Brown Sugar Broiled Salmon

Broiled Salmon with a spicy brown sugar glaze is a quick 15 minute salmon recipe that yields high returns for very little effort! Beautiful caramelised surface, juicy salmon inside, this is a terrific way to cook salmon that’s far less messy than pan searing.

Like the Chilli Lime Baked Salmon, this can be made into a one tray dinner by adding vegetables that will cook at the same time!

An amazing Broiled Salmon

Dinner really doesn’t get any more simple than this, but it lacks nothing in the flavour department! Especially that glaze – it’s fantastic! And I really mean it when I say this is a 15 minute meal. It goes like this:

• Glaze: mix mustard, mayonnaise, brown sugar and cayenne pepper (1 minute)

• Slather onto salmon (1 minute)

• If you want, throw on asparagus, broccolini and cherry tomatoes, and drizzle with olive oil (2 minutes)

• Grill/broil for 8 minutes

Oh wait. I can’t do primary school maths. That’s 12 minutes. 😉

Brown sugar glaze for salmon

This recipe is inspired by this Roasted Salmon Glazed with Brown Sugar and Mustard that I found in New York Times last year. The first time I tried it, I found that roasting the salmon didn’t achieve the promised glaze, so I’ve fiddled with the recipe a wee bit. Firstly, I grill/broil the salmon instead of baking it so you’re guaranteed beautiful caramelisation.

And secondly, the NYT recipe only uses mustard and brown sugar which sometimes formed a skin rather than caramelising. I think it depends on how oily the salmon is. So to remove that problem, I add a bit of mayonnaise which adds oil so it ensures you always end up with a beautiful glaze on your salmon. 🙂

Oh wait. I made one other – ahem – little change. I added greens. Asparagus, broccolini and cherry tomatoes are perfect because they cook in the same time as the salmon.

To get a good caramelisation, it’s better to broil rather than roast salmon

Add a crusty bread roll, and dinner is complete.

With just one pan to clean up.

In fact, you could line the tray with foil to eliminate cleaning all together. The reason I don’t is because I like to scrape the juices off the tray and pour it over the Brown Sugar Salmon. Can’t do this with foil, I always end up scraping up bits of foil!!

Brown Sugar Broiled Salmon is one of those recipes that is a great base for adding your own touch. I added cayenne pepper to make the glaze spicy. Off the top of my head, here are some other ideas: lemon or lime zest (not juice), garlic and/or ginger powder, Chinese five spice, sriracha or other chilli paste, swap out the sugar with honey or maple syrup, sichuan pepper, add herbs of choice – fresh or dried.

Love to hear any other ideas you have to glam this up even more! I mean, remember, this only takes 12 minutes to make. So I’m sure you can spare an extra minute or two for some other touches!! 🙂  – Nagi x

Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.

Brown Sugar Broiled Salmon

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Prep: 4 mins

Cook: 8 mins

Total: 12 mins

Dinner

Western

5 from 12 votes

Servings4

Tap or hover to scale

Print

• 159
• 4336

Really great quick way to cook salmon - a brown sugar glaze smeared on salmon fillets, optional addition of veggies, then broil it. Terrific caramelisation, really quick delicious dinner.

Ingredients

• ▢ 4 x 5-8 oz/ 150-180g salmon fillets , skin on or off (I use on)
• ▢ 2 bunches asparagus (Note 1)
• ▢ 1 bunch broccolini (Note 1)
• ▢ 1 cup cherry tomatoes
• ▢ 1 tbsp olive oil
• ▢ Salt and pepper

Glaze (Note 2)

• ▢ 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• ▢ 1 tbsp mayonnaise (I use whole egg mayonnaise)
• ▢ 2 tbsp brown sugar
• ▢ 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

• Preheat broiler/griller on high. Place the oven shelf 6"/15cm from the heat source.
• Spray a baking tray with oil (I use olive oil, any is fine).
• Pile asparagus, broccolini and cherry tomatoes on the baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss with hands then spread out on the tray, mostly on one layer.
• Wedge salmon pieces on the tray between the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Mix Glaze ingredients together. Slather on the salmon - tops and sides.
• Grill/broil for 8 minutes - don't flip. The salmon should be caramelised and the inside should be blushing pink.
• Rest for 2 minutes then serve with crusty bread rolls.

Recipe Notes:

1. The asparagus and broccolini stems needs to be around the width of a standard pencil. If they are much larger than this, cut them in half lengthwise to ensure they cook in the specified time.

2. This makes enough glaze to spread over the top and side of the salmon. You probably won't need all of it if you are using small salmon pieces. Try rolling the cherry tomatoes in leftover glaze before popping them on the tray!

3. Nutrition per serving, assuming a 180g/6oz skinless salmon fillet, excluding bread roll.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 329gCalories: 333cal (17%)Carbohydrates: 11.4g (4%)Protein: 37.7g (75%)Fat: 16.2g (25%)Saturated Fat: 2.3g (14%)Cholesterol: 80mg (27%)Sodium: 161mg (7%)Potassium: 945mg (27%)Fiber: 2.3g (10%)Sugar: 7.6g (8%)Vitamin A: 1450IU (29%)Vitamin C: 40.4mg (49%)Calcium: 110mg (11%)Iron: 3.1mg (17%)

Keywords: Broiled salmom, Brown sugar salmon

Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

SaveSave

SaveSave