This lemon garlic salmon is packed with flavor! Bake it until tender and drizzle with a rich, zingy lemon butter sauce.

Love salmon and looking for a new way to prepare it? Try this Lemon Garlic Salmon! The tender, flaky fish is draped in a lemon butter sauce that tastes like pure gold. It’s rich and zingy, bringing a pop of flavor to each bite. Adding a sauce makes this salmon so much more flavorful than cooking it with lemon or even just spritzing it with juice. You can mix up the sauce in just 5 minutes!

Finding a good piece of salmon

Here’s a tricky thing about this lemon garlic salmon: the quality of salmon you find at the store varies greatly. Lower quality salmon can taste very fishy and have a mushy texture, or have a lot of the white stuff when it’s cooked (see below). Here are some things to think about when buying salmon:

Look for wild caught salmon. Fish that is wild caught in your country is usually a sustainable choice. (There are also quality options in well-regulated farms; see Seafood Watch Consumer Guide.) Buy it either fresh from the fish counter or frozen works too.
Coho is a good choice; avoid Atlantic salmon. We tend to like Coho salmon for its mild flavor: it’s a good middle of the road option in terms of price. Of course, King salmon is incredible but it’s on the expensive end. Avoid Atlantic salmon as it is typically farmed salmon.

Perfect lemon garlic salmon: brine it first!

Ever cooked salmon and white stuff rises to the top? It’s perfectly safe to eat: but it’s not so appetizing to see! It’s coagulated protein that seeps to the surface called albumin. The amount of albumin varies greatly depending on the fish, so it’s not something you can control. (Read more here.)

Here’s one way you can avoid the white stuff in this lemon garlic salmon: brine the salmon first! It also makes for perfectly moist fish, and it helps the salmon come to room temperature which makes it cook more evenly. Here’s what to do:

Mix up a salt water solution. Mix 4 cups of water and 3 tablespoons salt to make a salt water solution.
Place the fish in the water for 15 minutes. Just set the fish in the water for 15 minutes. You can do this in the time it takes to preheat your oven: so there’s no time lost!

Cooking methods for salmon

The lemon butter sauce is what makes the lemon garlic salmon flavor, so you can cook the fish using your favorite method! Here are our top methods for cooking this fish:

Baked: Baked Salmon is an easy method that works every time.
Broiled: Our favorite method is Broiled Salmon because it’s so quick and simple!
Pan seared: Pan Seared Salmon is also fast: it takes a little extra technique but results in a delicious crispy top.

Making the lemon butter sauce

While the salmon cooks, mix up the lemon butter sauce! It takes just 5 ingredients and 5 minutes to bring it together. It’s an intensely flavored sauce that’s intended to using in small quantities. A little goes a long way! Here are the 5 ingredients you’ll need:

Salted butter
Garlic
Lemon juice and zest
Salt
Parsley

Simply heat the garlic in the butter for 1 minute, then add the lemon, salt and parsley. Easy as that! It adds a massive pop of flavor and you can use it for any type of fish or chicken.

More salmon recipes

Salmon is fantastic for easy weeknight meals. Here are a few favorite ways to prepare it:

Go for tasty Salmon Tacos with creamy green avocado sauce
Try simple Maple Glazed Salmon
Whip up with Salmon Pasta or Honey Garlic Salmon
Opt for Pecan Crusted Salmon or Pistachio Crusted Salmon
Mix up Classic Salmon Burgers
Go for Salmon with Capers, Pesto Salmon, Miso Salmon or Cajun Salmon