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Featured Comment:
“Really love your recipes and especially this miso salmon. It’s a household favourite! Thank you so much :)”
– Kelly
What is Miso Glazed Salmon?
Miso glazed salmon a fish dish made with tender salmon fillets coated with a salty, rich and slightly sweet miso sauce. The sauce is thick and packed with umami, I absolutely love this dish with rice!
There are a number of ways to cook miso glazed salmon, but my favorite way is in a frying pan. In fact, this is a one-pan dish, so not only is it easy to cook, but it’s easy to clean up too!
Ingredients & Substitution Ideas
- Miso paste – I recommend using awase miso (mixed miso) for this recipe. It’s balanced in flavor and is the most commonly used miso for general cooking outside of miso soup.
- Sake – adds umami and helps soften the meat. If you can’t get hold of sake, dry sherry or white wine also works. And if you can’t use alcohol in your cooking, replace it with water to keep the sauce consistency the same.
- Grated garlic – a hint of garlic adds great depth to the glaze! I often use S&B’s garlic paste in a tube for this.
- Soy sauce – for best results, use Japanese koikuchu (dark) soy sauce such as Kikkoman soy sauce.
- Light brown sugar – for sweetness. White sugar also works fine.
- Salmon fillets – preferably skin on for a delicious crispy texture! Make sure to choose fresh high quality salmon, moist and vibrant flesh is a good indicator that its fresh.
- Potato starch – makes a crispy layer over the salmon which helps the glaze stick better.
- Sesame oil – for cooking and adding a slight nutty flavor. I used Kadoya’s sesame oil (affiliate link). This can be replaced with your favorite cooking oil.
- Chopped green onion – an optional garnish for a refreshing taste and pop of color.
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Jump to Full Recipe MeasurementsVisual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make Miso Glazed Salmon at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
Take a small bowl and mix the miso paste, sake, garlic paste, soy sauce, and light brown sugar together. Set by the stove for later.
Start preheating your frying pan on a medium setting. While it preheats, you can prepare the salmon. First, wash the fillets with cold water and dry them thoroughly with kitchen paper.
Once dry, sprinkle both sides with a pinch of salt.
Sprinkle the salt from a height to help evenly distribute it.
Next, coat the surface of the salmon with a thin layer of potato starch. Not only is this going to make the surface of the salmon beautifully crispy, but it will also help the sauce stick.
Once hot, add the sesame oil to the pan and swirl it around. Place the salmon fillets with the skin side facing down. Fry for 2 minutes on each side or until the salmon reaches an internal temperature of 52°C (125°F). (This may take a little longer for particularly thick fillets.)
Salmon continues to cook even after it’s taken off the heat; this is why it’s better to cook it to a temperature of 52°C (125°F) to avoid it becoming dry and overcooked. You can use a kitchen thermometer for accuracy.
Once the salmon is cooked through, turn off the heat and pour the miso glaze into the pan. Move the salmon around until it is completely coated in the sauce.
Miso paste easily burns, so it’s better not to cook it with direct heat. Instead, turn off the stove and allow it to bubble and thicken with the residual heat. You’ll find it thickens surprisingly fast!
Plate up, sprinkle with chopped spring onions and enjoy! I recommend serving miso glazed salmon as part of a teishoku set with steamed rice, miso soup, and pickles. See below for more serving suggestions!
Jump to Full Recipe MeasurementsHow to Enjoy As A “Teishoku” Set Meal
Have you ever heard the term “teishoku” (定食)? It’s the Japanese term for “set meal” and is usually made up of 3 or more elements. The most common dishes that make up a teishoku set include:
- Main dish – usually grilled or fried meat or fish
- Rice – Japanese white rice is most common but brown rice or rice mixed with multi grains are also popular.
- Soup – miso soup is the classic option but other great options include tonjiru (pork miso soup), kenchinjiru (Japanese vegetable soup) or kaki-tamajiru (egg drop soup).
- Side dish – vegetables (boiled, stir fried etc), salad
- Tsukemono – Japanese pickles
Miso glazed salmon is a perfect dish for teishoku-style meals and can be served for lunch, dinner, or even breakfast! Each element comes together to make a very satisfying meal!
Teishoku is usually arranged in a specific order. I’ve made a guide for you below!
If you’re interested in making miso glazed salmon as part of a teishoku set, try out some of the recipes below to complete your meal!
FAQ
So the star of the show is the delicious miso glaze, but what exactly is miso? Well, miso is a Japanese paste made from fermented soybeans. It is most well known for being the key ingredient in making miso soup. However, the unique flavor of miso is also perfect for general cooking, such as use in sauces and marinades.
There are many kinds of miso pastes in Japan, and they are often characterized by their color (white, yellow, or red) or main ingredients (rice, barley, soybean, or mixed).
In this recipe, I use mixed miso, which is called “awase miso” in Japanese. While white miso is characteristically sweet and red miso is known for being salty and rich, awase miso is the perfect balance of the two. Of course, most people have their personal preferences, so feel free to try this recipe with your favorite kind of miso!
I hope you enjoy this Miso Glazed Salmon recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
More Japanese Salmon Recipes
Miso Glazed Salmon (Pan-fried)
Ingredients
Miso Glaze
Salmon
- 2 salmon fillets skin-on
- 2 pinches salt
- 1 tbsp potato starch
- 1 tbsp sesame oil or cooking oil of your choice
- 1 tbsp finely chopped green onions
Instructions
- Mix 1 tbsp yellow miso paste (awase miso), 1 tbsp sake, 1 tsp garlic, 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp light brown sugar in a small bowl until well combined.
- Preheat a frying pan on a medium-high setting. While it preheats, wash 2 salmon fillets with cold water and pat them dry with kitchen paper.
- Sprinkle both sides of the salmon with 2 pinches salt and coat with 1 tbsp potato starch.
- Once the pan is hot, add 1 tbsp sesame oil and place the salmon fillets in the pan with the skin side down. Fry for 2 minutes on each side or until the salmon reaches an internal temperature of 52 °C (126 °F). (This may take a little longer for particularly thick fillets.)
- Turn off the heat and pour the sauce into the pan. Move the salmon around the pan until both sides are coated with the sauce.
- Serve up, sprinkle with 1 tbsp finely chopped green onions onions and enjoy!
Kelly
Really love your recipes and especially this miso salmon. It’s a household favourite! I was wondering if it would work to substitute the salmon with cod fish sometimes or if you have another recipe for miso cod? Thank you so much 🙂
Yuto Omura
Hi Kelly,
Thank you for the comment and making this recipe!
Yes, this recipe should work with any fish fillets, including cod.
But if you use cod, you might want to do a bit of prep before frying to soften the odor (you can check out one of the techniques in my old teriyaki cod video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scgmP2sxG-A
Yuto
Martin Bruss
Parfait!
Yuto Omura
Thank you!