Pan Seared Salmon with Whiskey Honey Glaze

Son of a Southern Chef

This is our third salmon recipe on the channel, but like I said, my kids adore salmon, and I'm not sad about it. Pan searing salmon fillets means you can get a super crispy skin, which is both delicious and healthy, since a lot of the omega-3 fatty acids in salmon are in the skin.

It comes together really quickly, so you can have the rest of your meal ready and just cook this up right before serving. It's easy to over reduce the glaze (which I did), but if you find it a bit too thick for your liking, stir in a little bit of water at a time until it's perfect for you. Just don't burn the honey!

Lazarus Lynch posted this recipe on his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/sonofasouthernchef/photos/dinner-plans-make-my-pan-seared-salmon-with-whisky-honey-glaze-from-my-cookbook-/1405204659628435/

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather
[00:07]: today we're not making biscuits sadly
[00:11]: but we are cooking from lazarus lynch's
[00:14]: son of a southern chef and we are going
[00:15]: to be making
[00:17]: one of my kids favorite things salmon
[00:20]: we're going to be making pan seared
[00:22]: salmon with whiskey honey glaze and this
[00:24]: is going to be a really fast recipe
[00:26]: so i've already got my sides um cooked
[00:28]: and in the
[00:29]: in the oven just on warm so that we will
[00:32]: be ready to eat as soon as these come
[00:34]: off the stove
[00:35]: they should take maybe about 10 minutes
[00:37]: to cook
[00:39]: plus a little bit for the sauce so what
[00:41]: i'm going to be doing right now
[00:43]: is putting together that whiskey honey
[00:45]: glaze
[00:46]: that we're going to cook in the pan
[00:48]: after the fish is done so
[00:50]: i'm going to start with the whiskey um
[00:54]: we happen to have some japanese whiskey
[00:56]: it's not one of my husband's favorite so
[00:58]: he said i could use that
[01:01]: um we have a little bit of soy sauce
[01:05]: so i did kind of skew asian with my
[01:07]: sides here
[01:10]: just because we have some honey
[01:13]: i'm using the same honey that i used for
[01:18]: the bourbon glazed broiled salmon that i
[01:22]: made from brown sugar kitchen
[01:25]: just because why not
[01:28]: and we have some
[01:32]: fresh squeezed lime juice
[01:36]: not quite enough there we go
[01:42]: and i'm going to do is whisk this
[01:43]: together to sort of get the honey
[01:45]: and and the liquid sort of incorporated
[01:49]: and i'll give it another little whisk
[01:51]: before we actually use it
[01:53]: um he tells you not to do this until
[01:56]: later but
[01:58]: you can do this ahead of time that's
[01:59]: fine
[02:02]: and then the only thing we're going to
[02:03]: add to this when we
[02:05]: uh cook it to make it you know thick
[02:07]: like a glaze is some time which i've
[02:10]: already
[02:10]: washed and have ready over here
[02:14]: so that's ready now i'm going to get my
[02:15]: fish ready i have some salmon fillets
[02:18]: here
[02:19]: skin on salmon fillets um
[02:23]: one of them turned out to be a little
[02:24]: bit smaller than the other ones but
[02:27]: that'll be
[02:27]: okay now he does call for
[02:30]: only eight to ten ounces of salmon
[02:34]: then split up into four pieces if i give
[02:36]: my kids two ounces of salmon they will
[02:39]: they will rebel they will decide to eat
[02:42]: mine as well so
[02:44]: for my family it takes about a pound and
[02:47]: a half
[02:47]: to satisfy
[02:51]: the desire for salmon fillets just so
[02:54]: you know
[02:55]: so i think that's a little little low
[02:57]: for the four servings that he
[02:59]: suggests now maybe we just eat more
[03:02]: protein than a lot of people
[03:03]: whatever i think total here was about
[03:07]: 1.6
[03:08]: pounds so you might get a little bit
[03:12]: a little bit over a pound if you do
[03:15]: salmon fillets all this sort of smaller
[03:16]: size
[03:18]: which would be fine honestly
[03:21]: but again two ounces not gonna satisfy
[03:24]: my kids
[03:25]: so i'm just gonna salt and pepper both
[03:27]: sides here
[03:29]: i just have some kosher salt he does not
[03:32]: give a measurement for this which is
[03:34]: perfectly fine by me it's a great thing
[03:37]: if you get used to
[03:39]: seasoning by feel which is really
