Salmon Piccata
Published 3/18/2021 • Updated 6/4/2022
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This salmon piccata is a flavorful 30-minute meal that will blow your mind. You sear your salmon to perfection and then serve it with a delicious piccata sauce.
The BEST Salmon Piccata
This salmon piccata recipe is our number one salmon recipe right now (and we have a lot of delicious salmon recipes on FFF). We are big fans of perfectly baked salmon, grilled salmon, and these tasty salmon rice bowls. This salmon piccata is an amazing addition to our salmon recipe book. There are so many reasons to love this salmon piccata. Let us count the ways.
- The salmon has a delicious flaky inside and a crispy outside.
- It is ready in 30 minutes!
- The lemon piccata sauce is delicious and adds so much flavor to the fish.
All the Ingredients You Need
Here are all of the ingredients that you need to make this salmon piccata.
- Salmon filets– we designed this recipe to serve 4 people. We used 5-oz. salmon filets, but if you can only find smaller or larger filet, that is ok.The cook time will just change.
- Salt + Pepper– the salt in this salmon piccata recipe is sprinkled on top of the raw salmon before you cook it! The salt and pepper flavor the salmon and help get the juices flowing.
- White whole wheat flour– the flour in this recipe is mixed in with the spices. You can use white whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, or even almond flour.
- Spices– there are a mixture of spices (garlic powder, onion powder, and fresh thyme) that go into the breading for the salmon.
- Butter– we suggest searing the salmon in butter, but feel free to use olive oil instead!
- Dry white wine– the white wine in this salmon recipe adds brightness to the sauce!
- Chicken broth– any broth will work for this recipe.
- Fresh lemon juice– don’t skip the fresh lemon juice!
- Minced garlic– adding a bit of minced garlic to the sauce brings things up a level.
- Fresh thyme– a little fresh thyme goes a long way in adding some flavor to the sauce.
- Capers- it wouldn’t be a salmon piccata recipe without capers! They add a tart, vinegary, and saltiness that only capers can add to a dish.
- Corn starch– you need a little corn starch to thicken the piccata sauce.
its all about the salmon
This may be obvious, but do your best to find higher quality salmon filets. We love the brand Surrender Salmon, the salmon tastes like it was caught hours before you’ve eaten it.
If you are looking for a frozen salmon filet, we do really like Trader Joes Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon Fillets.
How to Make salmon Piccata
- Season- before anything, remove moisture from the salmon filets and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper and let them rest.
- Sear– Place a large skillet over medium/high heat and add the butter. Sear the salmon for 4-5 minutes depending on how you like your salmon cooked. Remove from the pan.
- Sauce– Deglaze the pan with your dry white wine, being sure to scrape any brown bits from the pan. Add 1/2 of broth to the pan and whisk. From there add all the other sauce ingredients and let it simmer.
- Slurry- While the sauce is simmering, create a slurry with the last 1/4 cup of broth and corn starch. Whisk the two together so that there are no corn starch chunks in the broth. Add the slurry to the pan and whisk it in with the other ingredients until the sauce thickens.
- Serve– Return the salmon filets to the pan and spoon sauce over the salmon filets and serve.
How Do You Know When Salmon is Ready?
Sometimes it can be tricky to know if salmon is ready and safe to eat. Here are a few things we do to check our salmon!
- We take a fork and gently break the filet a part and if it is flakey and falls apart it’s most likely ready.
- The FDA recommendation for an internal temperature is 145ºF. However, we like to take our salmon out around 138ºF-140ºF with the expectation that it will continue to cook a bit more when we remove it from the pan.
Tips + Tricks
The Secret to the Piccata Sauce
The secret to this piccata sauce is a multifaceted answer. Letting the sauce simmer once you add in the corn starch slurry is very important to allow the sauce to reduce and thicken.
The capers and lemon juice are also two very important ingredients to make this a true piccata sauce. Don’t skip them!
Substitutions
It’s ok if you don’t have everything for this recipe at your house. There are some great substitutions for every meal.
- white whole wheat flour —> all purpose flour
- chicken broth —> any type of broth
- capers—> minced olives or just skip them and add more salt
- fresh thyme—> dried thyme
- white wine—> white wine vinegar, water, ginger ale
Storage
To store this salmon piccata, let the salmon cool completely before placing it in an air tight container (sauce and fish). Place it in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Freezing
We do not recommend freezing salmon piccata after it is cooked!
Salmon Piccata Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 5-oz. salmon filets, skin on
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 3/4 cup chicken broth, separated
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 1.5 teaspoons corn starch
Instructions
- First, remove excess moisture from the salmon filets by patting them with a paper towel. Sprinkle the salmon filets with salt and pepper. Let the salmon sit for 10 minutes.
- Next, add the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, and dried thyme to a bowl and mix everything together. Dredge the salmon through the flour mixture, making sure the filets get covered on both sides.
- Heat a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add the butter.
- When the butter is melted and fragrant add the salmon filets skin-side up into the butter. Cook the salmon for 4-5 minutes on each side.
- Remove salmon from the pan and place a tent of tin foil over the salmon to keep it warm.
- Turn the heat down to medium and deglaze the pan by adding the white wine to the pan. Scrape the brown bits from the pan and then add 1/2 cup broth and whisk the two together.
- Add the lemon juice, minced garlic, fresh thyme, and capers to the pan and mix.
- Let the sauce simmer over medium heat.
- Meanwhile, create a corn starch slurry and add corn starch to the remaining 1/4 cup of broth in a separate bowl and whisk the corn starch into the broth until there are no lumps.
- Pour the corn starch slurry into the pan and whisk the mixture over medium/low heat until the sauce thickens.
- Return the salmon filets to the pan skin side down with the sauce and spoon the sauce over the salmon.
- Plate the salmon and serve with additional sauce.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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