(Upbeat music) Today I'm going to show you how to make
crispy pan-seared salmon. Plus I've got a
delicious lemon garlic butter sauce that
complements the fish. It's a restaurant-quality meal made at
home. I enjoy eating my salmon with the skin
on but my husband Jason prefers it without.
For this recipe I'm going to show you how to prepare and cook the salmon
both ways. Let's start with the salmon skin on.
I'm going to take this gorgeous fillet and flip it over
and the scales run down the salmon this way from the head to the tail so
that means you're going to want to remove it going
this way you can either use the spine the dull part of the knife held at a 45-degree angle which you just easily start here and
you start to feel the resistance in the skin and
the scales start to flake off and be careful
they like to fly so watch out for your eyes,
they might get ya! So just keep running the knife of the
spine at a 45-degree angle until all the
scales are removed, alternatively another method I like to
use is a spoon. It does a good job too so whatever way
you prefer. Oh it's like a shoulder workout. Okay now I've removed most of the scales
and just so you know the scales are actually edible
but I like to remove as much as I can so it's perfectly safe to eat if you have a
couple left on the fish. Okay, now I'm going to cut the salmon
into individual fillets for about a 6-ounce portion
try to go about 2-inches wide or just a little bit bigger.
Um I like to just trim off this part first and then from here we're gonna do the
2-inch cut so that's right here it's perfect
I like to cut the fillets from the center-cut portion of the fish
that way they cook evenly and at the same time
so I have my four fillets but maybe i'll cut one more
and then I'll save this nice tail portion for later.
Now we want to make sure that the surface of the fish on both sides
is really dry. This is extremely important because it's going to
determine how crispy the fish is and for safety.
Because if there's any moisture left on the surface it's going to hit
that pan and start to splatter so we want to be really careful. Now I season both sides of the salmon
with salt and pepper. Typically I wait to add the salt
right before iIm about to fry the fish but you could always dry off the surface
right before if you do it a little bit in advance.
Okay these look good just transfer them to a
clean plate. Now I'm going to show you how to remove
the skin. Okay so the key to this is that you want
the fillet as close to the edge of the cutting board as possible
so that it's easy for you to move your hand down
the length of the salmon. So I start from the tail end which is the shorter end
and you just cut a little piece off and you want to cut at a downward angle
so you don't cut into that good flesh and just work slowly
but see how the knife is very close to the edge of the board so it's easy
to just do little sawing motions and then just hold on to that
edge of the skin as a little grip for yourself
and we want to try to get the salmon off in one
piece just use a really sharp knife I like to use a boning knife because a
little it's a little bit flexible but you could use a chef's knife as well.
So I'm pulling the skin a little bit taut
while I move the skin down and if it gets slippery
you could also use some paper towels. There you go, see not too much
flesh left on the skin and then I also like to
check for any pin bones that might be still attached to the flesh. You could
use just some needle nose pliers to pluck
them out if you feel for any but I don't. So it looks good
and then we're going to cut this into fillets so I just trim the edge right
here so we have nice even-sized fillets
and then again about a little bit bigger than two inches for
a six ounce portion. So I got five pieces out of this and
I'll save this again for later. So again make sure that the surface is
nice and dry so that it gets crispy right away when
it hits that hot pan and season the fillets with salt
and pepper. And I usually wait to add the salt
because it's going to start to draw out moisture
to the surface but if you end up salting it a little bit early
just pat it with a little bit of paper towel right before frying. If you're
lucky enough to buy fillets that are already cleaned and cut into individual
portions wait about 10-minutes before you fry
them because if you add really cold salmon to the hot pan it's
gonna stick. Now that these are ready let's go fry
them. My pan of choice to use is stainless
steel because it distributes the heat evenly
and quickly which prevents hot spots and sticking. The thing about it is is that
the surface is really porous so when it's heated it starts to
shrink so you want to heat the pan first and then add the oil.
The oil that I'm going to use is a high smoke point oil. It should be 375 degrees
and above which is going to give you a buffer when pan-frying.
We're going to cook the fish around 350 degrees.
I'm going to use a pure olive oil but light olive oil,
avocado, or vegetable oil works well too. Heat a 12-inch stainless steel cast iron
or non-stick pan over medium heat until hot, about two
minutes. Add the olive oil then turn the heat to
medium-high. Once the oil begins to shimmer, about one
to two minutes, carefully add the salmon skin-side down
one at a time. This allows it to fry in the oil longer
which ensures an extremely crisp layer. Using the back of a spatula,
immediately press the fish down into the pan for about 10-seconds.
This will help reduce buckling of the skin.
Add the remaining fillets to the pan pressing each one down
before adding the next piece. Reduce the heat to medium, cook the
salmon occasionally pressing down on the flesh
until the skin is brown and crispy and easily releases from the pan,
about five to six minutes. The salmon will be about 75 to 80 percent cooked
through. Use tongs to carefully flip the salmon
over. Gently press the surface to make direct
contact with the pan. Do not move the fillets. Cook until the
surface is golden brown, the edges are opaque, and the center is
slightly translucent, about one to two minutes. Ooh the skin
looks nice and crispy. We're just going to transfer it to
a paper towel-lined plate to drain, and because we spent so much time
creating this beautiful crunchy skin I like to serve it proudly with the skin
facing up and that way when we add the sauce
later it doesn't get soggy. Now I'm going to show you how to cook
the fish without the skin. Heat a 12-inch stainless steel cast iron
or non-stick pan over medium heat until hot, about 2
minutes. Add the olive oil then turn the heat to
medium-high. Once the oil begins to shimmer, about one
to two minutes, carefully add the salmon one at a time
flesh-side down. Using the back of a spatula, immediately
press the fish down into the pan for about 10-seconds. Add
the remaining fillets to the pan pressing each one down before adding the
next piece. Reduce the heat to medium, cook the
salmon occasionally pressing down on the flesh
until the surface is golden brown, crispy, and easily releases from the pan,
about four to five minutes. Use tongs to carefully flip the salmon over. Gently
press the surface to make direct contact with the pan
and do not move the fillets. Cook until the edges are opaque
and the center is slightly translucent, about one to two minutes.
The salmon is ready when the internal temperature reaches 120 for medium-rare
and 130 for medium, so let's take a check. This looks good. I'm going to transfer
them to a paper towel to drain. But there's so much wonderful fond from
the proteins and also the fat drippings from the
salmon that we're gonna make a lemon garlic butter sauce.
In the same pan heat the same pan used to cook the salmon
over medium heat add 1 tablespoon minced garlic, and 1 teaspoon lemon zest, saute for 30-seconds,
until fragrant. Add a quarter cup of lemon juice,
a half teaspoon of salt, and a quarter teaspoon black pepper.
Stir and cook for one minute. Turn off the heat,
whisk in three tablespoons of unsalted butter
until a lightly thickened emulsion is formed.
Add the salmon back to the pan and garnish with dill leaves,
parsley, and drizzle with lemon garlic sauce.
Wow this looks so good. Now I like to add some
lemon wedges to serve on the side, makes for a really pretty presentation.
To complete this meal I'd serve this with this tasty side dish
right here. I hope you enjoyed learning the science
behind pan-seared salmon and if you did please give it a big thumbs up, it means
a lot when you do. See you in the next video.
