How to Grill Perfect Salmon in 10 Minutes

I'm Matt Abdoo, chef and pitmaster.

Today we're firing up the grill

to teach you guys how to make

perfect and simple grilled salmon

so you'll never have to worry about that salmon

falling apart on your grill ever again.

We're gonna show you that crispy skin

and finishing it with an amazing honey glaze

that's gonna pair so well with that salmon flavor.

This is Grilling 101.

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Grilling fish is something that everyone

gets really intimidated about.

It's sticking, it's falling apart,

and you're making an absolute mess.

You might even have the same issue

when you're cooking it in a pan at home.

Salmon is great for grilling 'cause it's a really oily fish

and that oil helps prevent the fish from sticking

if we do it the right way.

It's also probably the most iconic fish

that's on the market.

There's so many different types of salmon

that are out there.

From wild salmon to farm-raised salmon.

Today we have some farm-raised Chilean salmon, skin on.

It's about a six-ounce fillet.

I think that's a perfect portion size for your dinner.

We left most of the belly meat off,

so it's a uniform thickness

as best as we can be with a piece of fish.

So, it's all gonna cook even.

If you have the belly meat on, it's a little bit thinner.

That part might be a little bit more cooked

than the center of the fish.

Still no problem. It's all gonna eat delicious.

Things we're looking for

when we're trying to select our fish.

You want it to have a nice color.

It should have good firmness to it.

If it's mushy, it's not gonna be good.

Fresh fish should smell like the seawater.

It should smell bright and vibrant and flavorful.

Anything in the category of group or a snap or a bass,

you can cook it up in exactly the same way

with leaving the skin on, doing the same procedure.

The biggest takeaway, guys,

is that once it goes to those grill grates,

you don't wanna fuss with it,

you don't wanna fidget with it,

you don't wanna move it around.

You wanna let it cook because that skin's gonna tell you

when it's ready to release.

First things first, let's get our salmon oiled.

This simple step of adding a little bit of oil

to that skin is really gonna help that skin

not stick to the grates.

I have a little brush and we're just gonna brush

the skin side with a light layer of this olive oil.

This could be vegetable oil, it could be avocado oil.

I just love olive oil. I'm an olive oil guy.

Cooking it with the skin on,

it really helps make that fish not stick to the grill,

and it also insulates the inside of the meat.

Now, let's season it up.

The biggest difference between professional chefs

and at-home cooks is we season aggressively.

And when we are seasoning, always season from up high

so that the seasoning, the salt and pepper

rains down onto that piece of meat

as if it was falling from heaven

to give it a perfectly even layer of seasoning on that fish.

Now, we're gonna flip it and we're gonna do the same thing

to the top side of the meat.

It also kinda helps add this like a little adhesive

for that salt and pepper to stick to.

Let's season the top side

and then it's going to be time to preheat our grill.

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Make sure that the grill top, the lid is open

before we're lighting the grill.

We're gonna put it onto medium heat.

I don't need any sort of zone cooking for this.

I just need even, consistent medium heat

to cook that skin so it'll slowly get nice and crispy

while cooking up from the bottom

to perfectly cook that salmon to that juicy interior.

Now that our grill is lit, we'll close the lid,

let it get preheated, and we'll get ready to get cooking.

[upbeat music] [grill sizzling]

Our grill is finally at 375 to 400 degrees zone.

We're gonna put the salmon skid side down for a few reasons.

First, the skin's gonna help act as a natural barrier

to prevent the salmon from sticking to the grill.

It's also gonna help insulate it as it slowly cooks

from the bottom up to get that perfect juicy interior.

You should hear a nice sizzle.

That means our grill is nice and hot.

But we're not seeing big flare-ups

or big smoke happening, which would indicate

the grill is too too hot for cooking salmon.

It's gonna be about 8 to 10 minutes to slowly cook.

Now here's a trick.

Don't move it. Don't touch it.

Don't fuss with it. Just let it sit.

That medium heat is gonna let it slowly cook

from the skin side up, and as it's slowly cooking,

that skin's gonna get nice and crispy,

and the salmon's gonna be cooked perfectly inside.

While I'm cooking my salmon,

I wanna have something fun to go with it.

And I love the flavor

of some charred scallions or green onions.

Here we have some traditional scallions

that you can find at your local grocery store.

You can see they're super consistent in size.

They're all about the same shape.

To prepare them, simply just a little bit of olive oil.

I don't want a lot here.

I don't want this to flare up on the grill

and create those fires or those flares.

And now we're just gonna season them

with some salt and pepper, and that's all it takes.

And they're gonna go right to the other side of the grill

that's also set at medium.

It's gonna cook in about the same amount of time

as the salmon does.

I put the scallions on an angle on the grill

just because that's kinda how I like them

to visually look in my brain.

The only reason I'm not putting them

perfectly perpendicular and up and down is I don't want them

to potentially fall through those grates.

So, always just have them going across the grates

at an angle or perfectly across.

And now, we're gonna close the lid

and we're gonna let the magic happen.

The salmon and the onions have been cooking

for around 7-7 1/2 minutes.

Let's take a look.

With the lid being closed,

that salmon's cooking from the top and the bottom,

and you can start to see

it's starting to get that opaque color.

The next thing I'm gonna check

is just to see if the skin's gonna release from the grill.

This is the important part,

and if we've done everything correctly,

it should release with no problem.

And we're just gonna take it and turn it, and look at that.

Perfect. That skin, oh, it's crispy already.

It's releasing no problem whatsoever.

So, now we're gonna take

our digital instant read thermometer.

We're looking for around that 125 mark

so that when we glaze it with honey, it'll come up to 130.

And that's the perfect time that we wanna glaze it up.

Now, we're going to take our honey.

We're gonna just take a brush

and just glaze on a little bit of honey

to the top side of that salmon.

That little sweetness from the honey,

it really just makes that flavor of the salmon shine.

It's gonna create that nice, shiny, slightly sweet glaze.

The biggest thing though, guys,

whenever we're glazing anything on the grill,

we always want to do it at the end.

We don't want the sugars to burn

and create a hot, sticky mess on our grill.

Now that our salmon's glazed with that honey,

the last thing I'm gonna do

is I'm gonna give our scallions

that are nice and charred up a quick flip.

We're gonna close this grill lid in one minute

and we'll be ready to serve.

Minute goes by fast, so make sure you're staying

by the grill when it comes to this time.

So, let's lift up the lid.

You can see how that honey's made a nice, cool, even sheen

on the top side of that salmon.

We're gonna take our scallions off the grill.

I'm going to set them right on the platter just like this.

Our salmon is perfectly cooked.

It's time to take it off the grill using our fish spatula.

And guys, I can't emphasize enough.

We didn't move it.

Outside of me turning it to show you the skin,

we haven't moved this fish.

It's perfect. It's releasing super easy. It's not sticking.

The skin's gotten crispy.

I'm gonna garnish it with a couple lemon wedges.

Simple, perfectly, easily cooked salmon

that lifted right off those grill grates

without sticking it all.

Charred scallions or green onions going with it

with these gorgeous little lemon cheeks

that are served on the side.

You can see it's got that nice sticky glaze of that honey,

and you turn it slightly and it's that soft, juicy interior

of the salmon.

This is gonna be a perfect bite. Let's go.

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Juicy, succulent.

That light bit of sweetness from the honey,

it really just brings all the flavors together so perfectly.

Clean grill grates, skin side down the entire way.

And every time you're gonna have

perfectly cooked salmon and crispy skin.

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