It doesn’t get much simpler than five ingredients. Total. Start to finish. This is truly the easiest salmon recipe there is, and it’s so, so good.
Brown sugar and dijon mustard are a match made in culinary heaven. Just add a pinch of salt and you’ve got yourself a sauce that’ll do wonders to salmon. It’s so simple, yet so good.
The trick to cooking salmon properly is to sear the skin, then cook the rest from the top down. I like to wait until my cast iron skillet is smoking hot (literally) before I add the butter and salmon, then quickly move it to the oven once the sides look like they’ve cooked about half-way through.
For this particular recipe, I like the broiler because the heat source radiates from the top down, as opposed to coming at it from all sides. However, because there’s a lot of sugar in the sauce, I lower the top oven rack by one notch so the top doesn’t burn before the salmon is cooked through.
Brown Sugar Dijon Salmon
Ingredients
- 2 salmon filets 6-8 oz each, skin on
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Pat salmon filets dry, then season with 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of salt each, depending on the size. Set aside.
- Combine brown sugar, dijon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Heat a cast iron (or heavily bottomed, oven-proof) skillet over high heat and wait for it to get very hot. Meanwhile, turn your oven on to broil and position the top rack about 6-8 inches from the top. Add butter, then once it has melted, add the fillets skin-side down. Cook until they have cooked (turned white-ish) about halfway through. Brush a thin layer of sauce over the top of the salmon and place in the oven on the top rack for 90 seconds.
- Pull the salmon out and brush a second layer of sauce on the top, then stick it back in the oven for another 90 seconds.
- Pull the salmon out and brush with a third layer of sauce, then stick it back in for 2 minutes. When you pull it out for the third time it's done!