Half a cup of marmalade covers four 6-ounce salmon fillets. Stir it into a glaze with Dijon and soy sauce, brush a thin coat on, and broil the fish 4 inches from the heat for 8–10 minutes, basting as it cooks. Meyer lemon marmalade takes the place of honey or brown sugar, bringing its own lemon and peel.
A standard salmon glaze is something sweet plus something salty under high heat. Taste of Home's honey-mustard glazed salmon is the plain form of it: brown sugar, honey, Dijon and salt spooned over the fillets, then under the broiler for 8–12 minutes. RecipeTin Eats pours a honey-soy sauce into the skillet for the last minute. The glaze below borrows that soy for salt and depth and lets marmalade do the sweetening.
Our Meyer Lemon Marmalade is Meyer lemons, cane sugar and water, with no added pectin or acid. Meyer isn't a true lemon but a sweeter citrus with mandarin ancestry, so the jar's acidity is soft. On a fatty fish it does the job of a lemon wedge.
Honey or brown sugar versus marmalade
| Usual ingredient | Swap | What changes | How to adjust |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown sugar and honey (Taste of Home uses ⅔ cup sugar plus 2 tbsp honey for 10 fillets) | ½ cup (120 ml) Meyer Lemon Marmalade for 4 fillets | The glaze tastes of lemon peel as well as sugar, and the peel shreds char at the tips | Chop long shreds so they lie flat and cook evenly |
| A squeeze of lemon at the table | Nothing extra | The lemon is already in the glaze | Serve wedges only if you want it sharper |
| Salt in the glaze | 1 tbsp soy sauce plus a pinch of salt | Savory depth against the sweetness | Use low-sodium soy if your fillets are pre-brined |
When does the glaze go on?
Put a thin coat on before the fillets go under the heat and save the rest for basting in the last few minutes. Sugar browns fast under a broiler, and a thick layer from the start can darken before a thick fillet is cooked through. Stay by the oven.
Split the glaze before any brush touches raw fish. One bowl is for the first coat; the other, kept clean, is for basting and for spooning over at the table. Use a clean brush for basting, never the one that touched raw fish.
Glazed salmon recipe
Serves: 4 · Hands-on: 10 min · Under the broiler: 8–10 min · Start to finish: about 20 min
Ingredients
- 4 salmon fillets, skin on, 6 oz (170 g) each and about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick
- ½ cup (120 ml) lemon marmalade; we make a Meyer Lemon Marmalade
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) soy sauce
- 1 small garlic clove, minced very fine
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper, freshly ground
- Neutral oil, for the pan
- Sliced green onion, to serve (optional)
Steps
- Heat the broiler with a rack about 4 inches (10 cm) below the element.
- Line a sheet pan with foil and brush it lightly with oil.
- Stir together the marmalade, mustard, soy sauce, garlic, salt and pepper, chopping any long peel shreds as you go.
- Spoon about two-thirds of the glaze (about 6 tbsp) into a second small bowl and set it aside for basting.
- Pat the salmon dry and set it skin side down on the pan.
- Brush the fillets with the thin layer of glaze left in the first bowl, then discard what remains.
- Broil for 5 minutes.
- Using a clean brush, or by spooning from the bowl, coat the fillets with half the reserved glaze and broil 3–5 minutes more, until the fish flakes easily and the top is glossy with a few dark edges.
- Check the thickest fillet with a thermometer; the FDA's guidance for seafood is an internal temperature of 145°F (63°C).
- Spoon the last of the reserved glaze over the fillets and scatter with green onion.
Notes
- Thinner fillets (½ inch or less) may be done in 6–7 minutes in all. Baste once, at the 4-minute mark.
- On the grill: grill covered over medium heat for 10–12 minutes, skin side down on an oiled rack, with the same glaze and basting order. The timing comes from Taste of Home's orange marmalade salmon, which uses the same ½ cup of marmalade and tablespoon of Dijon for four fillets.
- Leftovers keep in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Flake cold salmon over greens with a spoonful of Meyer lemon marmalade whisked into oil and vinegar.
- Other jars: an orange marmalade gives the more familiar result. Our Minneola Tangelo Marmalade lists savory glazes and marinades among its uses.
If there's no marmalade in the house
The honey-mustard glaze linked above is sized for 10 fillets. Scaled to four, that's about ¼ cup (50 g) of brown sugar, packed, with 2½ teaspoons each of honey and Dijon and a pinch of salt. Spoon it over the fillets and broil 3–4 inches from the heat until the fish just begins to flake, 8–12 minutes. With no marmalade to carry the citrus, a squeeze of lemon at the table does that work.
Marmalade and mustard meet again on a ham: the ham glaze in our holiday cooking roundup mixes marmalade with whole-grain mustard and brushes it on for the last 30–45 minutes of roasting. All eight jars, lemon through mandarin, are in the marmalade collection.
Photo by Sam Moghadam on Unsplash.
