One of my wonderful readers recently asked for more fish recipes. I fully intended on doing cod or some other type of fish that I had never cooked before, but when I got to the store and saw this pretty, fatty salmon, my mouth started to water. …but I’ll be doing more fish in the future, so stay tuned.
This recipe is, of course, pretty pricey, but its worth every penny. This is the best salmon I’ve ever made and it was incredibly easy. The best part about this dish is that you can cook it any way you want. I opted for a skillet but you could also use a George Foreman grill, an outdoor grill, or bake it in the oven (like I did last time). Whatever you do, make sure to oil your surface well so that your fish comes off in one piece. It’s deliciously delicate and the teriyaki sauce is sticky!
I decided to whip up a quick sriracha mayo because I thought the spicy, creamy mixture would pair perfectly with the sticky sweetness of the teriyaki. Right I was. Plus, sriracha mayo is good on just about everything under the sun so it’s no biggy if there is extra.
Pair this salmon with some savory coconut rice, garlic noodles, or (not)fried rice and you’ll have a gourmet meal for at least half the price that you’d pay in a restaurant.
Teriyaki salmon with Sriracha Mayo
Teriyaki Salmon with Sriracha Mayo
Servings 4Ingredients
- 1 lb. salmon filet ($11.49)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.24)
- 2 Tbsp. water ($0.00)
- 1/2 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil ($0.28)
- 1 inch fresh ginger ($0.13)
- 1/2 tsp minced garlic ($0.04)
- 2 Tbsp. brown sugar ($0.06)
- 2 Tbsp. rice wine ($0.27)
- 1 tsp cornstarch ($0.02)
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise ($0.42)
- 2 Tbsp. sriracha hot sauce ($0.24)
Instructions
- Make the teriyaki marinade by whisking together the soy sauce, water, sesame oil, minced garlic, grated ginger, brown sugar, rice wine, and corn starch (use a vegetable peeler to remove the ginger skin and then grate with a fine toothed cheese grater).
- Cut the salmon filet into four equal sized portions and place in a large zip top bag. Pour the marinade over top, remove as much air as possible and close up the bag. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, mixing the bag occasionally to redistribute the marinade.
- Heat a large, well oiled skillet over medium/high heat. It’s a good idea to use a non-stick surface here too just to be safe (teflon or well seasoned cast iron). The teriyaki sauce gets thick and sticky when cooked. Once the skillet is hot, add the fish, face down. Cook on all four sides for 2-3 minutes each side or until the fish has reached your desired doneness.
- In a small bowl, mix together the sriracha hot sauce and mayonnaise. Serve the fish with a dollop of sriracha mayo on top!
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Nutrition
Step By Step Photos
Whisk together the soy sauce, water, sesame oil, grated ginger, minced garlic, brown sugar, rice wine, and corn starch. This is your teriyaki marinade.
This is the big, one pound piece of salmon I bought.
Cut the salmon into four pieces of about the same weight. The two on the left are thinner so I cut them a little larger than the two on the right.
Place the salmon pieces in a zip top bag and add the marinade. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. I placed the bag face down so that the flesh side would be in contact with the marinade the whole time.
To cook the salmon in a skillet, heat the skillet over medium/high heat and make sure to add plenty of oil or non-stick spray. When it’s nice and hot, add the salmon flesh side down. Cook the salmon for 2-3 minutes on each side or until it is cooked to the point that you like it (I like mine medium/rare).
Turn the salmon and cook on each side. The marinade will get nice and thick and sticky as it cooks, which is why you need to make sure its all oiled well. I cooked the salmon with skin side down last.
And then it’s done… it’s that easy. You can also just pop it into a countertop grill or a hot oven. Lots of choices here.
Mix up some sriracha sauce and mayonnaise. You can use any ratio you’d like depending on how spicy you want it. I used 2 parts mayo to one part sriracha. I had plenty for all four pieces with just 1/4 cup of mayo and 2 Tbsp of sriracha.
This stuff is so good. Eat it on sandwiches, as a chip dip, or whatever. It’s so YUM.
If you don’t like sriracha or mayo, this fish is pretty phenomenal by its self too! I had a hard time not just gobbling it up before the photos were taken.
I liked cooking it in a skillet because the salmon stayed super moist… although a countertop grill may have been a little easier (no flipping required!).
OMG, so delicious.
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This recipe was delicious. I prepared it three days ago in the frying pan but am going to try baking it tonight. Fantastic.
