Sesame Maple Glazed Salmon - easy broiled salmon recipe! (2024)

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With a sweet and savory Asian-inspired marinade, this Sesame Maple Glazed Salmon is a fish recipe that even the non-seafood eaters will love. Serve your perfectly broiled salmon with broccoli, rice, and the flavorful sauce for a jaw-dropping meal. A simple swap of tamari for the soy sauce makes it gluten free.

Table of Contents

• Maple Glazed Salmon – sweet and savory!
• Ingredients
• How to Make Maple Glazed Salmon
• Frequently asked questions
• Serving suggestions
• More easy seafood recipes
• Get the Recipe

Maple Glazed Salmon – sweet and savory!

After soaking in a sweet and savory marinade, this broiled salmon has tons of delicious flavor. Drizzle the simple sauce over the top of the salmon and it becomes even more mouthwatering. It might even get those that say they don’t like seafood happily eating their fish.

This is always a good thing since salmon is packed with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. It’s also full of B vitamins, especially vitamin B12, as well as potassium and selenium. Salmon is a total superstar for heart and brain health!

In this easy salmon recipe, the earthy sweetness plays so well with the savory Asian flavors from salty soy sauce and nutty sesame oil and sesame seeds. Then when it is broiled, it caramelizes which makes it even tastier.

Easy, healthy, and tasty, maple glazed salmon is definitely a winner for the family! They will devour it every time.

Ingredients

First, you’ll need about a 1 to 1 1/2 pound piece of salmon. You can also use salmon fillets if you prefer, but reduce the cooking time to about 10 minutes. Other than that, it’s mostly pantry staples to make the sumptuous marinade and sauce.

For the sesame maple salmon marinade:

• Olive oil – avocado oil is also fine to use.
• Maple syrup – use real maple syrup, not pancake syrup. It makes all the difference in the flavor.
• Sesame oil – if you can get toasted sesame oil, it adds even more toasty, butty flavor.
• Rice vinegar – use unseasoned so you can control the level of salt.
• Soy sauce – use gluten free soy sauce or tamari, if needed
• Garlic – I recommend using a clove or the minced garlic from a jar or tube. But you can use 1/4 tespoon garlic powder if that’s all you have.
• Dry ginger powder – you can also use 1/2 Tablespoon greated fresh ginger if you prefer.
• Crushed red pepper flakes – adds a hint of heat, but you can always omit it.

For the soy maple sauce:

You’ll use some of the same ingredients as the marinade, and the same notes apply here.

• Maple syrup
• Soy sauce
• Dry ginger powder
• Chives
• Sesame seeds – toast them in a skillet over low heat until they are lightly golden and give off a nutty aroma.

How to Make Maple Glazed Salmon

Marinate the salmon. Combine the marinade ingredients, pour into a ziplock bag, and add the salmon. Marinate for 30 minutes or up to several hours.

Prepare to cook the salmon. Preheat your broiler. Line the bottom of your broiler pan or a baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy cleanup since some of the marinade will drip off. Then spray the top of the broiler pan or a wire rack liberally with cooking spray or olive oil. You can also skip the rack and cook it right on the foil-lined pan. You don’t need cooking spray and should be able to use a thin spatula to slide the fish off the pan, leaving the skin stuck on the foil.

Broil the salmon. Remove salmon from the marinade and place directly on the broiler pan or wire rack or foil-lined pan. Pour a little of the marinade over the salmon and discard the rest. Season with salt and pepper. Then broil for 15 to 20 minutes, until opaque and flakes easily with a fork and it reaches an internal temperature of 145°F.

Make the sauce. While the salmon is cooking, toast the sesame seeds and stir together the sauce ingredients.

Serve. Remove from the oven/broiler and serve immediately with broccoli and rice or cauliflower rice with the Maple Sesame Sauce drizzled over both.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know when it is done?

It is recommended to cool salmon to an internal temperature of 145°F. I recommend having an instant-read thermometer to be able to check meat temperature quickly and accurately. If you start to see white stuff on your salmon, relax. It’s called albumin, and it’s just a natural protein that can be released from the fish during the cooking process. It might mean that your salmon cooked too quickly or is overcooked. But I promise that it’ll still be tasty!

Can I eat salmon skin?

Salmon skin is safe to eat. Some people prefer not to eat it either due to the texture depending on how it is cooked, or the possible presence of things like pollutants from the water. But it is packed with even more of the nutritional benefits you get from eating salmon.

How do I store leftovers?

I’ll be surprised if you have leftover maple glazed salmon. But if you do or if you want to make it ahead for meal prep, you can store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Keep the sauce separate.

You can enjoy the leftover maple salmon cold over a salad. Or reheat it in the microwave or oven. The sauce only needs to come to room temperature.

Serving suggestions

I love to serve this maple glazed salmon recipe with simple steamed broccoli, but you can always amp of the flavor with Sesame Maple Roasted Broccoli. And I’ll often make either white rice or brown rice (in those posts, you’ll get instructions for five different ways to cook them!). When you drizzle it with that maple sesame sauce, it tastes amazing.

But there are plenty of other side dishes to make it a meal:

• For a quick and easy dinner, make brown rice ramen noodles that boil up in minutes and frozen vegetables cooked according to package instructions.
• Turn it into a quinoa bowl with a base of Cheesy Quinoa and add Roasted Cauliflower.
• Make it lower carb with lots of veggies by making Cauliflower Rice or Sesame Zoodles.
• Have a meal that’s kid-friendly and fun with Sesame Glazed Cauliflower Wings and Pineapple Broccoli Salad.

More easy seafood recipes

• Chili Lime Shrimp
• Lobster Cobb Salad
• Bourbon Shrimp
• Fish Stick Tacos
• Avocado and Lump Crab Salad