My go-to salmon recipe that’s perfect every time! Crisped and golden on the outside, buttery and juicy on the inside, and made in 15 minutes start to finish.
Wow. I’ll Never Look At Salmon The Same Way Again.
Guys, this air fryer salmon has changed my salmon game. It’s loaded with flavor, and the air fryer gives it a crusty, crisped exterior while keeping a consistently juicy, buttery interior texture. Each piece just gently slips apart when you press a fork on it, and it is utterly delightful. This one goes in my forever files!
I’ve made this SO MANY TIMES in the last few weeks. Ways we’ve loved it:
- Dunked in basil sauce or gochujang sauce
- In tacos, with a mango corn salsa, like this
- With coconut rice, and more mango cucumber salsa, like this
- With green rice! Yum.
- In a puddle of the tzatziki from this recipe, with naan or pita bread, and the simple green salad
- On a kale salad with gochujang mayo from this post
- Alongside a delicious veg like these avocado caesar green beans
- With brown rice, and a tomatillo avocado sauce (shortcut status – just whisk mashed avocado and the roasted tomatillo salsa from Trader Joe’s which is one of my 33 fave Trader Joe’s products)
I could have never imagined a world in which me and my two kids – under 5 years old – would stand around eating chunks of salmon, plain, no sauce, directly out of the air fryer, but this is my reality now. We are often finishing half or more before it makes it to the dinner table. It’s stupidly, ridiculously good.
Three reasons I love this so much:
- It gives you consistently great crisped and golden texture on the outside with SUCH MINIMAL EFFORT.
- It gives you consistently juicy and buttery texture on the inside – never dried out, it’s good every time.
- The flavor doesn’t taste like any one single spice – it just tastes good. For me, it hits so much harder than the standard butter + lemon + Dijon salmon flavor profile. It has a salty-sweet-savoriness that works with everything from tzatziki, to romesco, to buffalo sauce, to gochujang sauce, to mango salsa and aji verde.
Air fryer salmon! A new pillar in my life! COME ONNN! What a time!
Welcome To My House! Come Make This Air Fryer Salmon With Me!
1 Cut your salmon into cubes.
Buying boneless skinless salmon will save you the work of removing the skin (which is how I like it)! Cubes are good because a) the spice coating gets everywhere, and b) the salmon cooks very evenly. No dry pieces! 100% juicy.
2 Toss it with the spices.
Every piece gets coated with flavor and texture, and a few teaspoons of olive oil will help it all hold nicely! Just how we like it!
3 Air Fry at 400 for 8 minutes.
Just pop it right in there! If your chunks are small or you like a more medium-doneness on your salmon, go for 7 minutes!
4 You’re Done! Yum!
This salmon is BOMB DOT COM. I’m not a mega salmon lover but when I make this, I can stand over the counter and just eat half a pound of salmon, no problem. And with your favorite sauce on there? Game over.
