Grilled Octopus

Jump to the recipe

I wasn’t a hugely fussy eater as a child so it’s no surprise that grilled octopus is something I’ve been eating for a very long time. I used to love going to a local taverna in Larnaca with my grandpa and ordering the fish meze - and we’d always get the octopus.

The challenge most find with cooking octopus at home (or in general) is keeping it tender and not a tough, chewy mess. There are a multitude of recipes out there with a hundred different ways of approaching it, but this method I choose to use has never failed me. No one seems to believe me when I share that the key is letting the octopus cook in its own juices without adding anything at all - not even my dad! Why use a poaching liquid when the octopus can provide its own?!

I like to use a pre-cleaned, snap frozen octopus from a good fish monger - the freezing and thawing process is said to really support tenderising the octopus and I couldn’t agree more. Bear in mind a frozen octopus will weigh a good 200-300g more than when it’s thawed, so I recommend weighing it once defrosted to aid with cooking times.

---

Grilled Octopus

Makes one grilled octopus - serves 4-6

Ingredients 

• 1.5-1.6kg whole octopus - ask your fishmonger to clean it for you

• Extra virgin olive oil for grilling

• Lemon and fresh parsley to serve

Method 

1. If you’ve bought frozen octopus, defrost it entirely before cooking. 

2. Place the whole octopus into a heavy bottom pan/casserole with absolutely nothing else - I mean it. Just put it in there. No oil, no salt - nada. 

3. Pop the lid on, place on the smallest flame/heat your stove can produce and let it be for 1h30-1h50m subject to the size of your octopus.

   NB: For a 1.6kg octopus I typically cook it for about 1h50m. The octopus will be tender! So tender - it’s beaut. 

4. Check it occasionally. If it’s sticking slightly to the base of your pan, add a dash of water to loosen, and rotate the octopus. 

5. Remove the octopus from the pan and allow to cool enough to handle. 

6. Cut the tentacles away from the head so you have individual pieces - I also like to cut the thin ends off from the tentacles and save them to make some marinated octopus along with the head, but you don’t have to do this of course :)

7. Drizzle the tentacles with olive oil and grill on a hot BBQ for a few min on each side until nicely charred.

8. Serve with fresh chopped parsley and lots of fresh lemon juice.