How To Pan Sear Salmon

A lot of my friends tell me they want to eat more fish, but some of them are scared to cook it themselves because they think it’s too complicated. They’re afraid they’ll mess it up or that it will taste bad. One of my favorites is salmon and it is not nearly as scary to cook as you would think.

In my experience, the easiest way to cook salmon is to pan sear it. The actual cooking process literally takes less than 6 minutes and requires very few ingredients.

Ingredients:

• Salmon Filet
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil

1. Purchase salmon that has good fat marbling and that’s relatively thick (around 1 – 2 inches in the center). When possible, try to purchase salmon with the skin on. This will help it to cook more evenly. If you don’t want to eat the skin (I don’t know why you wouldn’t), you can always remove it after it’s done cooking.

2. Most salmon you purchase from the grocery store will already have the pin bones removed, but if not, remove the pin bones either using tweezers or your hands. Also, if you plan on eating the skin, descale the salmon skin by scraping your knife against the grain of the scales. They should pop right off. You can skip this if you hate omega 3’s and plan to not eat the skin.

3. Rinse your salmon off and pat it dry with a paper towel. This is important to ensure that your salmon has a nice crunchy sear.

4. Cut your salmon into 2 – 3 inch strips. I’ve found this is the perfect size for getting a nice sear.

5. Generously salt and pepper your salmon strips on all sides including the skin. Be sure to rub the salt and pepper in so that it is more likely to adhere to the fish when you’re cooking it.

 

6. Heat your pan up using a medium/high heat. I prefer to use a cast iron pan because the heat is distributed more evenly.

7. Drop in about a tablespoon of olive oil. When you start to see little wisps of smoke from the oil, that’s when you know the pan is hot enough.

8. Place your salmon into the pan skin side down. When you drop the salmon in, you should hear a nice sizzle. If you don’t, the pan is not hot enough yet. Using a spatula, press down on the salmon to ensure that all parts of the skin are making contact with the pan.

9. This is the most important step: leave your salmon alone. Let it cook on a medium to medium/high heat for around 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, you should see the color of the salmon changing on the bottom half from a deep reddish pink to a light faded pink.

 

10. Turn your salmon over with a slotted turner. If you left it alone during the first 4 minutes, the salmon should lift right off the pan with little trouble. Let it cook on the other side for 1 -2 more minutes.

 

11. Immediately remove the salmon from the pan to prevent over cooking. The salmon should be flaky and moist with the center slightly more pink/medium rare. The top of the salmon and the skin should be crunchy especially if you seasoned it well and made sure to remove all the excess moisture during the prep phase.

Hopefully this makes cooking fish a little less scary. Feel free to add your own herbs and seasonings as you get more comfortable with the actual technique. Dill, rosemary and lemon zest are just some of the things you can try. Happy eating!