing works great on lamb chops, as well as a whole smoked rack of lamb reverse seared with a blow torch!

This also works great for thick cuts of meat like London broil that need time to slow cook and absorb smokey flavor but then benefit from a nice outside sear.

With larger cuts of meat like hams and pork butts, they will develop a nice exterior crust naturally just due to the long length of time they spend in the smoker.

Technically you can reverse sear in a hot pan with butter, a flat top grill with oil, or over a hot propane burner or searing hot batch of charcoal on any grill.

If you are using a pellet grill and finding it hard to get that high direct heat for searing, try laying a couple of Grill Grates over a section of the grill. 

These work great for creating a hot searing stations on a pellet grill using the ambient heat the pellet grill is already creating. You can see with this infrared thermometer just how hot the grates can get!

For our purposes today, we are just going to reverse sear our smoked swordfish steaks for about 2-3 minutes per side after they reach 120°F internally to finish bringing them up to 145°F.

Make sure to watch your internal temperature closely using a good thermometer.

If you are using Grill Grates on a pellet grill or a hot cast iron pan, get it preheating with some high heat point oil like avocado oil while the swordfish steaks are smoking.

Once they hit 120°F either move them over to the hot side of a gas or charcoal grill or place them on the Grill Grates or into the hot cast iron pan.

Let them sear for about 2 minutes per side and continue to watch the internal temperature using an instant read thermometer.

Continue searing 1 minute in each side until they reach 145°F internally, then remove them from the heat and put on a plate.

There is no need to rest your smoked swordfish steaks, so make sure everyone is ready to eat!

Serving Suggestions

Your smoked swordfish steaks should be served immediately after removing them from the smoker.

You can brush at the end with a BBQ or mustard glaze or just have them simply seasoned right off the grill!

No need to rest or wait to eat!

You can also slice up that swordfish to make delicious smoked swordfish fish tacos, or incorporate it into a salad or serve simply alongside some smoked cauliflower or asparagus!

📖 Recipe