Made this last night and the salmon (or rather, I think the brown sugar in the marinade) burned really badly even after only two minutes in the pan on medium-high heat. I think it would be fine in the oven, but on the stove top it just didn’t work for me. Don’t know what I did wrong.
It could be the cookware. If your pans are relatively thin, they will be hotter and tend to scorch. My Calphalon pans are pretty good at heating evenly and that non-stick surface kind of acts like a buffer. Also, heat settings on ranges differ, unfortunately… so that’s one think you just have to experiment with and get used to with your own stove. :(
The sriracha mayo looks a lot like Japanese Yum-Yum sauce. I don’t believe that it’s the same thing, but would you happen to know how to make Japanese yum-yum sauce? I have not been able to find the specific recipe.
Also, a suggestion for you to try! You obviously like hot/spicy but with flavor too, so you should try Buffalo wild wings spicy garlic sauce! You can buy it in the bottle at Buffalo wild wings restaurants. It’s amazing and I just about literally put that sh*t on everything!
Oooh, that sauce sounds tempting (BWW sauce)! I haven’t ever made yum-yum sauce, but I have seen recipes for it around the web. I just popped “yum yum sauce” into google and it retrieved quite a few recipes. Hopefully one of those will be similar to what you’ve had! :)
Wow is all I have to say. Simple and delicious. I’m not good at cooking salmon and I am always super picky eating it. I often find it too dry. This was perfect.
The recipe is so simple. The spicy mayonnaise, which I usually use with sushi, really adds something special. Bravo!
Please have more fish and seafood recipes. Thank you!
Oh and for the record, here are the modifications I made:
– No ginger (I hate it, but maybe lemon juice could have been good);
– Garlic powder instead of garlic (too tired to cut, don’t judge me);
– White wine instead of rice wine, canola oil instead toasted sesame oil (didn’t have any);
– A bit more water;
– No corn starch.
Subbed almond butter for the mayo for a higher-protein, higher-fiber alternative.
And my face was properly rocked off. I think I just ruined my tastebuds with a flavor-tsunami. Either that or I accidentally synthesized sea-crack.
I’m in recovery after having just eaten it. Recovering in fish heaven.
I LOVE this recipe! I do cook the marinade to make a glaze to drizzle on the salmon before I top it with a bit of the sriracha mayo so the cornstarch works for me. My boyfriend and I eat this a couple times a month now. I have also used your recipe with seared tuna. Yum. Thank you!
Why are you adding cornstarch to the marinade? It thickens things up at a much lower temp than flour, yes… but not at room or refrigerator temps. If you were going to make a glaze out of the leftover marinade for the finished salmon, i’d understand adding cornstarch to tighten it up… but added to a marinade is a complete waste. *See “Alton Brown” if you’re bold enough to disagree.
Also, I just checked my sources… I was right. Cornstarch will not thicken anything until cooked. Nor does it add any flavor. Don’t misunderstand me, please. I love your blog. But if the point of said blog is to make a dish as cheaply as possible, why add an ingredient that is pointless? I’m really just trying to help. Thanks for your time. (assuming you, Beth, reads this)
No problem David! I love hearing feedback. I just wanted the little bit of marinade that is left on the salmon to get a little thick and gooey. Maybe it was worth it, maybe not. :)
My boyfriend and I LOVED this!
At first I forgot to make the mayo/siracha topping, and my boyfriend thought it was delicious enough on its own. But I went ahead and made the topping and we agreed it was even better.
I don’t think we’ll be making my other salmon recipe again.
Just found this recipe on pinterest. We get plenty of salmon since we live in Alaska, so we are always looking for many recipes to cook salmon. This so wonderful. We were sad that we didn’t have left overs :)
We LOVE this recipe. We make it now at least twice a month. The Mayo- sriracha recipe was such a great discovery.
Thank you!
Amazing. Seriously, try it. Sriracha and mayo sounds gross but it tastes fantastic.
We made this for dinner recently and it was *amazing.* I can’t recommend it highly enough!
Anon – Hmm, that’s a tricky one since fish varies a lot in thickness. Regardless, fish cooks very quickly, so I would start with just a few minutes and see how it goes from there. Make sure you spray the foreman well with non-stick spray as the marinade can get very sticky! :)
Hi Beth!
If I cook this on the foreman grill, for how long should i leave it on the grill?
We’ve even done it on the grill and it comes out just as good.