Maple BBQ Salmon — The BBQ glazed salmon is smoky and sweet with a bit of heat and makes this 15-minute recipe just pop! Perfect for busy weeknights!
Easy Skillet Salmon Recipe
My family loves salmon, and every now and then I’ll be a Good Samaritan and make it for them. No biggie that my house smells like fish for a day or two.
This BBQ sauce salmon is so easy to make, ready in less than 15 minutes, and you dirty precisely one skillet. My kinda recipe.
Even though it’s not my thing, my family really enjoyed it, and it may be your thing. My thing is this same concept and glaze, except with tofu. You could use the idea and glaze with chicken.
The glaze has a tiny kick from the barbeque sauce along with some smokiness, and there’s sweetness from the maple syrup. The lemon juice brightens it and adds a tangy twist, and fish and lemon are a natural pairing.
My family said the fish was soft and tender and that the glaze just makes the dish. They inhaled it in about 5 minutes flat and asked when I’m making it again.
What’s in Skillet BBQ Salmon?
To make the BBQ sauce salmon, you’ll need:
- Olive oil
- Salmon fillets
- Lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
- Pure maple syrup
- BBQ sauce
- Worcestershire sauce
How to Make BBQ Salmon
If you’ve ever been intimated about how to cook salmon in a skillet, this is a super simple, flavorful, and goofproof method.
First, sear the fish in a pan with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Keep the skillet covered for about 6 minutes, or until you estimate the salmon is 80 to 90 percent done.
Then squirt in maple syrup, bbq sauce, and Worcestershire sauce, and allow the glaze to bubble, thicken, and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes. I used my new favorite barbecue sauce that’s sweet with a bit of heat.
How Long to Cook Salmon in a Skillet?
You’ll first need to cook the salmon skin-side up, covered, for 6 minutes over medium-high heat. Then, add in the BBQ glaze ingredients, recover the skillet, and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes. In total, skillet salmon should cook for 9 to 11 minutes in a covered skillet.
Can I Eat the Salmon Skin?
Yes! If you sear the skin, it gets nice and crispy. Salmon skin is loaded with good-for-you fats and has tons of flavor!
Tips for Making BBQ Glazed Salmon
For most pan sauces, I don’t bother mixing up the glaze in a separate bowl and instead just squirt it into the pan. One less bowl to wash and it all blends together as it boils and bubbles. No need to dirty measuring spoons, either. Just eyeball it and squirt from the bottle.
To amp up the lemon flavor, you can use a lemon pepper seasoning instead of plain black pepper.
If you wind up with leftovers, I recommend enjoying it cold in a salad, wrap, or sandwich!
Pin This Recipe
Skillet BBQ Salmon
The BBQ glazed salmon is smoky and sweet with a bit of heat and makes this 15-minute recipe just pop! Perfect for busy weeknights!
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 salmon fillets, about 6 ounces each with skin on
- juice of 1 small/medium lemon
- salt and pepper (or lemon pepper or a pepper blend), to taste
- about 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- about 3 tablespoons barbeque sauce
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Place olive oil in skillet and heat over medium-high heat.
- When oil is warm, add the salmon to sear it with skin-side up (flesh side down).
- Squeeze the lemon juice over the top
- Evenly sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Cover skillet and cook for about 6 minutes, or until fish has a nice sear and is about 80 to 90 percent done.
- Uncover skillet, lower heat to medium, and squirt in the maple syrup, barbeque sauce, and Worcestershire.
- Cover skillet and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes, or until sauce has thickened some, is bubbly, and salmon is cooked through and done.
- Plate the salmon, top with remaining glaze from skillet if desired, and serve immediately.
Notes
Storage: Salmon is best warm and fresh but will keep airtight in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 557Total Fat: 31gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 24gCholesterol: 54mgSodium: 600mgCarbohydrates: 51gFiber: 2gSugar: 43gProtein: 20g
More Easy Salmon Recipes:
Honey Lemon-Glazed Salmon Salad — This Honey Lemon-Glazed Salmon Salad is ready in 15 minutes and can easily be meal prepped. My whole family loves this recipe and said it’s their favorite salmon salad I’ve ever made!
