This post may contain affiliate links. Please see disclosure policy here.
Baked in the oven, this marinated salmon is tender and delicious and is topped with an amazing mustard dill sauce.
Baked Salmon
This is the recipe that made me a salmon lover. My husband has always loved salmon and if it’s on the menu that is what he orders. A friend shared some salmon her husband had caught in Alaska along with this recipe so I gave it a try and after tasting it I discovered I am a salmon lover too!
My husband loved it and after serving it at a party I had my guests tell me it was the BEST salmon they had ever eaten. The flavor the marinade and the sauce is amazing!
Marinade Ingredients
- Brown Sugar
- Salt and Pepper
- Gin or Apple Juice. I substituted apple juice for the gin and it worked great.
- Dill. The recipe calls for fresh dill which I used, if you need to use dry dill use 1 tsp.
How to Make Marinated Salmon
- Combine marinade ingredients.
- Place salmon in a baking dish and cover with marinade.
- Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator for at least four hours.
- Pour off excess marinade and place on a baking sheet.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until cooked through and light and flaky.
Salmon Sauce Ingredients
While the salmon is baking mix up the marinade.
- Brown Sugar
- Dijon Mustard. You can use your favorite kind of mustard.
- Lemon Juice
- Dill. Fresh if possible
- Vegetable Oil
- Leftover Marinade
- Whipping Cream
Combine all the ingredients together and keep refrigerated until ready to use.
The sauce can be served poured over the salmon or served on the side as a dipping sauce. This sauce adds amazing flavor!
Can I Grill It Instead of Bake?
I have only baked this particular recipe but it should grill fine. Be sure to use salmon with the skin on when grilling. The skin helps hold the salmon together when you turn it on the grill.
To grill the salmon cover your grill with foil and place salmon over a medium high heat. It will cook for about 6 minutes on each side. Time will vary depending on the thickness of your salmon and heat of grill.
How Do I Know When Marinated Salmon Is Done?
Use a meat thermometer. Salmon is done when it reaches a temperature of 125-130 F which is medium doneness. It will continue to cook for a few minutes after removing it from the heat. Put your thermometer into the thickest part of your salmon.
Flake with a Fork. Cook until the salmon just begins to flake or separate when poked with a fork.
Do not overcook your marinated salmon. There is nothing worse than a piece of overcooked fish!
Some of our other favorite seafood recipes include:
For all my other favorite kitchen products and tools visit my Amazon Store.
Did you know I wrote a cookbook? Check out the Holiday Slow Cooker Cookbook for 100 delicious recipes.
Be sure and follow me over on You Tube for weekly cooking demos.
Marinated Salmon and Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 lb salmon with skin on
- 6 Tbsp brown Sugar
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 Tbsp Gin or apple juice
- ¼ fresh dill chopped
Sauce:
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- ¼ cup Dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp juice from marinade
- ½ lemon juice only
- ¼ bunch fresh chopped dill
- ¼ cup Vegetable oil
- Tabasco sauce to taste
- 5 Tbsp whipping cream
Instructions
- Place salmon skin side down in baking dish
- Mix ingredients in bowl and spread evenly over fish
- Marinate minimum of 4 hrs.
- Pour off excess juices and reserve for sauce
- Pre-heat oven to 400 and bake 15-20 min maximum
Sauce:
- Mix brown sugar and Dijon mustard in a bowl
- Slowly mix in veg. oil.
- Add remaining ingredients saving whipping cream for last
Leigh Anne says
A few of you have asked – the sauce is used as a condiment or dipping sauce. I did not put it on top of the salmon. Also – you can use the sauce the salmon marinaded in without cooking it – it is safe. It is not like chicken where you need to cook it first. You can eat raw fish. Enjoy!
Kim says
I like the new look of your blog!! Very cute..very pretty. Question about the sauce – It may be a silly question but do you heat up the sauce before serving with the salmon since you are using juice from the marinade that that the raw salmon was in? Maybe I am missing a step or something?
Britanie says
I made this Wednesday night and the entire family loved it. My fish was frozen when I started marinating it and I wish that it had been defrosted so it had the glazed look of yours. We loved the dipping sauce as well. Thank you!
Valerie H. says
I made this recipe tonight and my family gave it a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10. 10 being the best. It was easy to make and I had all the ingredients on hand already. The family saw me adding the whipped cream to the sauce and asked, “Is that whipped cream you’re putting in there?” It does seem odd but it works well with this recipe. Thank you Leigh Anne for sharing this yummy
recipe especially for those that aren’t big salmon lovers. It sure was good.
Heidi says
Ha ha!! You crack me up! The only time I’ve ever come close to buying alcohol was for my extremely Molly Mormon friend who was breastfeeding and having supply issues, and begged me to go buy some near-beer for her after hearing that it could help. So I went through the U-scan lane to avoid any potential neighbor sightings and wound up getting carded by the machine!! For non-alcholic brew! Tiff told me it tasted nasty and it didn’t help, but at least I got a good laugh out of it.