[03:43]: possible when you use
[03:45]: kosher salt
[03:53]: all right so i've seasoned that side now
[03:55]: i'm going to turn them all over
[03:58]: and season the skin side now the skin
[04:01]: side is the first
[04:03]: side we're going to be cooking because
[04:06]: this is going to have a
[04:07]: crispy crispy skin
[04:10]: which i particularly love to eat when
[04:13]: it's a crispy skin
[04:16]: so i want it to be seasoned nicely
[04:19]: here we go and pepper
[04:28]: now other than measuring um all the
[04:30]: stuff that i measured that's all the
[04:32]: prep we need to do
[04:33]: for this dish so i'll meet you at the
[04:35]: stove okay
[04:37]: so he says to heat your oil
[04:40]: on medium high heat i have measured out
[04:43]: the amount of oil that he says
[04:46]: to use for this he says until it smokes
[04:48]: this is
[04:49]: my pan was already pretty hot um
[04:52]: and it's already smoking so we're ready
[04:55]: to put our fish
[04:56]: in here skin side down
[05:00]: we're supposed to be able to fit all of
[05:02]: them in here
[05:05]: i don't know that with our
[05:08]: thighs we will be able to fit all of
[05:11]: them in here but we'll see
[05:16]: you don't want to crowd it but i think i
[05:17]: can make it fit so i'm going to try that
[05:22]: here we go they are not sticking which
[05:26]: is great
[05:28]: and the amount of oil that he called for
[05:30]: was enough so that's
[05:32]: good so i'm going to get rid of this
[05:35]: because i won't be using this again
[05:43]: he says to gently but firmly push down
[05:47]: with a
[05:48]: fish spatula to make sure that the skin
[05:51]: has full contact
[05:57]: oh and we're supposed to reduce our heat
[05:59]: to medium
[06:05]: so
[06:09]: so this metal this spatula is great
[06:13]: um it's really good for
[06:16]: a pan that can use it so not a nonstick
[06:19]: pan really
[06:20]: but um it's thin
[06:23]: and flexible i highly recommend having
[06:27]: one
[06:30]: so now we're just gonna cook this for
[06:33]: six
[06:33]: to eight minutes until the skin is very
[06:36]: crispy
[06:38]: now it's been about
[06:42]: five minutes i think since ours are a
[06:45]: little bit bigger
[06:46]: we're going to take a little bit longer
[06:47]: on this side the um
[06:49]: the skin is not sticking which is great
[06:52]: but it's also
[06:53]: not quite as
[06:56]: crispy and brown as i would like to see
[06:58]: it
[07:00]: so i'm just gonna turn my feet up a
[07:03]: little bit again
[07:04]: because we have such larger fillets than
[07:07]: the rest of the shells for
[07:09]: and um yeah i want them to cook right
[07:15]: so let them go
[07:17]: another couple of minutes i think at
[07:19]: this point and then check the skin again
[07:22]: good thing they're not sticking it's
[07:25]: been
[07:28]: seven to eight minutes i think at this
[07:30]: point
[07:31]: so i'm gonna go ahead and turn these
[07:32]: over and then they only need to cook
[07:35]: about
[07:35]: three minutes on the other side
[07:38]: um i'm gonna turn them so the meats the
[07:42]: thicker portion is towards the middle
[07:44]: just because that cooks a little bit
[07:46]: faster in my experience
[07:52]: there we go and this is where they might
[07:55]: stick a little bit but we'll see
[07:57]: we'll see if the pan is hot enough
[08:01]: hopefully they will not
[08:04]: that was bad
[08:08]: there we go all right so just a few more
[08:11]: minutes now
[08:15]: if you want to cook the temperature he
[08:18]: says 120 to 125
[08:20]: is medium rare 125 to about 135
[08:23]: is medium don't cook it above about 140.
[08:29]: chefs generally do not suggest you cook
[08:33]: salmon over that and we do tend to
[08:35]: prefer our salmon
[08:37]: on the medium to medium rare size so
[08:47]: let it go about three minutes at which
[08:49]: point you should be able to see the
[08:50]: sides
[08:51]: the less red more of the pink color
[08:56]: kind of like the medium one already is
[08:57]: just because more of the
[08:59]: heat is being reflected off the other
[09:02]: side
[09:02]: and
[09:07]: that's my thought about that okay so
[09:10]: it's been about three minutes i'm gonna
[09:11]: say this middle one is
[09:12]: definitely done we wanna see
[09:16]: just what it looks like it's got a nice
[09:17]: little uh brown on that side