Sheet Pan Garlic Butter Salmon — Juicy salmon at home in 30 minutes that’s EASY and tastes BETTER than from a restaurant! The butter is infused with lemon and garlic and adds so much FLAVOR!
Sheet Pan Honey Lemon Salmon — This baked honey lemon salmon is ready in under 30 minutes! It’s impossible to wind up with dry salmon when making this recipe, it’s just that good!
Easy Salmon and Potato Foil Packets — Juicy, moist salmon that’s loaded with flavor! Ready in 30 minutes, zero cleanup, and a foolproof way to cook salmon and look like a gourmet cook!!
Lemon Dill Salmon with Vegetables in Parchment — Tender salmon with vegetables and it’s so EASY, healthy, ready in 20 minutes, and loaded with bold LEMON and dill flavor!! Put it on your dinner rotation!!
Honey Dijon Salmon — EASY, ready in 20 minutes, juicy, tender, and so FLAVORFUL from the honey, Dijon, and lemon juice!! If you’re trying to incorporate more fish in your diet, this is THE RECIPE to make!!
Chile Lime Salmon with Mango Avocado Salsa — Tender and INCREDIBLE salmon with mango salsa that’s bursting with Mexican FLAVORS to complement the fish!! So EASY and ready in 15 minutes!!
Ok, so your narrative says cook skin side up the entire time, yet the picture shows the fish in the pan skin side down…why?
Cook it as I wrote and you’ll be just fine or if you want to experiment with skin up/skin down based on what you know you like and works for you, go for it.
So I too find it odd about cooking it skin up. So I’m salt and peppering the skin??
I cooked this particular recipe initially with the skin side down to sear it, yes. Salt and pepper disperses throughout a dish. Ho
Made this for dinner tonight – super easy, quick, and I’ve never cooked with salmon in my life! I may have used too much olive oil because when I plated the salmon, the oil separated from the BBQ sauce (at least, I think that’s what happened?). It definitely did not look as pretty as yours, but it still tasted delicious :)
Glad it tasted delicious and salmon is a very fatty fish and some are just fattier than others; maybe yours was in that category. Also cooking fish at a too-high temperature can cause it to separate a bit like that. Given your stove/pan, maybe turn the heat down slightly next time. Thanks for trying the recipe!
This was awesome! The salmon was very tender and the sauce was just right! We paired it with a stir fry and roasted potatoes. Delicious!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
I made this and we loved it! Very tender salmon and the sauce was perfect! Great recipe!
LOVE your recipes! Planning to make this tomorrow night but am nervous to make salmon in the skillet, imalways do it in the oven with whatever a marinade I’m using. Will this glaze work with salmon baked in oven, or do I need to not be so skittish about doing salmon in the skillet? Just so easy to pop it in and walk away that short while when it’s in the oven/afraid to over or under cook in the skillet!
There’s more than one way to make salmon…oven-roasted on a sheet pan, roasted in parchment paper, in a skillet, etc. The way I wrote this recipe is the way I made it and I can’t really comment as to how it will translate into a method I didn’t use. Good luck!
I too pinned your recipe. But I had to let you know I made it. My hubbie loved it, as salmon is one of fav meals. We have been married for more yrs than I am old (heehee) and I have never made salmon for him. I hate any fishy fish. But I have made it twice and he would eat it a couple times a week atop salad. Thanks so much for the recipe! (It didn’t smell at all.)
So glad he’s pleased and that posting the recipe helped you make it for him for the first time ever in many many years – that’s wonderful to hear! Glad it’s a winner in your house!
This looks delicious! I’m curious – have you ever tried freezing this?
Thanks!
No I have not. I think fish prepared like this though is probably best eaten right when you prepare it, or even 1-2 days later if you refrig the leftovers but since I’m not really a big fish eater, I can’t say for sure.
I have used frozen salmon fillets that are pkged individually and they were great for the hubbie. Doesn’t take very long to fix.
