Picture this. You head to the supermarket, grab a nice fillet of salmon, and set out to cook the most delectable piece of fish you’ve ever had. “Surely cooking this can’t be that hard,” you say to yourself. But the moment you try to flip it, the skin peels off faster than a bad sunburn on vacation and before you know it, the poor thing is glued to the pan, burning away like a forgotten piece of toast. A chef’s ordeal.
Salmon is one of the most versatile ingredients in your kitchen. This innocent-looking orange meat has the power to transform into one of the best dishes you’ve ever made, if you can master one crucial technique: crispy skin. In this blog, I’ll show you exactly how to nail it, a skill every chef should have in their back pocket. I’ll also take you through an exciting derivative of the crispy skin that you can use to level-up your dish.
Ingredients:
For the basic salmon fillet:
- Salmon fillets
- Salt
- High smoke point oil (grapeseed, avocado, sunflower, olive)
For the butter baste:
- ½ stick of butter
- Spices of your choosing
The most common mistakes people make when cooking crispy-skin salmon are using the wrong pan temperature, flipping too early or cooking it for too long. Let’s break it down step by step so you can avoid all three.
Salmon fillet
Start with a fillet of salmon. I like using pieces around 200 grams and 1-2 inches thick, but the key is to choose a cut with good marbling (intramuscular fat). That fat melts during cooking, giving the salmon a buttery, silky texture and richer flavour.
Lightly season only the skin with salt. This helps draw out moisture, which helps the crisping process.
How to prep your pan correctly
Heat a pan over medium-high heat, but don’t add the oil right away. Dry heat ensures the pan reaches the right temperature without smoking the oil. Once the pan is hot, add 3–5 teaspoons of oil (depending on how many fillets you’re cooking), then immediately place the salmon skin-side down. You should hear a gentle sizzle. Reduce the heat to medium to avoid burning the skin.
Cooking
At this point, use something flat (like the bottom of a small plate or a spatula) to gently press the salmon down for the first 20–30 seconds. As the skin cooks, it contracts and tries to curl, which can cause uneven contact with the pan. Applying light pressure keeps the fillet flat so the skin crisps evenly.
Now, hands off. Don’t move the salmon, don’t poke it, don’t fiddle with the heat. The skin will naturally release from the pan once it’s crisped properly, usually around 4 minutes depending on thickness. The skin naturally releases once it’s ready because the surface proteins have finished bonding with the pan and any moisture has evaporated, leaving behind a dry, crisp crust that no longer sticks.
A good visual cue is the “doneness line”. You’ll see the fish gradually turning opaque from the bottom up. When it’s about three-quarters of the way cooked through, lightly season the flesh side with salt, then flip.
Cook on the flesh side for about 1–2 minutes, just enough to finish cooking while keeping the inside moist and tender. Transfer the salmon to a plate and let it rest for 5 minutes. Just like with steak, resting allows the juices to redistribute through the fillet rather than spilling out the moment you cut in. Scientifically, this happens because as the salmon cooks, proteins contract and push moisture toward the surface. Resting gives those proteins time to relax, letting the juices reabsorb into the flesh.
It’s perfectly understandable that you would want to eat the salmon just like that, but let’s explore a variation that you can make, with this recipe as the core.
Spice butter baste
If you want to add some spiciness and a deeper flavour to your salmon, you can try butter basting it. Just after you flip the salmon, you can add in half a stick of butter and your favourite spices. I like to use paprika, garlic powder, cajun seasoning and maybe some coriander powder.
Let your butter melt until it’s foamy, and use a spoon to pour that melted butter on top. The seasoned butter will absorb into the fish, giving it a heightened flavour. This technique is called basting.
Let the fish rest with the butter sauces poured on top.
Serve with the thick, creamy butter sauce on the plate, and the crispy salmon on top.
Finally, you have mastered the art of making good salmon. Never again do you have to endure the horrors of cleaning burned skin from the bottom of the pan, or eat an expensive fillet without the best part! Enjoy those omega-3 fatty acids in the form of a crunchy, crisp delight.