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Honey Garlic Salmon Recipe
I love salmon and one of the best salmon recipes is Honey Garlic Salmon.
The delicious honey and garlic sauce makes this salmon recipe extremely juicy, moist and packed full of flavors. Other than my baked cod, this salmon with honey garlic sauce is definitely one of the easiest salmon dishes to make at home.
This salmon dinner takes only 15 minutes from start to finish, perfect for those busy weeknights after a long day of work!
Salmon
United States is a salmon powerhouse because nearly one-third of the world’s wild salmon supply comes from here.
As a result, there are many types of salmon available in the market.
To get the freshest and best salmon, here are my buying tips:
- Wild caught salmon. If you find wild salmon in your market, buy it. Wild salmon comes from the pristine waters of Pacific Northwest and Alaska and packed full of omega 3 fatty acids.
- Farmed salmon. If you are buying farmed salmon, choose those imported from Norway. Avoid the ones from China. Chinese farms use potentially carcinogenic (cancer-causing) chemicals to raise the fish.
- For the freshest fish, shop on the day when your grocery stores restock their fish.
- Wild salmon looks orange in color whereas farmed salmon is pale orange in color.
- Avoid salmon color that is bright orange or red. It means food dye has been added to the fish.
You can learn more about the difference between wild caught vs farmed salmon on Bon Appetit.
How to Cook Salmon?
How to cook salmon on the stove?
To make this Honey Garlic Salmon recipe, you will need the following ingredients:
- Salmon fillet.
- Minced garlic.
- Honey.
- Apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.
- Salt and pepper.
First, season the salmon fillets with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.
Next, make the honey garlic sauce by mixing the ingredients together.
The final step is heating up a skillet or pan and cook the salmon with garlic and the sauce.
You can add an extra step of broiling the salmon fillets in the oven.
Broiling on high heat chars the surface of the fish, making this recipe extremely delicious and restaurant worthy.
Salmon Nutrition
Wild caught salmon is packed of nutrition. Here are the nutrition facts of raw, wild Atlantic Salmon, provided by USDA.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cooking Methods for Salmon Recipes
There are many ways to make this easy salmon recipe:
- You can cook the salmon in a skillet on the stove top, as shown in the recipe card.
- You can bake it in the oven at 400°F for 8 minutes, uncovered.
- You can also wrap the salmon with a sheet of aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Can I Freeze Cooked Salmon?
I don’t recommend freezing cooked salmon because it will affect the texture of this salmon recipe. The flesh will become tough and rubbery after freezing.
You can certainly store cooked salmon in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Just wrap it tight with a sheet of plastic wrap.
To serve, just reheat the salmon in a microwave for 1 minute.
Do You Eat the Skin on Salmon?
When it comes to cooking salmon, one of the biggest questions is whether or not to cook with skin on or skin off.
Salmon skin is edible. Personally, I don’t eat salmon skin unless the salmon is deep-fried and the salmon skin becomes crispy.
For easy cooking, there is no need to remove the skin. Cook the salmon as is, with skin on, then discard the skin if you don’t want to eat it.
Just make sure that the skin is completely cleaned with no scales.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This salmon recipe is only 327 calories per serving.
What to Serve with This Salmon Recipe?
Salmon is best served with healthy side dishes. For a healthy meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Honey Garlic Salmon (The Best Recipe!)
Ingredients
- 12 oz. salmon (cut into 2-3 fillet strips)
- salt
- black pepper
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon warm water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1/2 lemon (sliced into wedges)
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Instructions
- Season the surface of the salmon with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Set aside.
- Mix the honey, water, apple cider vinegar or lemon juice and a pinch of salt together. Stir to combine well.
- Heat up an oven-safe skillet (cast-iron skillet preferred) on high heat. Add the olive oil. Pan-fry the salmon, skin side down first, for about 1 minute. Turn the salmon over and cook for 1 minute. Turn it over again so the skin side is at the bottom.
- Add the garlic into the pan, saute until slightly browned. Add the honey mixture and lemon wedges into the skillet, reduce the sauce until it's sticky.
- Finish it off by broiling the salmon in the oven for 1 minute or until the surface becomes slightly charred (optional step).
- Top the salmon with parsley and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
I do not like fish, but I can tolerate salmon . Happy to report the honey garlic salmon, was fabulous and definitely plan on cooking it again. Thank you, CHARLENE Underly
Hi Charlene, that’s awesome. Thanks for trying my recipe. Please try more recipes for my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
Hi there, I am trying to look for the video that you mentioned is attached to this blog but I cant find it anywhere, can you send me the video for this recipe? It looks delish so i want to make sure I dont mess it up :)
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Great recipe! I learned to cook in France and in the US, so can really appreciate a good recipe. So now I want to try others on your site. Definitely adding this one to our cuisine repertoire! Keep up the great work!
I TRIED THIS RECIPE LAST NIGHT AND IT WAS AMAZING! IT WAS SUPER SIMPLE AND TASTES GREAT. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING :)
Thanks Mary, please try more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
Made this tonight. Reading the directions, I was extremely skeptical. But damnit, I needed to make something quick and we had just bought 11lbs of Canadian Salmon!
EXCELLENT DISH!
I doubled the ingredients knowing that I would have 4 large pieces. I ran out of honey so added the same amount of brown sugar (light/dark-doesn’t matter). Oh man, perfect.
Next time I make this (and there will be a next time), I will quadruple the ingredients for the sauce to make sure there is just enough to go round.
Way to go Rasa!
Hi Drake, thanks so much for your comment. You made my day! All my recipes are super easy but the flavors are all there. Please try more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
This recipe was good, but didn’t turn out quite like I wanted. Possibly because I used some frozen salmon fillets, and possibly because I put the salmon into the pan when the pan wasn’t quite hot enough yet. The skin immediately glued itself to the pan and disintegrated, which meant the sauce was kinda ruined, but I’m willing to chock it up to poor execution on my part.
Yes, you can’t use frozen salmon. Thaw to room temperature. Also the pan has to be well heated. Please check out the video in the recipe card.
It was fantastic. My family loved it.
Awesome please try more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
Another successful dish for family dinner! I added pepper flakes into the honey lemon sauce, which made the salmon even more flavorful. Thank you, Bee!
Pepper flakes sound good for this salmon recipe. Please try more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
This recipe is now in my quiver of ‘go to / quick & easy’ dinners. My family can be difficult to cook for but they’re all pleased when I serve this. Enough heat and flavor to be exciting (without being too ‘bossy’) — it looks beautiful on the plate with fresh vegetables and quinoa. (I got them to eat quinoa, heh.)
Hi Matica that’s awesome. Please try more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
This was one of the BEST salmon recipes i have made, and so very easy!!
Hi Sherry, that’s awesome. Please try more recipes on my site, they are all easy and the best: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
Great. I suggest you cut lemon into 1/4 it gives the salmon great flavor