I don’t like seagood but I have to admit this does look good
That’s a big sacrifice to make salmon and have your whole home smell fishy for a few days!! My parents and I love fish, but we all hate the smell of it indoors, so my mom made a rule that we could only grill it outdoors on the barbeque. With how much my dad loves to grill, he didn’t mind at all, but it meant that we didn’t eat very much fish during the rainy winter months! ;)
Grilling it. PERFECT solution. Now, if only I had outdoor living space and a grill. Next place maybe :)
I actually was so desperately craving fish last summer but didn’t have a grill, so I took my little panini press outside and plugged it into an outlet. I sealed the fillets up in foil and “grilled” them for a few minutes until the fish was flaky. No fishy smell inside & perfectly cooked! Maybe that could work for you until you’re able to have a patio & grill. :)
Great tip for smell containment!
Yes!!! Love it Averie. Love, love, love it! My wife doesn’t eat ANY fish, and won’t cook it. Won’t even come near it. Saving for a lonely night.. Thank you!!
This looks so good and I love how simple and fast it is to cook. Thank You!!
Always looking for great fast dinners.
http://www.laramealor.com/woot-woot-wednesday-7-things-must-fail-miserably-successful/
LOL – I have salmon for our supper and was just thinking, “How can I make something different with this tonight?” Well, I owe you a supper recipe –
What timing! Well, if you try it, LMK! :)
I’ve been waiting for you to post this recipe, Averie – ever since you mentioned how much your fam loved it. And the photos are stunning! I have yet to photograph fish. Maybe someday! But I can imagine it being much different than gooey chocolate chip cookies lol. I simply love the combination of maple and BBQ together. A great pair for salmon, that’s for sure! This is a must try.
I actually hadn’t photographed any in years! In some of my related links I have made fish in the past, but it’s been eons. In so many ways, savory food *can* be easier if it’s the right savory than sweets. But some savory food, i.e. mashed potatoes, cheesy things, comfort foods can just look gloppy, white, mushy, or orange as you know! This wasn’t too bad although it was more glare-ey after I saw the images on my computer than I had hoped. But 4 weeks later, oh well :) Thanks for the pin and the sweet comment!
I LOVE the fact that this is fast AND one pot.. my ideal dish seriously!!! And looks amazing.. making this for dinner ASAP. Thank you !! :)
Dinner asap is my idea of dinner :)
You are so kind to smell up your kitchen for your fan! I’m sure they appreciate it! I know I appreciate you posting this – it looks wonderful! And wonderfully easy…bonus!
I love making fish for dinner. It cooks up in no time and it’s super healthy. Love this recipe, Averie!
This is stunning, Averie! Just saw it on FB and ran over to see more. Cannot wait to make at home.
Thanks for sharing and glad you like it!
This salmon looks amazing Averie ~ must try it ASAP!!
look at just how juicy it is! I mean girl it looks amazing
I have to try bbq sauce on salmon before (I tend to just naturally go in the direction of Asian marinades), but this looks so good!
This sounds incredible. I need to start cooking salmon again. This will be my first recipe to try. Thanks!
How GORGEOUS is this?! It’s 11:39PM and I’m ready for a second dinner with this.
Seriously though, these photos are absolutely amazing. Salmon is so hard to photograph and you completely nailed it on this!
Well thank you for saying this! This was the salmon I had told you about and I never intended to post this but after it was done, I thought it looked so pretty that I just HAD to post it. So, I did :) And hearing you say it’s hard to photograph, yeah after I was looking at these images (4 weeks later!) I realized how glare-ey most of them were. It did look way better in person than it conveys here, but I tried :)
right up my alley for my kids!
I agree-one skillet recipes = the best!
xoxo,
Elizabeth
http://www.adrian-james.com
This salmon looks amazing Averie!! I have got to try this!
Thank you for pinning, too, of course (and for all your pins!) :)
I have always been intimidated by cooking salmon (even after taking a cooking class where we did that!), but this definitely looks do-able – and delicious! I feel your pain about making the house smell…I wish there were an easy way of preventing that from happening! I made Indian food the other day, and my pillowcases and towels still smell like it :/
This sounds amazing – love the sweet + spicy combination!
Way out in the boonies we have a place that smoked fish. One of their most popular and most delicious is their maple smoked salmon. They two flavors
just go together. I live in the Pacific NW, so salmon is easily gotten.
A most excellent recipe—plus quick. Hear Hear for that.
Averie, this looks super scrumptious! We love to make salmon with orange and lemon and I’m sure yours will be our favorite too as we love all the sauces you use here! Thanks for the idea! Pinned!
Thanks for pinning!
