This is How I get PERFECT Smoked Salmon EVERY Time

When smoked salmon is homemade and done right, there's nothing out there that's better. It's a very easy process of smoking the fish at really low temperatures to infuse as much of that smoke flavor as possible. And believe me, there's no fish out there better for this than salmon. Now my biggest issue with it is it always seems to be dried out and overcooked. So I'm gonna share with you a few techniques to ensure it's tender, juicy, and delicious. Sound good? Let's cook. Now there are a few different types of smoked salmon out there, the most obvious ones being cold and hot. So I'm gonna show you a hot smoked salmon. This is also known as a kippered salmon. It's a US style chunk filet. It's been brined in hot smoke. There are also two different types of brines out there, a dry brine and a wet brine. Now my first procedure to make sure it's super moist, I believe a wet brine is going to be the better option to get us there. So we're gonna start off with three cups of cold water, add it to a medium sized pot. Next up, I'm gonna add three quarter cup of packed light brown sugar, a third cup of coarse sea salt. Now I have one orange and one lemon that I want to get the zest off. And the best way and the quickest way I know how to do this is to actually use a peeler. Don't go too deep, just get the zest. The white part is bitter. I'm going over to a burner. I'm cranking the heat on a high. I wanna bring it to a boil. Now comies, there are a few other things you could add to this brine if you want, like red, yellow, or sweet onion, maybe some garlic, some bay leaves. For me, I just think the simpler, the better. There's no need to mask the flavor of the salmon. We want to enhance it. So every bite is salmon first. That's how we do it. Once it is boiling, we need to have a closer look. So I'm just going to use a spoon and stir some things around. I want to ensure the sugar and salt are dissolved completely into the liquid. Now at this point, I'm gonna add in four cups of ice. This is going to quickly chill the mixture so I can pour it over the cold salmon and it's going to dilute some of the sweetness and saltiness. It is Dr. Chef Parisi time, and I've got a four and a half pound wild caught salmon. You know I'll always advocate for using wild caught when it comes to seafood. I believe the flavor is so much better, plus it's coming right from its natural habitat. However, if you can't get ahold of this because of availability or even from a financial standpoint, don't worry, get what you can. It's still going to be delicious. Now, another procedure to ensure it's really tender and juicy is making sure we have big pieces. So I've got a whole side here. However, we do need to trim it up, kind of like my smoked brisket video. We're gonna have some loss, so the tail end and the belly end need to come off. So what we're gonna do is just slice this tail end right here, and look, you've got a really nice salmon filet here that's perfect for two people. So you know what? I'm just gonna store it for another day. Use it up in another salmon recipe, no problem. Now for the belly. All right, so what we're gonna do is trim just right along here. You'll notice there are some bones probably coming up. We wanna be on the other side of that. And I'm telling you right now, the biggest secret to any fish is the belly fat. Fat equals flavor. I can't say it enough. Put a little oil, salt, and pepper, or butter, salt, and pepper on this, throw it on the grill. Oh my gosh, you're gonna be in heaven. You're not gonna want a different cut of fish ever again. I'm telling you right now, this is gold. All right, saving that for a later date. Or honestly, you could smoke this really, really quick. We're not gonna do that though. And on the backside, we've got a little bit of the bone coming in here from the back, and we're just gonna trim it out. Curve your knife a little bit, and again, just follow the salmon. And I'm using a six-inch boning knife that's non-flexible. Really important to use a sharp knife when doing this. Then I'm gonna take those extra few pieces, pop them in the refrigerator or the freezer for a later recipe for salmon. So we're using a wet brine, a big side of salmon to ensure as much moisture is locked in as possible. Now there's one more thing we can do. Leave the skin on, okay? That's gonna create like a barrier so there's no liquid or moisture that can escape from the bottom of the salmon while we're smoking it. The skin is gonna help keep it all in there, seal all that goodness in there. Be sure not to skin your salmon. Okay, let's brine this. I'm gonna add this to a casserole dish. Make sure it's non-reactive. So that means use ceramic, stainless steel, plastic, or glass. I'm pouring the brine right over top, but I'm quickly noticing that the top of the salmon is hanging out a little bit. I don't like that. I want it to be submerged. So here's what I'm thinking. Let's give it a flip and put its skin side up. Since it's going to float, I know the bottom part isn't going to touch that pan and it's still going to be brined. This is perfect because we wanna make sure all that deliciousness is penetrating our salmon. Super important here. Next, I'm just gonna cover the top in plastic. It's going in the refrigerator. Make a little room if you need it for 12 hours or overnight. And I know I say overnight a lot, so let me clarify. That means if I start brining this morning, this afternoon, or tonight, in the morning, tomorrow I'm going to wake up and I'm going to start cooking. That does not mean I start brining this morning and then I start cooking tomorrow night. I mean, you're talking like 36 hours. That's too long. Do not go any more than 24 hours. It will be way too salty. So go hang out tonight, come back, we'll start cooking. It's early 8 a.m. and it is smoking day. Pulling the salmon right out of the refrigerator. Looks great. Gonna remove the plastic wrap. All right, here's what we need to do here. A couple more procedures. Let's remove the salmon from the liquid. Just gonna give it a quick little flip here. Transferring it over to a sheet tray lined with parchment paper. If you have a platter, plate, whatever, totally fine. Now, I'm going over to the sink. I wanna quickly rinse off some of that brine and some cold water. If you leave the brine on there, it can tend to be a little bit too salty. So