In our house, we try to eat salmon about once a week. Salmon contains omega-3 fatty acids, which greatly supports our cardiac and brain health. Did you know that salmon skin actually contains the highest concentration of omega-3 fatty acids? So to get the full benefit, we should be consuming the salmon skin as well. Not a lot of people like the salmon skin but we do! We like our skin crispy. Salmon skin can be challenging to cook. If you bake salmon, it’s easy for the skin to get soggy. I’m not a big fan of ingesting soggy skin. Grilling salmon is also an option for achieving crispy skin but not everyone has easy access to a grill. Here I share how we cook our skin-on salmon on the stovetop.
What You’ll Need:
Skin-on Salmon
Lemon Pepper Seasoning
Salt
Hairdryer
- Cut the salmon into pieces that are about 2-2.5 inches wide. If possible, it’s best to bring the salmon to room temperature first before cooking. Generously season lemon pepper seasoning on the salmon flesh.
- Once the flesh is seasoned, turn the salmon over such that it’s skin side up. In order for the skin to crisp, it has to be very dry. This is where the hairdryer comes in handy. It only takes about 10 seconds of low heat per filet to get the skin dry. Sprinkle a dash of salt onto the salmon skin. Now the salmon is ready to be cooked.
- On high heat, heat a generous layer of oil in a sauté pan. I don’t recommend using olive oil because the smoke point of olive oil is rather low. I also recommend using a stainless-steel pan instead of non-stick pan for this.
- Once the oil starts smoking, put the salmon skin-down into the pan. Hold the filet in place for a few seconds (you can do this by applying downward pressure in the middle of the filet with tongs). This will allow for good searing.
- Leave the salmon skin side down on high heat for at most 30 seconds before turning the heat down to low. Allow the salmon with skin side down to cook on low heat until the very top part of the flesh is almost pink rather than translucent. This typically takes about 15-20 minutes depending on how thick the filets are. Low and slow is the game here.
- Once only the top part of the flesh is almost pink, flip the filets over such that the skin side is now facing upwards. Turn the heat off once flipped. Let it sit in the oil for 1-2 minutes. And the salmon is done.