Citrusy Sockeye Salmon
November 9th, 2021An All-in-One Sheet Pan Meal That's Bright, Sweet, and Pleasantly Bitter
This recipe is featured in our guide for hosting A Wild Alaskan Winter Celebration. To download the full guide with festive menus for every sized gathering this season, enter your email above!
Our recipe for citrusy sockeye salmon is a sheet pan meal that pairs up the savory, robust taste of sockeye with the complex, roasted flavors of bitter and sweet cool-weather crops. It’s a healthy weeknight meal that is ridiculously easy to prep and requires less than 30 minutes of cook time.
Sockeye salmon is roasted alongside halved lemons, which become mellow (and so juicy!) as they cook so that they’re citrusy without being sour. The lemons become the perfect complement to bitter radicchio and sweet roasted shallots and scallions, all of which caramelize beautifully in a hot oven.
Before you cook the salmon for this recipe, we suggest brining it in a simple saltwater solution (1 tablespoon of salt per 1 cup of water). Use as much water as you need to fully submerge the fillets. The benefit of this optional but easy step is a juicier portion of salmon. Brined salmon also looks nicer on the plate, since brining helps to prevent albumin (a harmless white protein) from forming on the surface of the salmon. This step can be done while your veggies are getting a head start in the oven so that you're not adding to the total prep time for this meal.
If you haven't defrosted your fillets of sockeye yet, hop over to our How to Thaw blog post for a step-by-step guide on how to defrost seafood the right way.
Citrusy Sockeye Salmon
By Wild Alaskan Company
Prep time
10 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Total time
40 minutes
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
- 4 (6-ounce) fillets sockeye salmon
- 3 or 4 small heads of radicchio, cored and quartered
- 2 shallots, sliced vertically into wedges (about ½ inch thick)
- 8 scallions, sliced diagonally
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 lemons, halved
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Arrange shallots, scallions, and radicchio in a single layer on baking sheet and toss with olive oil. Place lemon halves with the open face up, and drizzle with olive oil. Season everything with salt and pepper, then place on center rack in oven. Set timer for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, brine salmon fillets in a saltwater solution (1 tablespoon of salt per cup of water).
4. At 20-minute mark, remove salmon fillets from brine and pat dry to remove excess moisture. Drizzle both sides with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then add fillets to baking sheet skin side down, moving aside vegetables if needed. Set timer for 6 minutes.
5. Salmon is medium-rare when easily flaked with a fork, or when thickest part registers 120F with an instant-read thermometer. Thicker fillets may need an additional minute or two to cook through. When salmon has reached desired doneness, transfer to individual plates alongside a few quarters of radicchio, a mix of shallots and scallions, and half a roasted lemon. Serve immediately.
Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, or eggs may increase your risk of food-borne illness, especially if you have a certain medical condition. The FDA recommends an internal temperature of 145°F for cooked fish.
