Air Fryer Teriyaki Salmon Recipe
If you want to spruce up your healthy proteins throughout the week but are tired of ground meat, try this savory salmon recipe full of garlicky, gingery, and sweet flavors. Learn how to make quick and easy teriyaki salmon in the air fryer in 10 minutes!
Types of Salmon
Here are some of the most common types of salmon you can use for this recipe that are readily available at most grocery stores. For this recipe, we use Atlantic salmon readily available in grocery stores.
- King salmon (Chinook): The largest Pacific salmon variety, and some consider it to have the best flavor due to its rich and fatty texture. If you’re buying King Salmon from the US, it’s best to buy wild-caught. Only purchase farmed King Salmon if it’s from New Zealand.
- Atlantic salmon: This type of salmon is often the fattiest among its cousins. Wild Atlantic salmon is no longer commercially harvested, so you can only find farmed Atlantic salmon available, but that doesn’t mean it’s unhealthy or unsustainable. Just make sure only to purchase salmon certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, like Atlantic salmon farmed in Maine or Denmark.
- Sockeye salmon (Red): You can decipher this type of salmon based on its bright red coloring and leaner, flaky texture. It’s full of omega-3 fatty acids and has a distinct salmon flavor due to its diet rich in krill.
There are some varieties of salmon that seafood organizations, like Seafood Watch, don’t recommend because of their farming methods and sustainability issues. For example, Seafood Watch doesn’t recommend Atlantic salmon farmed in Chile, Canada, Norway, or Scotland. For more information, visit their website.
My Favorite Sauce Teriyaki Sauce For Salmon
Teriyaki sauce originated from Japanese tare sauce made with soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar. You can easily buy teriyaki sauce at the grocery store but prefer homemade substitutes for healthier ingredients like low-sodium soy sauce, rice vinegar without sugar, and honey.
We love boosting the flavor of the marinade by adding fresh ginger and garlic. Some recipes thicken the teriyaki glaze with cornstarch, but we like flaxseed meal for a gluten-free option.
How Long To Marinate
For one-inch thick filets of salmon, marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge. We don’t recommend marinating for longer than one hour because it can oversalt your fish and compromise the texture. No one wants mushy fish! Ensure you use an appropriately sized container so the marinade covers the salmon thoroughly. We also like to place the salmon skin-side up so more meat touches the marinade.
How Long To Cook Salmon In An Air Fryer
Air fry the salmon at 400 °F for seven before checking the internal temperature with a thermometer. This is the easiest and most efficient way of checking if the fish is done. Cooked salmon should measure at 145 °F, but we prefer removing it around 135-140 °F because residual heat helps to finish cooking after you remove it from the air fryer.
Do You Air Fryer Salmon Skin Side Up or Down?
We like keeping the salmon skin on during cooking because it helps prevent drying out the meat or overcooking and is also tasty. Air fry salmon skin side down on parchment paper. The parchment paper is critical because it prevents the salmon from sticking to your air fryer and makes clean-up easier.
Add the parchment paper after preheating the air fryer and right before cooking the salmon to prevent the parchment paper from flying around during preheating. We, unfortunately, preheated with the parchment paper inside, and it stuck to the top of our machine and burned.
What Temperature To Air Fry Salmon
Cooking salmon in the air fryer is super fast and easy. We air fry this salmon recipe at 400 °F for about seven to ten minutes for one-inch thick filets.
Air Fryer Teriyaki Salmon
Equipment
- air fryer
- airtight container
- tongs
- Mixing bowl
- whisk
- grater
- knife and cutting board
- dry and liquid measuring cups and spoons
- saucepan
- Parchment paper
- paper towel
Ingredients
- 4 5 oz salmon filets skin-on and one-inch thick
- ½ c low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 2 tsp ginger grated
- ¾ tsp sesame oil
- ¼ tso black pepper ground
- ½ tsp flaxseed powder for thickener
- sesame seeds optional topping
- scallions sliced thinly, optional topping
Instructions
- Pat the salmon dry with a paper towel and place it into a container skin side up.
- In a bowl, combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and black powder until incorporated.
- Save ¼ cup of the marinade for glaze.
- Pour the marinade over the fish and make sure it’s thoroughly coated.
- Marinade for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.
- Make the glaze by combining the leftover marinate and flaxseed powder in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until it thickens to the consistency of maple syrup, about 5-10 minutes. Picture here shows final consistency.
- Preheat the air fryer to 400 °F.
- Place the parchment paper in the air fryer tray. Place the salmon, skin-side down, on the parchment, and bake for seven minutes and then add the glaze for the last remaining three minutes.
- Test the fish temperature with an internal thermometer. Once it reaches 145 °F, it’s done, and you can remove it.
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds and scallions, and serve.
You must be logged in to post a comment.