Brown-Butter Salmon With Scallions and Lemon Recipe (2024)

Wait, what? You don't eat the skin? Crispy salmon skin is up there with well-buttered baked sweet potato skin - underrated and oh, so delicious! Can I have yours?

Its best to cook the salmon separately( for a crisp top and skin) and pour sauce on top. I would reduce the sauce a bit too.

Skin side down in a wet sauce- never! Soggy salmon skin is revolting and is much better removed here.

You don't eat the skin! It is easy to remove. I find leaving it on when baking keeps some of the juices in.

I'm single, so I made a third of this recipe. Also, I used about 1/2 cup minced shallot, as I didn't have scallions. It was delicious. Notes: I could have cooked the butter for another 30 seconds -- it was just starting to brown when I took it off the stove. And since I have a heavy-bottomed skillet, my baking time was about 25 minutes. Another reason for leaving the skin on: it contributes gelatin to the sauce.The cook who found this watery may have used previously frozen salmon.

120 (rare/medium rare) is only recommended for high-quality salmon. USDA recommends 145 for salmon

It was disappointing because the salmon at 120 f was over cooked and I only cooked for 10 mins. maybe 325 F was too high, a lot of protein came out. Additionally the sauce was very watery, I am not sure what the water was supposed to do. It didn’t cook off in the oven and watered down the lemon and the butter flavor. The sauce didn’t look anything like photo. I will try again, this time not adding any water and maybe browning the butter further before adding the lemon and scallions.

Cooking the salmon skin side down makes it easy to peel off the skin when cooked

Made this with cod - awesome technique! We removed the fish, tossed about 12 oz cooked penne in the remaining sauce fortified with a little starchy pasta water, and served the fish nestled in the pasta. Fantastic dinner.

Delicious!!! I used about 3/4 of the recommended butter and it was plenty.

I would try adding white wine instead of water and not all at once, pan shouldn't be so hot that it burns off like a reduction

Cooked as advertised except I added white wine instead of water.

My wife and I made this for the first time last night, (along with the similar recipe for asparagus in brown butter with pistachios) Simple and tasty, will definitely make it again. Our only 'problem' was in not browning the butter enough.

The scallions and lemon added so much additional moisture to the pan I could not get the butter to brown. Next time I'll get the butter close to the level of browning I want then add the scallions and lemon. Don't know if that will work either, but it's worth a shot.

the people who actually cooked the recipe disagree

I cut back the butter to 4 tbsp and I don't think the dish suffered. Used white wine (Grüner Veltliner) instead of water, and since I had some grated lemon zest used that instead of strips of lemon peel. This was TASTY. Will definitely make salmon this way again. Served with wild rice and stir-fried broccoli.

Delicious. Made according to recipe with one substitution. I didn't realize I had used up my last lemon yesterday, so I used two limes instead and it was great! Will def repeat this easy recipe.

"If using a dark colored pan", put it aside before you begin, and use a lighter colored pan. Otherwise, it is very much more likely that you will burn the butter.What if you don't have a lighter colored pan? I don't know what to tell you.

Love this so much. I have made it several times now and have added different things like chopped asparagus, chopped broccoli, capers, red pepper flakes and cannellini beans while it bakes and it turns out perfect every time. I once used the buttery salmon leftovers to make a salmon rillette and it was delish! It has become my weekly salmon recipe changing it up a little each time.

I only had a few scallions and so I added a shallot--which I think was better. The salmon was delicious and super easy.

Made this with orange instead of lemon (because that’s what I had) and it was excellent.

I may try again but didn’t think it had much flavor. May need to brown butter longer?

Delicious, but... I didn't have scallions; swapped in minced shallots instead. Also followed a reader's lead and used 1/3 c. white wine instead of water. Used 4 T of butter--that's all I had on hand. While tasty and bright (thanks to the lemon elements), even the reduced amount of butter proved very rich--too rich? This dish needs a grain to absorb the intensity of the sauce. I served with baked zucchini slices--next time I'll try broccolini instead. And cut the butter back to 2T.

As others have said, this amount of scallions creates too much liquid to brown the butter. If I make it again, I would brown the butter well first, and then add the lemon and scallions. For only really having four ingredients, though, this is good. I made it with some green beans, served the salmon over the green beans, and spooned the sauce over and it was so good when you would get a bite of the green beans, salmon, and sauce.

I did this entirely stovetop (weekend cottage, only one oven, already spoken for). Scallions in the browned butter, and lemon as very thin slices; white wine instead of water; poached till desired doneness, turning the fish and spooning the sauce over it occasionally. Lovely!Full disclosure: I used the “leftovers” from making ghee as about half the butter...

Made this exactly as the recipe called for, except I took it out of the oven a few mins early because I prefer rare salmon. It was absolutely delicious. Served with simply roasted zucchini spears. Easy to make and very little prep. The cooked skin was soft, but we left it on and it was great. While I often prefer crispy skin (prepared skin side down on the stove), I tried this because it's nice to occasionally make something different than my standard. It did not disappoint. Will make again!

I will just finish this on the stove, covered, and cover removed at the end to firm up. No skin. This method also works well with cod, with cherry tomatoes added, to near burst stage.

The scallions and lemon added so much additional moisture to the pan I could not get the butter to brown. Next time I'll get the butter close to the level of browning I want then add the scallions and lemon. Don't know if that will work either, but it's worth a shot.

Cooked as advertised except I added white wine instead of water.

Sorry, but this recipe is perfect as is, IMHO! Of course, we are lucky to be able to get salmon that was swimming in the ocean only hours before it gets to swim in butter, so perhaps that has something to do with it. Very easy, too. We eat salmon at least once a week, and this is a favorite.