It’s almost that time of the year again guys, time to treat our moms a delicious home cook meal because she deserves it. There’s more than 10 days away so we still have plenty of time to plan the menu to make this occasion look flawless. I picked salmon for this occasion because its bright orange-ish color can easily go with any decoration theme. Put it on a plate with a mixture of herbs and salad then boom, you’ll have a little garden on your dinning table. No need for an extra center piece, so convenient right?

However, the thing about salmon is they are super easy to transform into a delicious meal but can also become an overcooked piece of fish in just a blink of an eye. Overcooked salmon is very flaky and dry. But under-cooked one is hard to swallow down the throat, it is hard on the outside but very squishy in the inside. And you don’t want to experience that texture in your mouth, I promise.

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The best way I stick with cooking salmon is combining the two cooking methods: pan-frying and grilling. First, we’re going to fry salmon on heavy-bottom cooking pan, skin side down for roughly 3 minutes on medium high heat, OR as long as the skin is released from the pan (it means this side is done cooking). You should never try to turn the salmon if the skin has not released completely, it’ll damage the skin and the salmon will lose a protection to guard it from being overcooked. Then we turn it over carefully using the most versatile spatula and cook for another 3 minutes. After that, we pop it into the oven at 200C/390F for 10 to 20 minutes (I’m using conventional oven). The amount of time it spends in the oven will depend on the thickness of the fillet and how big it is. If you have a 0.5 lb piece of salmon, chances are you probably only need to cook it for 5 minutes or so.

Of course, there are many factors that can change the cooking time: the type of oven, the weight of salmon, and the temperature. But if the piece of salmon you have can fit in a regular double-bottom cooking pan, it will never exceed 30 minutes in the oven at 200C/390F (with the required extra of 6-8 minutes on stove top)

delicious grilled salmon

Mother’s Day Sweet Chili Grilled Salmon

Don't forget to plan ahead of time and marinade this salmon for at least an hour before serving time. Also please check back the details about how to avoid overcooking salmon above.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Resting time 5 mins
Total Time 1 hr 5 mins
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Servings 2 people

Equipment

  • Grilling pan

Ingredients
  

  • 0.8~1 lb salmon fillet middle part of the fish, skin on
  • green onion chopped, optional
  • assorted greens optional

Marinated mixture

  • 2 tbsp Maeploy sweet chili sauce
  • 2 tbsp ketchup
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp seasoning soy sauce Maggi or Golden Mountain brand

Instructions
 

  • Pat dry salmon fillet. Use a sharp knife, score crisscross lines on non-skin side of the salmon (about 1/3 inch in depth). Seasoning with small dash of salt and pepper.
  • Mix together ingredients of marinade liquid. Pour on scored salmon and let marinade for at least 1 hour.
  • Pre-heat oven to 390F/200C.
  • In a heavy-bottom cooking pan, heat 3 tbsp of veggie oil on medium high heat, wait until both the pan and oil are hot, put the salmon (skin side down) and fry for 3 minutes or until the skin is released completely from the pan surface.
  • Use spatula flip the salmon, and cook the other side for another 3 minutes.
  • Move the salmon from cooking pan to grilling pan (skin side down) and put in the oven. Cook for another 15 minutes.
  • After the salmon is done cooking, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 2 minutes then served immediately with green onion for garnish (optional) and assorted greens (also optional).
  • Enjoy!
Keyword Grilling, Salmon