The Best Salmon You'll Ever Make (Restaurant-Quality)

Hi, I am Frank Proto,

professional chef and culinary instructor,

and today I'm gonna show you

how to make the best pan-seared salmon.

We'll be going over the techniques

to make your pan-seared salmon have crispy skin

and a soft, juicy interior.

This is Salmon 101.

[upbeat music]

Before we get into cooking our salmon, I wanna talk

about how to select it when you're in the store.

On a day-to-day, I prefer farm raised salmon,

has a little more fat to it than the wild caught salmon.

If you tend to overcook it a little,

所有的脂肪有助于that it doesn't dry out.

The farm raised tends to be a little bit better

when it comes to being forgiving in the pan.

the first thing I always do is visually inspect it.

I'm looking at the color first.

Is it appealing?

Does it have a nice pink, rosy color?

If it's starting to get a little gray, don't buy it.

Another thing that the fish monger

at the store might not want you to do

but I think you should every time,

and if they don't let you do it,

don't buy the fish is pick it up,

put it close to your face, take a whiff.

It should be a light ocean breeze.

It should not be fishy.

A last thing is I'd like to touch the salmon.

You notice how my fingers aren't sticking.

It's nice and smooth.

It's not sticky.

It's not giving me any residue

and that means that there's no slime on it

and the fish is really nice.

So if any of those factors

don't work for you, don't buy the salmon,

find another store.

[upbeat music]

So it's time to cook the fish.

I'm gonna turn my pan on.

[machine clicking]

I'm gonna go to like a medium high heat.

I'm putting enough oil in there

so that it coats the whole bottom of the pan.

We're not deep frying here

but I do want the oil to make one level

so that I get really nice browning and even cooking.

So while that heats up,

I'm going to season my filets,

a little bit of black pepper, a little bit of salt.

Now one of the most important things right now

is to make sure that the skin and the salmon is dry.

I have a paper towel.

I'm just gonna dab it.

I like to do it

after I season 'cause salt draws out moisture.

If we put salmon in the pan and it's wet,

not only is it gonna stick,

we're not gonna get a nice crispy skin.

You can see that my oil

is starting to get a little shimmery.

There should be a light amount of smoke before it goes in.

I have two tools here.

I have a pair of tongues and a fist spatula.

Fist spatula has these wide openings

and a very thin and bendy blade, which is great.

The only problem with this

is that everyone's always trying to force their way

under the salmon and usually they tear the skin.

What's cool about salmon is that it will tell you

when it's ready to be turned, right?

That's why I use tongs.

The tongs will let me gently turn the salmon

without ripping any skin or tearing any flesh.

So you can see that my oil is getting nice

and shimmery, one last time with a paper towel

before we go in.

The skin side is my presentation side.

I always put my presentation side in the pan first.

Not only that, I'm gonna drop it

in the pan away from me so that when it splashes,

oil will splash that way and not on me.

Now what we wanna do is leave it alone.

I'm gonna lower my heat just a little

'cause it looks like it's a little hot.

A lot of times what people are gonna do

is they're gonna start fussing with this.

And once you start fussing with it,

that's when things get ripped and the skin falls off.

It starts to break.

It's a little sticky, that's okay.

Leave it alone.

We're gonna let the salmon tell us when it's ready.

Let the salmon kind of brown.

Let the skin start to get crispy.

We're gonna cook it most of the way on the skin side.

Main point is leave it alone.

Let it cook, trust the process.

Trust Chef Frank.

These are ready to turn, right.

Look how they free themselves up.

We're gonna turn it over and we have some nice, crispy skin.

Crispy, crunchy, delicious.

Part of the reason why you probably don't like fish skin

is 'cause it's not crispy.

I'm gonna lower my heat now

and we're just gonna let them finish cooking

on the flesh side, I want it nice

and rosy pink in the center, not raw,

just rosy pink and still nice and juicy.

Just for a few minutes.

We're not gonna go crazy on the flesh side

'cause that's when you start seeing the salmon

drying out and stuff like that.

And at this point the fish will separate itself

from the pan and now we're just gonna let it cook

on low until it's cooked through.

At this point, you might be wondering, hey,

I'm gonna cook the sides.

You can cook the sides if you want.

It's totally up to you.

I just like to leave it on the skin or the bottom side.

I like to see that rosy pink.

I don't need that to be brown.

I think we're good.

I can take my salmon out and let it rest.

It's still very pink in the center, which is fine.

Let the temperature equalize.

If it gets cold on the resting rack, that's fine.

We can always reheat it in the oven or in the pan

but I'm gonna let it rest on a rack.

I don't want to put its skin side down on the rack.

We've done a lot of work to get this skin super crispy.

If you put its skin side down

on the rack, what's gonna happen?

Anyone, anyone?

It's gonna get soggy.

We're not gonna have crispy skin anymore

so put it on a rack or a tray or a plate skin side up.

The skin will stay crispy.

[upbeat music]

Now it's time to plate, my salmon is rested.

It should be nice and juicy.

I want to get one more view of this skin, listen.

[skin whirring]

Crispy skin.

I have a little bit of salad here.

It's dressed with some lemon juice and olive oil.

We can put a salmon on this

and it's not gonna wilt immediately.

Just a little bit of lemon on the side

in case someone wants to squeeze it.

And that's my plate.

Perfectly cooked pan-seared salmon.

But let's see my inside here.

Ah, look at that.

Still pink.

Still nice and juicy.

You see how it flakes when I cut it,

that means it's cooked and not raw.

Lemme give it a taste.

Perfectly moist and pink on the inside.

Seasoning is great, flavor's great.

还有你的人。

My pan seared salmon, crispy skin, juicy interior

every single time.