This is the best way to cook salmon, love that glossy glaze!
Salmon is pretty much the only fish I want to eat. This looks amazing, Averie! Love the glaze idea! Pinned!
I have tried to, but I just can’t get into salmon. Unless it is smoked, and even then I’m picky. It has to be dry smoked (so flakey) and not wet (like lox). So, basically, I just avoid it. I’d be all over this sauce though. :D
And that fishy smell…I used to leave the house growing up when my mom made fish. That smell does not leave your clothes for months. Even washed in the strongest soap!
That glaze!! Love it!
I would love to try this and the tofu version – I love easy supper and maple anything! Made a half batch of you Chocolate Chip Cookies this weekend (your first go-to chocolate chip recipe because pudding mix isn’t a thing here yet) and loved them (especially the cookie dough!). I subbed a flax egg in and they turned out superb :) Thx for all the wonderful recipes Averie!
That’s great to hear you made my original favorite CCCs and that a flax egg worked well! Wonderful to know! :)
I am going to try this with tofu! Sounds delicious. I am always curious when vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free (etc) bloggers post recipes they themselves don’t eat- do you eat some salmon or just rely on your fabulous taste testers? Either way, love the glaze and will try it out.
It’s a great glaze on tofu and is versatile for really any protein! (or even veggies like sweet potatoes or brussles)
I love the look of this of this! It’s great that it cooks up so quick too. Can’t beat that! Pinning :)
thanks for pinning!
Salmon is most definitely my thing, and this looks delicious!
Dinner in 15 minutes? Yes please. Salmon is one of the only fish I like and love it with maple. This looks great.
I’m not much of a fish person either, but this looks so good I would have to try it! I can see why your family loved it and that’s so sweet of you to make it for them even though it isn’t your thing! Definitely the prettiest fish dish I’ve ever seen. :)
Thanks for the compliment and saying it’s the prettiest fish you’ve ever seen!
Salmon is my absolute favourite dinner! And with maple – why didnt I think of this! Thanks for sharing!
Anisa – The Macadame. xx
http://www.creamstop.com
This does look yummy & easy. I really like salmon with a sweet-ish sauce/glaze. And I’d bet that this glaze would be good on some tofu, for the non-salmon eaters. Love the addition of bbq sauce. Pinned! = )
It’s a great glaze on tofu! I love it that way. Thanks for pinning!
I seriously need this salmon. It looks so fantastic Averie and so flavorful!
We absolutely love salmon here and cannot eat enough of it. This looks delicious, Averie. Pinned! :)
Thanks for the pin, Chelsea!
We have loved all of your seafood recipes and this one looks like a must for us–salmon is my favorite! I think I’ll take my cast iron pan out to the grill and keep the smell out of the house. Your parsnip fries and some kind of slaw ought to be perfect with it.
It’s been awhile on some of those…shows just how long you’ve been reading :) And this one is SO easy! I bet the glaze, with fries and SLAW would be so good together!
This was excellent –perfect fish and fries meal!! I think the glaze would be good for chicken too.
Oh thanks for trying this and the field report, Paula! Glad you enjoyed it!
We eat fish a few times a week and Salmon is a favorite at my house. We love the flavors of maple & with a kick of BBQ, oh yum!
Gotta try this one, maple bbq, sounds delish! Love getting new salmon recipes, thanks so much :)
I loved seeing your 15 min dinner today. That makes me happy :)
That is so sweet you make this for your family even though you don’t like it! I’m not a huge salmon fan, but it’s my husbands favorite fish so we have it every once and a while! Love that glaze and your pretty photos! :)
Thanks for saying that about the photos…it was so glare-ey from all the glaze! ha! :)
So, I absolutely adore salmon, and being Canadian, am always partial to anything maple-related. The next time we have fish I am sure this will be happening! :)
I’d love some Canadian homegrown maple syrup right about now!
My hubs and I both love salmon – and I know we’d love this maple bbq flavor combo! Looks awesome.
I eat fish 4-5 times a week. Wood salmon is my favorite so I’m excited to try this twist. My dad won’t say fish and the smell drives home crazy.
If you try it, LMK!
this sounds so delicious! i bet it would be really good if i make my hubby toss it on the grill =)
Yes, make him do the work :)