This easy Bourbon Salmon with only 5 ingredients has absolutely amazing flavor and it’s ready to serve in under 10 minutes!
I love salmon. Always have since I was a little girl when I used to go salmon fishing with my Dad in Puget Sound. I remember a 10 pound salmon I caught one time. It was huge to me. We brought it home to my Mom who always came up with wonderful ways to cook it.
This time she followed one of the recipes of the Northwest Indians. They used brown sugar and some herbs and cooked their salmon over a combination of fir and alder logs. Fir for heat and alder for flavor.
So Mom added a touch of brown sugar and some herbs to my salmon as well as some liquid smoke and then baked it in the oven. It was the best salmon I ever had.
Over the years I’ve cooked salmon a lot of different ways but I always remember that brown sugar salmon. So when I was at the market looking for spices, as I always do, I saw that McCormick’s had a Bourbon Brown Sugar Bourbon Spice. I had to buy it.
Then when I came home, I couldn’t wait to taste it. It was a perfect combination of spices. The brown sugar was there but just slightly as was the bourbon. But mostly it was peppery and herby. Almost the same flavor that I remembered from my Mom’s salmon.
So of course I had to try it with salmon. Instead of her liquid smoke, I added a bit of Smoked Paprika. The flavor of that seared and baked salmon was just what I remembered from Mom’s salmon.
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Ingredients of Bourbon Salmon
- Salmon: The star of the show
- McCormick Brown Sugar Bourbon Spice: A perfect blend of spices for salmon
- Smoked Paprika: For smoky taste
- Hickory Smoke Powder: For that campfire flavor
- Olive oil: For health and richness
How to Make Bourbon Salmon
First preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Then in a small dish mix the Brown Sugar Bourbon Spice with Smoked Paprika and Hickory Smoke Powder.
I prefer using wild caught salmon from Alaska. But there are some exceptions to this. Ora King Salmon, which is the top of the top as far as I’m concerned, is raised sustainably in the pristine waters of New Zealand. You can find out more about how they’re raised in my New Zealand Ora Salmon post.
And Icelandic Arctic Char is another salmon that is raised sustainably. Arctic Char is actually a cousin to salmon and the taste is really a cross between a salmon and a trout.
So, brush a little olive oil on the salmon filets and sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over the salmon.
Then add a little olive oil to an ovenproof frypan over medium heat. Place the salmon filets flesh side down and allow it to cook 3 minutes until it’s browned.
Flip the filets over and immediately put the pan in the oven to finish cooking for about 5-6 minutes and it’s ready to serve.
Simple, easy and totally delicious.
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This easy Bourbon Salmon with only 5 ingredients has absolutely amazing flavor and it’s ready to serve in under 10 minutes!
- 2 4 oz Salmon filets
- 1 Tsp Brown Sugar Bourbon Spice McCormick's
- 1/4 Tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/4 Tsp Hickory Smoke Powder
- 1 Tbsp Olive oil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Mix Brown Sugar Bourbon spice with Smoked Paprika and Smoke Hickory Powder in a small dish.
Brush top of each filet with olive oil and sprinkle spice mixture evenly over each filet.
Heat an ovenproof pan to medium heat and add remainder of olive oil. Place salmon filets flesh side down in pan and allow to cook 3 minutes until browned.
Flip filets over and place pan into oven. Cook for 5-6 minutes.
Serve warm garnished with lemon slices.
