Caught a bunch during a Florida trip and packed my freezer. Never cooked it and looking for ideas.....

Pretty strong tasting meat.Did you fillet it or steak it out?

The guides filleted (weird looking word) them and then cut them into manageable sizes.

Soaked in Italian dressing for awhile & grilled is the only way I've had it. Pretty good. Had better fish tho.

I haven't eaten' Kingfish in many a years. I do know that the fish was steaked out about 1 inch thick. Once you have done that,you can see the meat is 4 circular areas. Call these "Balls". Just punch them out and you will have a round "fillet". Doing it this way eliminates filleting and cutting all that blood line meat out. We worked a fishing tournament for a local fishing club in Tx City in the early 90's , and one of the members cooked/deep fried the Kingfish Balls and Stingray Balls. Being a Cajun, his recipe was Cajun style and I don't know what it consisted of. I'm sure one can google a recipe like this. I also recall someone using these balls in some sort of stew. No fishy taste either!!

The Italian Dressing is a good idea, after soaking for a minimum of an hour, sprinkle cajun seasoning on it liberally and grill it 10 minutes lid on - if they left the skin on a side, go between the skin and the meat and flip it out of the skin, pour your soaking mix on that side and more cajun stuff, lid on and another 10 minutes. That black flesh you see is the really strong stuff - you can cut that out or scrape it off - or leave it, I guess there's someone who likes it somewhere.

A blast to catch, however...
Caught a 7 pounder years ago during deep sea party boat off Corpus and enjoyed the fight. Took home after boat guys cut in steaks, tried baking and pan fried. Very strong tasting even after Italian marinade for pan frying. Finished the steak (small), but would not recommend other maybe placing in a gumbo, highly seasoned. Great game fish though.

make fish balls or fish cakes with them. for some reason the strong tasting fish make good balls/cakes. mix baked fish with bread crumbs, egg, mayo, chopped pepper, chopped onion, chopped celery. roll mix into balls about the size of a golf ball or make a pattie. dip in egg wash, roll in more bread crumbs and bake or fry. send one plump helping to me. love those things.

king is very oily,which makes it great for smoking. smoke it over pecan and make the best tuna salad you have ever had.blackened king tacos are good also

I've had great luck with air frying and grilling Kings.

Our favorite is to cut them up into 1 1.5 inch cubes, marinate in your favorite concoction, then rub them down with your seasoning of choice, wrap in bacon and grill. Popper Style!

Last batch was a citrus marinade; lemon, lime, chili garlic sauce, etc etc.....a lighter marinade if you will, but do it for a few hours or overnight. It's a steaky enough fish it holds up nice to a long marination I've found.

A lot of good info and ideas. Seems to be a common reality that the meat is strong. I have a lot of experimenting to do. Very much appreciated!

Blackened kingfish enchiladas. You can get them all over South Padre. Gave me a new love for Kings!

Smoke it, chop it up and use it like tuna for making sandwiches.

marinate in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, cilantro and lime juice for an hour and grill. For a little extra put a dash of cayenne pepper before you grill, thats my favorite way. I also like my kings fried in beer batter.

If you don’t eat it within the first 24 hours then you best smoke it. It is absolutely delicious grilled when it’s fresh. After that not so much. The recipe above is excellent or something like that. It makes great smoked fish dip and it is great bottom fishing bait. It’s so oily it’s a natural fish attractant and the skin is tough enough to keep it on the hook.