Lemon Honey Glazed Salmon

Lemon Honey Glazed Salmon is a a pan seared salmon topped with a delicious lemon honey sauce. The salmon is cooked perfectly and melts in your mouth! Looking for another honey salmon recipe? Then you’ll love my honey garlic baked salmon!

In addition to serving this healthy salmon recipe, I like pairing it with a vegetable my children will love. Popular vegetable sides in my house include roasted carrots, sauteed peas, oven roasted broccoli. You can also serve it with Orzo Rice to add a nice starch to the menu. 

Why This Recipe Works

• Delicious glazed salmon recipe the entire family will love! If you are feeding younger mouths, I’ll tell you that my kids lovethis — and they don’t always eat fish. So that’s a huge plus in my book! Especially considering how beneficial, and important, salmon is in a diet. Salmon is one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids. These fats are essential to include in our diet because our bodies don’t make them. Omega-3s help reduce inflammation and blood pressure.
• Best seared salmon. There’s no better way to cook fish than searing it, in my opinion. It locks in the flavor and gives that beautiful crisp exterior and soft interior. I’ll walk you through the steps and best tips for how to sear salmon. 

Ingredient Notes 

• Salmon Fillet: Be sure to slice the fish into equal pieces. This helps so all pieces cook evenly.
• Honey: Not only does the honey give a nice sweetness to the dish, but it gives a nice caramelization to the exterior of the fillet when seared. 
• Chives & Parsley: Fresh chives and parsley will give you a better flavor. The chives add a nice subtle onion flavor and the parsley enhances the fresh flavor in the honey glazed salmon. 
• Lemon Juice & Zest: Using lemon juice and zest will give us a punchier lemon flavor. 
• Cayenne Pepper: Just a pinch to add the slightest amount of heat. If you want much spicier, add more. If you want no spice at all, use black pepper instead of cayenne pepper. 
• Vegetable Oil: This is what we’ll put in the hot skillet to sear the lemon honey glazed salmon.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Heat the skillet. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place a 12-inch cast iron skillet in the oven as it’s preheating. Doing this allows the skillet to get hot everywhere! Not just in patchy spots.
2. Make the sauce. In a small bowl, combine the honey, chives, parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, and cayenne. Whisk to incorporate and then set aside.

3. Remove excess moisture from the salmon. Dab the salmon with a paper towel on both sides to remove any excess moisture. Season both sides of the salmon with the salt and pepper. 

4. Sear the salmon. When the oven reaches 450°F, turn off the oven and, using hot pads, carefully remove the skillet from the oven and place it over medium heat on your stovetop. Add the vegetable oil to the hot skillet (be careful! The oil will most likely splatter, so be cautious). Place each salmon fillet in the skillet. Cook for 3-4 minutes, flip and cook the other side for 5-8 minutes or until the center is fully cooked. The middle of the meat should read 130°-135°F with an instant read thermometer. 
5. Add the sauce. Spoon the lemon honey sauce overtop. Serve immediately.

Recipe Tips

Make sure you have a large enough pan to accommodate the salmon fillets. Like I mentioned above, I used my 12-inch cast iron skillet to cook this lemon honey glazed salmon.

Remove the salmon fillets from the refrigerator prior to cooking. You don’t want to place a super cold fillet on a piping hot pan. If you do this, the cold salmon is more likely to seize up and cook unevenly.

Dab the salmon with a paper towel prior to cooking. Removing some of the fillet’s excess moisture helps the fish to crisp up. Also, a wet fillet is more likely to stick to the pan. We don’t want that!

Use a hot pan. This is a must when making pan-seared salmon. This is why we place the cast iron skillet in the oven so the pan is evenly heated throughout. 

Make sure the bottom of the pan is completely covered in the vegetable oil. 

Cut your salmon pieces into equal sizes so they all cook evenly in the pan. And check for bones as well! 

Use an instant read thermometer to make sure the internal temperature of your fish reaches 130°F-135°F.

This recipe uses 24 oz of salmon, however, you can use just 16 oz or even 32 oz! If you cook more salmon you’ll have less sauce to spread across the fish. If you only cook 16 of salmon you’ll have a lot of sauce to drizzle overtop the cooked salmon. 

You can use skin on salmon fillets or skin off. If you use skin on fillets, place the flesh side down in the skillet first. Cook for 3 minutes and then flip and cook the skin side for about 8-10 minutes or until the center is fully cooked and the meat reads 125°F with an instant read thermometer. 

Make Ahead, Storing, and Freezing

Salmon is best made right before eating. Reheated salmon, while still delicious, tends to be drier than right out of the oven or off the pan. That’s why I don’t recommend making this salmon ahead of time.

If you are needing to store leftovers, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. 

A great way to use leftover salmon is to break it apart and use for fish tacos! Mix my Mild Taco Seasoning with some sour cream and spread that over the salmon, top with chopped lettuce or cabbage, avocados and tomatoes. 

To reheat the leftover honey lemon salmon, microwave it for 30-second increments with as much of the honey lemon sauce as possible so the salmon doesn’t dry out.

I wouldn’t recommend freezing the cooked salmon. Like I said, salmon is best enjoyed day of. 

FAQs

More Fish and Seafood Recipes

• Tilapia Cakes
• Shrimp Scampi with Linguini
• Baja Fish Tacos
• Easy Coconut Shrimp Recipe
• Sheet Pan Shrimp Fajitas

This recipe was originally published on Jan. 11, 2021. It was republished on March 17, 2022, to include additional information and photos.