Baked Salmon

I was at Fresh & Easy the other day and they had a really great price on wild, fresh, never frozen salmon fillets with the skin on! I hadn't planned anything for dinner that night yet, so it was perfect.

Once I saw that it had the skin on, I was immediately craving crispy, delicious salmon skin. Here's what I did to make this simple, quick, and yummy salmon!

Baked Salmon with Crispy Skin:

Ingredients:

- salmon fillet with skin

- 2 tsp capers, chopped

- 1 garlic clove, chopped

- 1 tsp dill

- lemon slices

- olive oil

- salt pepper

- lemon pepper (I used Trader Joe's lemon pepper grinder bc it also has garlic and onion in it)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and start heating a pan with a little olive oil and butter over high heat.

2. First step is to pat down the fish with paper towels. It is important to dry it, so you get a nice browned and crispy skin.

3. Rub a little olive oil over entire fish (both meat and skin side) and season with salt, pepper, and lemon pepper.

4. Start cooking the salmon skin-side down on the pan. You don't want to cook the salmon through. We are only cooking the salmon on the pan to crisp up the skin. Keep a careful watch on the salmon and remove from the stove-top once the skin is lightly browned. Do not flip the salmon over!

5. While the skin is crisping up, sprinkle dill, garlic, capers, and lemon slices on top of the salmon. Squeeze a tiny bit of lemon juice over the salmon (not too much because you don't want a lot of liquid in the pan) and do a final light drizzle of olive oil.

6. When the skin is nice and browned, throw the entire pan in to the oven and finish off the cooking in there! It will be done when the thickest part of the salmon flakes easily. I check mine often because I hate overcooked salmon.

Salmon and toppings in the pan after crisping the skin and before baking.

After baking... Look at all the delicious, healthy fats (the creamy-looking, white parts) that came from the salmon!!

These toppings/seasonings add nice flavor while still allowing the salmon to be the star. The salmon is moist and the skin is nice and crispy! Salmon skin is very healthy for you too - lots of Omega-3s!