this is really important and it only takes a second. And also, be sure to do both sides of that salmon. Once it is quickly rinsed, I'm gonna put it on a sheet tray with a rack. All right, super important. Let's now bring it over to the countertop. I have a few more things we need to do. And this next step may just seem like an afterthought, but it's incredibly crucial to the success of this salmon. What we wanna do is pat it dry very well for about a minute or so. No need to go too crazy. You need to be gentle when dabbing it. And what we're trying to do here is create something called the pellicle, okay? This is incredibly important. It creates this little layer and it seals in everything. But the layer is a little bit sticky, which means the smoke is really going to stick to it, which is awesome. That's what gives it all that flavor and that beautiful color. But after we dab it, we're gonna let it sit for about two hours. I know it seems like a little bit, but I promise you, this is so important. Do not skip this. Just giving it a few more blots here. And again, letting it sit for two hours to dry. But with 30 minutes left in that two-hour drying time, let's load up our hopper, start up our smoker, cranking the heat down to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. This is why pellet smokers are so awesome. Once it's heated up and after that two-hour total drying time period, what we're gonna do is put on our salmon. But while my firebox is down in this area and it's super hot coming out of here, wanna keep the salmon away from it. So we're going up top. Wanna make sure it gets smoke and it doesn't overcook quickly. But what we're gonna do is lube up the top with plenty of neutral flavored oil. Wanna make sure my salmon does not stick. Speaking of salmon, let's grab that, taking it out, putting it right down on where I oiled up the grates. Now what we're gonna do is plug in the thermometer. The goal is to get it to 140 degrees Fahrenheit internally. So put it right in the center in the thickest part of the salmon. And one of my favorite things about pellet smokers is that the environment inside is loaded with moisture. So there's no reason to ever put a water pan in there. Love that. Now we've probably got about two to two and a half hours of smoking time because we wanna get it to about 140 degrees Fahrenheit internally, which means we are done, but do not go far. After about an hour, we're gonna come back and make an awesome glaze for this salmon. So it's been about an hour of smoking time. I've got a small size sauce pot. I'm gonna add in a half cup of packed light brown sugar. Next, a half stick of unsalted butter, one tablespoon of soy sauce, a little bit of saltiness there. And then remember the zested lemon and orange? Just going to cut those in half. I wanna squeeze all the goodness out of there, all that juice. I always use my other hand to catch any seeds so I don't have to fish those out of there later. All right, perfect. Going over to the burner. I'm putting this over medium heat. What we wanna do, much like the brine, is bring it to a boil and make sure the brown sugar is completely dissolved in the mixture. And I highly recommend tasting this. It's crazy delicious. I'm heading over to my smoker. I can see the salmon's already at 101 degrees Fahrenheit internally. It's really starting to look good. That pellicle, so key here. What I'm gonna do now is grab some heaping brush loads full of that glaze and start to glaze it all over. Now, the goal here is to baste this with that glaze every 30 minutes until it's finished cooking. Remember, we're trying to get to 140 degrees Fahrenheit internally, so do not go far. So now I've glazed it after one hour, after 90 minutes, and then I've come back and I've glazed it again after the two-hour smoking period. It's really starting to adhere and stick to the salmon. Smells awesome. So here's what I'm thinking. It's been two hours. Let's crank that heat up to 200 degrees. That's all I think I'll need to get that little extra brown that I'm looking for. Plus, at that temperature, it shouldn't take too much longer to get to 140 degrees internally. Next, if you start to see a couple little white substances creep through the top of the salmon, that's known as albumin. It's totally normal and totally fine. Now, if your salmon is completely covered in it, that's not good. That means your salmon is risked being overcooked and really dried out. So what you can do is pick up that salmon and move it as far away from the heat source, like that main fire, as possible. That should help you out big time. All right, let's see if we can get this browned up. And even at that 200 degrees Fahrenheit temperature, we're still gonna come back and glaze every 30 minutes. So crucial for the flavor and for the color of the salmon to be right where I want it. All right, we're rounding third base. It hit 140 degrees Fahrenheit internally. It looks so good. Honestly, it looks like candy. It's got like a glass over top. It's beautiful. Let's remove that thermometer. Be very careful, because our salmon is gonna be a little bit warm, so definitely use some gloves or a huge spatula. Transfer it over to a sheet tray along with parchment paper or a platter, whatever you have. The goal here is to let this salmon rest for about 10 to 15 minutes, come up to temperature so we can try it out. So it took two hours at 150 degrees and one hour at 200 degrees to come out perfectly in those four procedures of the wet brine, whole piece of salmon, skin on, and cooking at low temperatures of 150 degrees. It is moist, it is tender, it is delicious, and it will always go back to these fundamental classic cooking techniques that will always elevate your everyday cooking. All right, plate up is super simple. Let me show you how. Incredibly simple. I'm just going to add on a little bit more glaze right before serving it up. It's still gonna be plenty warm even after that 10 to 15 minute resting period. And the flavors in this are just so, so good. I have a feeling you're gonna love this one. Now you can serve it warm as is, or you can cool it down, wrap it up, eat it cold, keep it in the refrigerator for seven to 10 days, or it freezes amazingly well for up to six months. Now, if you love smoked food, then you are gonna love the smoky deliciousness in my smoked pork shoulder. I've got an awesome recipe video. See you on there.