Create the best salmon with this tested and perfected Salmon Marinade recipe! Using 6 simple ingredients and a quick marinade, say good bye to flavorless salmon and hello to the taste of sweet, salty, tangy goodness! After the salmon is marinated, quickly cook it on the grill, or in the oven for an easy meal.
Add the olive oil, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, honey and Italian seasoning to a large bowl or plastic bag.
Add the salmon to the marinade and toss to coat.
Place in the refrigerator and marinate for 30 minutes, or up to 6 hours.
After marinating the salmon, preheat the oven to 425°F.
Remove the filets from the marinade and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Pour the marinade from the bag, or bowl, into a medium saucepan on the stove over high heat and bring the marinade to a boil.
Once boiling reduce the heat down to medium-high and simmer the marinade for 5-7 minutes, or until it thickens into a glaze. Remove the glaze from the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes. It will thicken up more during this time.
Spread the glaze evenly over the pieces of salmon on the baking sheet.
Place the salmon in the oven for 10 minutes.
Turn the oven from bake to broil on high. Cook the salmon for an additional 1-2 minutes under the broiler, or until the glaze begins to bubble and brown on top of the salmon. Always watch the salmon in the oven while it’s under the broiler to make sure it does not burn.
Notes
To grill the salmon, instead of baking it, follow these instructions:
Marinate the salmon, boil the marinade to make a glaze, but DO NOT glaze the salmon yet.
Preheat a grill to medium heat.
Brush the flesh of the salmon with oil (this will prevent it from sticking to the grill) and place the salmon filets, flesh side down, directly on the hot grill grates. Cook for 3-4 minutes.
Flip the salmon filets, so the skin side is down on the grill grates. Brush the glaze over the salmon and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes.
If you have a soy allergy or gluten allergy, I recommend using coconut aminos instead. This soy sauce alternative is soy-free, gluten-free and contains much less sodium. For this reason, I do recommend adding 1/2 teaspoon salt to the marinade if you replace the soy sauce with coconut aminos.
Always try to purchase salmon filets that are similar in size. If one piece of salmon is much smaller than the others, you might have to adjust the cooking time for that piece of salmon so that it doesn’t overcook. I recommend adding it to the baking sheet 2 minutes into the cooking time for the other filets.
This recipe is made with salmon that is 1 inch thick at the thickest part of the filet. If you’re using salmon that’s much thinner, I would recommend taking 2-3 minutes off of the initial 10 minute cook time in the oven, and only cooking the salmon for 3 minutes per side on the grill. You’ll know it’s cooked when the salmon flakes easily with a fork.
This recipe can be used to marinate up to 2 pounds of salmon.
You do not need to remove the skin on the salmon before cooking it. And I actually don’t recommend it. The skin will keep the salmon moist as it cooks in the oven, or on the grill.