[09:21]: but yeah
[09:25]: i'm gonna go ahead and put it skin side
[09:28]: up on my plate that i have just sitting
[09:31]: in my marker
[09:31]: because that's a good place to store
[09:33]: things especially when nobody needs it
[09:36]: and um so we like to eat that skin
[09:40]: they're all look done so i'm gonna go
[09:41]: ahead and
[09:42]: [Music]
[09:43]: take them all out
[09:57]: and now i'm going to make the glaze in
[10:00]: this pan
[10:01]: so i'm going to wipe it out to wipe all
[10:03]: the the grease out of it
[10:04]: the oil because we don't need that okay
[10:09]: so on medium high heat
[10:14]: we're going to cook this for about three
[10:17]: minutes
[10:26]: [Music]
[10:28]: smells good so we are just caramelizing
[10:32]: the honey
[10:32]: and evaporating some of the water off of
[10:35]: this and
[10:36]: making a beautiful glaze that in the end
[10:40]: should coat the back of the spoon
[10:43]: i am going to go ahead and add the time
[10:46]: here
[10:48]: just so because it seems to be cooking
[10:50]: pretty quickly and i just want to make
[10:51]: sure we get the time
[10:52]: flavor into our glaze
[10:56]: smells like time now it smells like
[10:58]: thyme and whiskey
[11:02]: you can make this as thick or as thin as
[11:05]: you would like
[11:06]: um he does suggest that if you want it
[11:08]: thinner after
[11:09]: you know you've gotten it to the point
[11:10]: where you like it or where he says to
[11:13]: put it if you
[11:13]: like you want it a little bit thinner
[11:15]: you can add a little bit of water
[11:17]: um i think we are
[11:20]: pretty much there we don't want this to
[11:23]: get too much darker or
[11:25]: too much thicker at this point
[11:28]: which took a lot less time than i think
[11:31]: he said
[11:32]: but i'm gonna call it
[11:37]: and that is it for this recipe that was
[11:39]: a pretty quick recipe
[11:42]: you can see that it's nice and it's a
[11:44]: nice thick
[11:45]: glaze i can't wait to eat we'll let you
[11:48]: know what it's like
[11:49]: in just a minute
[11:58]: on this episode of cooking the books
[11:60]: with heather you watched me make
[12:01]: pan-seared salmon with whiskey honey
[12:04]: glaze
[12:05]: from lazarus lynch's son of a southern
[12:09]: chef
[12:11]: and i will say this was
[12:15]: pretty simple recipe salmon cooks up so
[12:19]: quickly and if you have all of the glaze
[12:21]: stuff
[12:22]: already measured out and ready to go
[12:24]: that actually
[12:25]: um thickened up very quickly after the
[12:28]: salmon was cooked
[12:30]: uh so that was good in fact i think i
[12:32]: over reduced my
[12:33]: my glaze just a little bit so um
[12:36]: i should have thinned it a bit more than
[12:38]: i did before i served it but
[12:40]: it was a a delicious glaze
[12:44]: and uh i always enjoy pan-seared salmon
[12:47]: i
[12:48]: do think that i don't i don't know about
[12:52]: you but a two ounce piece of salmon
[12:55]: would not be
[12:55]: enough for me a two to three
[12:59]: ounce p two to two and a half p ounce
[13:02]: piece of salmon would not be enough for
[13:03]: me for dinner but
[13:05]: we tend to eat a little bit protein
[13:07]: heavy i did enjoy it
[13:10]: the uh pan searing is really messy and i
[13:13]: would
[13:13]: enjoy sort of taking this recipe
[13:17]: and modifying it to the broiler method
[13:21]: that we used recently for the recipe
[13:24]: from brown sugar kitchen
[13:26]: so you know that's the thing that i'd
[13:28]: love to to try might try out myself and
[13:30]: i'll let you know how that goes
[13:32]: you can follow me over on instagram i
[13:33]: usually post things like that over there
[13:35]: if i tweak something or try something
[13:37]: different i'll i'll make a little post
[13:39]: about it there
[13:40]: so links are always below to my social
[13:43]: media
[13:43]: so um yeah
[13:47]: i think everybody enjoyed this whole
[13:49]: family loves salmon
[13:50]: um and they would certainly eat it again
[13:54]: so and and it was and it's
[13:58]: very easy there was nothing difficult
[13:59]: about it so i would definitely make it
[14:02]: again
[14:02]: even this way so if you enjoyed
[14:05]: watching me make this please give me a
[14:07]: thumbs up hit the subscribe button and
[14:09]: come back and watch me make something
[14:14]: else