Salmon with Lemon, Garlic, Dill and Caper Butter Sauce

This delicious lemon, garlic, dill and caper sauce incorporates some of our favorite ingredients for cooking and eating wild Alaskan Sockeye salmon. It’s a sauce that accentuates those rich, healthy omega-3 fats and adds zing to your beautiful salmon dish.

We love this recipe because it's a quick, simple way to prepare salmon, but has all the ingredients of a gourmet meal.  We like to let our salmon rest at room temp for 15-20 minutes before we put it in the oven. Luckily, this allows us enough time to get the ingredients together for the yummy sauce. 

Roasted Salmon with Lemon, Garlic, Dill and Caper Butter Sauce

Author: Teri Robl

Ingredients

• 1 Popsie Sockeye salmon fillet

Lemon, Garlic, Dill and Caper Butter Sauce

• ½ cup salted butter, melted
• 2-3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 2 tbsps freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tsps lemon zest
• ⅛ tsp dried red pepper flakes
• ¼ cup fresh dill, chopped
• 1 tbsp capers
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Allow salmon filet to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
2. Pat gently with a paper towel to dry.
3. While the salmon rests, make the butter sauce

Lemon, Garlic, Dill and Caper Butter Sauce

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
3. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and dried red pepper flakes and cook on medium heat for about 3 more minutes to reduce the sauce.
4. Remove the saucepan from heat and add dill and capers.
5. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Cook the salmon

1. Place the salmon, skin side down, on a large baking sheet.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Spoon the lemon, garlic, dill and caper sauce evenly over the top of the fillet.
4. Bake at 400° F (or 200°C) for 12-15 minutes.
5. Check for doneness with a thermometer, if cooking fillet through to done, aim for no more than 140°F as the salmon will continue to cook a little after removing it from the oven, or use a fork to gently pull back on a section in the thickest part of the filet. The salmon should flake away easily and look opaque.
6. Serve on warmed plates.

Recipe Notes

• For tips on roasting wild salmon from Guest Chef, Teri Robl, see blog post "How to Roast Salmon".
• This recipe roasts the salmon at 400F for 12-15 minutes. If you want to slow roast salmon, you can use this recipe, but lower the oven temp to 275F and lengthen the cooking time depending on the thickness of the salmon fillet or portion.