The cooking process, or should I say procedures, in this octopus recipe are as simple as the ingredients themselves. You should be fine as long as you gently braise it over low heat until just soft, then give it a beautiful sear before serving. With crispy roasted potatoes, this smokey octopus is delicious.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 40 mins |
| Servings: | 2 |
Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
- 1 large bay leaf
- 1 ½ teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 (1 pound) piece Spanish octopus
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ⅓ cup braising liquid
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- salt to taste
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place onion, garlic, bay leaf, paprika, salt, and 1 tablespoon olive oil into a saucepan. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until onions start to soften, about 5 minutes. Add white wine to create the braising liquid. Bring to a simmer.
- Transfer octopus into braising liquid, turning to coat with the liquid. Cover; reduce heat to low. Simmer 20 minutes and turn octopus over. Continue cooking until octopus is tender, another 40 to 45 minutes.
- Remove from heat; transfer octopus to a large bowl. Pour braising liquid over octopus. Place bowl above a bowl of ice water to cool to room temperature.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap when octopus and liquid are cool. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Transfer octopus to a work surface and mop off braising juices with paper towels; remove as much of the purple skin as you want. Cut octopus into 3 or 4 serving-size pieces. Brush with olive oil.
- Transfer braising liquid to saucepan. Bring to a boil; remove from heat. Strain out solids; transfer liquid to a mixing bowl; let cool about 10 minutes. Stir in lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and cayenne pepper to make the serving sauce.
- Heat a grill pan or outdoor grill to high heat. Transfer octopus pieces to grill. Cook until flesh is seared, almost charred, 3 or 4 minutes. Turn and cook other side until dark brown, caramelized, and heated through, another 3 or 4 minutes. Transfer to a platter.
- Slice octopus into fairly thick diagonal slices. Place on a serving dish. Spoon braising liquid mixture over the top. Dust with a bit of cayenne pepper, if desired.
- Freshly chopped Italian parsley is nice to add to the serving sauce to taste. I love to serve braised octopus with crusty roasted potatoes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 513 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 15 g |
| Cholesterol | 109 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 35 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 2046 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 30 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made it according to the recipe. Instead of patatoes I added asparagus. Very tasty. Great apetizer
I had a 2.6 lb octopus so I modified things. I’ve never cooked octopus before and I was too lazy to look up how to cut it so I just snipped the tentacles off where I thought was right. Then, I doubled all the braising ingredients and added Greek seasoning in addition to the smoked paprika and did 1/2 tsp less of salt than what doubled would have called for as my Greek seasoning was salted. I only marinated for 1 hr and 40 minutes because my child was yelling “eat!” I then took the leftover onions from the braising liquid and threw them in my vitamix with 1 TBS of brown sugar, Dijon and honey mustard, 3 tbs of white wine vinegar and 1/2 cup olive oil. Served octopus over Greek and smoked sea salt 1 inch roasted yellow potatoes @450 for 22 minutes. Served the dressing over spinach with shaved aged Gouda. My toddler approved this meal and ate most the octopus and 3 servings of spinach!
Easy peasy (and I did overnight it in the fridge) with the bonus of this patience being it’s one excellent plating of food. The braising liquid is delicious once lemon juice, EVO & a pinch of cayenne is added. I did serve with roasted potatoes, with the grilling of the octopus adding a wonderful smoky flavor to the dish. On my short list of those things to impress close friends or family with
Other than being incredibly salty the recipe is good method for cooking tender octopus. The best octopus I ever had was at the JW Marriott in San Jose del Cabo. I have been searching for a recipe similar to it but this one was not it.
Absolutely amazing. Only thing I changed was I boiled the octopus for an hour before braising. Left it overnight, seared in the cast iron skillet, and it was tender enough to cut with a fork. Thanks Chef John for this great recipe!
Simple and delicious recipe! I condensed the time frame to 3 hrs instead of waiting until the next day. It was so tender and flavorful. Thank you for sharing this!
Pretty good. I’ll add more salt and get a larger octopus next time. 2.2 lb was too small.
Better than the one my mother use to make, I wish they were alive this would have given them extra 10 years
Definatley an amazing recipe, as for changes I added a bit more white wine total of 1 1/2 cup. Other than that it’s one of the best octopus dishes I’ve done.
Loved it!