Pan Seared Salmon Recipe with Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to sear salmon in butter or oil? ›

Butter makes everything better, and the oil is key for helping create the crispy exterior. Make sure to use an oil with a high smoke point like canola, grapeseed, or avocado oil to avoid burning it. Lemon. A finishing squeeze of fresh lemon juice adds freshness and brightness.

For smaller, crispy, skin-on Salmon; a crispy pan sear is recommended. For bigger fillets, and succulent, skin-off King Salmon; the best method would be cooking in an oven.

Place the fillets skin-side down and sear for about 6-8 minutes, depending on how thick the piece of fish is. Flip once you see that the flesh has lightened about 3/4 of the way up the fish. Sear for another 1-2 minutes.

Cooking Skinless Salmon in a Pan

Place the salmon down onto the preheated pan and sear for 1 minute at 425°F (218°C). Then reduce the temperature to 400°F (204°C) and follow the guide for the recommended times to cook each side, based on the thickness and your desired doneness.

To start, get your fish to room temperature.

This ensures a more even doneness throughout the entire fillet. Heat a skillet until very hot before adding some vegetable oil and salt. Place the fish skin-side down in the pan, pressing down firmly with a fish spatula.

Our favorite spices to use with this type of fish are paprika, chile/chili powder, garlic powder/salt, cumin, onion, and ginger. You can also shop store-bought salmon rub like our Traeger Fin & Feather Rub, Anything Rub, and Traeger Rub.

PAN SEARING

Add enough cooking oil to coat the bottom of the pan and heat over medium-high heat. Place salmon, skin-side up, into pan and cook until browned, about 4 minutes. Carefully flip salmon and cook for another 3 minutes or until done.

Wrap your salmon in a parchment packet with aromatics, citrus, veggies, and a drizzle of olive oil. The steam trapped in the packet will infuse the fish with flavor and cook it gently, making it tender and juicy. Bonus: The parchment packets only take about 15 minutes at 425°F and the cleanup is minimal.

The easiest way to see if your salmon has finished cooking is to gently press down on the top of the fillet with a fork or your finger. If the flesh of the salmon flakes—meaning, it separates easily along the white lines that run across the fillet (strips of fish fat)—it's finished cooking. Take it off of the heat!

Should you eat salmon skin? ›

Salmon is one of the healthiest and most popular fishes to make, and if you like the skin, there's absolutely no reason to discard it. In fact, the salmon skin is known to be an excellent source of minerals, plus omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins B and D, and more nutrients.

Salmon fillets are best cooked starting with the skin-side down. This prevents over-browning the meat, which can make it dry and pretty unappealing to look at on the plate. "When pan-frying or grilling, cook salmon fillets skin-side down for 5-7 minutes, flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes," says Norton.

You don't want to rush the sear. If your burners run hot, go with a heat level that's closer to medium. For salmon that's the same doneness all the way through, remove the pan from the heat after searing and cover. The residual heat from the pan will continue cooking the fillets without overcooking them.

Heat up a pan to high, add salmon skin side down and wait for skin to crisp. When you see the flesh directly above the skin turn opaque turn down the heat and cook so about two thirds of the salmon is cooked. Then flip and sear the other sides, take off the heat and let rest for a bit.

Dry the salmon fillet with a kitchen towel so that the oil does not splatter and season the skin of the fish generously with salt. Place the fish skin side down in the pan, away from you so the oil does not splash.

As you can see, between butter and oil, butter has a dramatically lower smoke point. Because of this, if you heat up a pan hot enough to sear your steak, putting a dollop of butter in first means it is likely to burn up. However, that doesn't mean you can't still get the delicious flavors of butter with your steak.

Butter or oil for fish

Fry fish in a mixture of oil and butter, it creates more heat resistant frying fat. The oil should go in first. Wait until the butter stops spluttering and baste the fish during frying. Once you have fried a piece of fish in butter, you've virtually created your sauce in the pan.

Oven-baking is a simple and reliable method for cooking salmon. Compared to other techniques, oven baking provides an even char, with the oven's dry heat resulting in a tender and moist texture.

You can skip the butter and cook the salmon in two tablespoons of olive oil. However, butter enhances the salmon's flavor. Alternatively, you can skip the olive oil and use two tablespoons of butter. The butter's milk solids have a blackening effect (similar to blackened salmon), making the salmon extra-crispy.