Smoking Salmon

My favorite food to smoke is salmon. Hot-smoked salmon is buttery, luscious, and flavorful. Learn how to prepare it at home!

Sorry, but I’m about to wreck your favorite salmon dish. Replace your go-to with delicious Smoked Salmon!

My husband has been smoking meat and fish for 10+ years, and I love his smoked salmon. This basic smoker recipe is simple and delicious.

Many of my children, who loathe fish, eat this hot-smoked salmon. The flaky texture and mild smokey flavor are tempting!

Why Smoked Salmon Is Great

I love smoked ribs and pulled pork, but smoked salmon is special. Smoked salmon is light and delicious, unlike smoked pork or beef. Other features you’ll love:

Friendly to families. Both kids and adults love this salmon dish. When smoked salmon is served, my nieces, nephews, and children cheer.
Easy. Smoking salmon is simple. Put it on the smoker and let it cook without flipping. You can leave skin on.

Smoking a pork butt takes 12+ hours, then resting for 2 hours before shredding. You may eat a complete salmon fillet after an hour of smoking.

Succulent. Due of its fragility, salmon is easily overcooked. Wet brining and air drying salmon before smoking helps retain moisture and create a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth finish. SO GOOD.

Ingredients Required

Full salmon fillet: I prefer a full fillet for this quick smoked salmon dish and have two preferred salmon kinds.
Lemon pepper seasoning complements fish perfectly. Simplicity is best!
Wet brining salmon in water, kosher salt, and sugar seals in fat and moisture and gives it a smooth flakes smoked salmon texture.
Lemon wedges: fresh lemon juice on smoked salmon enhances its smokey flavor.

Best Smoking Salmon

King or Atlantic Salmon are best. Large, meaty, and fatty, these salmon species withstand smoking and taste great.
Worst: Wild Sockeye Salmon. I dislike using “worst” to describe sockeye salmon, but we don’t recommend smoking it. Small, compact sockeye salmon with less fat than Atlantic and King Salmon tends to dry up and turn chalky when smoked. I like pan-searing wild-caught Sockeye salmon.
Coho Salmon. Though smaller than Sockeye, this salmon contains more fat and doesn’t dry out as fast.

How Long to Smoke Salmon?

My #1 smoking salmon tip is to use the fillet’s internal temperature to judge doneness, not a specific time. Most smokers between 180 and 200 degrees can assume:

2- to 3-lb salmon fillet: 1-1/2 to 3 hours on the smoker.
Smoke 45–1 1/2 hours for a 2lb salmon fillet.
Salmon fillets vary in size, weight, and thickness, even within the same species, depending on when and where they were caught. However, ideal smoked salmon requires a two-prong digital meat thermometer to measure the smoker and salmon interior temperatures.

Internal Doneness Temperature
Salmon is fully cooked at 145 degrees, but I think that’s too high and will turn into sawdust, especially if it’s lean.

I remove the salmon from the smoker when the internal temperature is 130–135, which makes it moister and delicate.

Here is an internal temperature reference for doneness; remember that carryover cooking will raise the temperature slightly off the fire!

Lower than 120 degrees is rare.
Medium-rare: 125-130F.
Medium: 135-140.
Very good: 140-150 degrees.

My salmon has white stuff on top. What is it?

Albumin, a chalky, white material, appears on cooked fish. While cooking, albumin solidifies and rises to the surface. It is safe, flavorless, and ugly. Salmon have more albumin than other fish due to their white and pink/orange color contrast.

How to avoid it!

Wet-brine salmon. Salmon fillets can be soaked in water, kosher salt, and brown sugar for up to 12 hours before smoking to consolidate protein fats and prevent albumin release.
Develop pellicle. Wet brine fish, rinse, and refrigerate uncovered for 24 hours. A thin, sticky pellicle will form on the fillet during this time. Among other things, a pellicle can block albumin escape.
Cook slowly. Overcooking fish causes albumin to form. Smoking salmon at 180 degrees (vs. 225 degrees for pork) helps retain albumin.
Overcook less. If the salmon is overdone, albumin will appear on top.

If albumin remains on your smoked salmon after cooking, scrape it off!

3 Perfect Smoked Salmon Tips
Use digital meat thermometers. A two-prong digital thermometer is excellent for flawless smoked salmon.

Plan ahead. It’s not necessary to wet brine and dry your salmon fillet before smoking, but it improves taste and texture. If you spend money on salmon, you want great taste and texture, right? I normally wet brine the salmon fillet in the afternoon and evening, then let it lay uncovered in the fridge overnight before smoking it for lunch or dinner.

High-quality salmon. Purchase high-quality salmon from a trusted source without a “fishy” smell. Atlantic salmon, my favorite for smoking, is farmed, but fish farming standards have improved in recent years. King Salmon is farmed and wild.

Making Smoked Salmon

Even though smoking salmon is simple, there are many fascinating facts to learn about it. An outline in brief:

Step 1: Salmon prep. Remove pin bones and belly if present.
Step 2: Wet-brine salmon. Brine salmon for 12 hours in water/sugar/salt.
Step 3: Pellicle development. The sticky pellicle develops when salmon is refrigerated uncovered for 24 hours.
Fourth: Season and smoke salmon. Season and smoke salmon at 180-200 degrees till internal temperature reaches 130-140 degrees.

Smoking Salmon

Start by trimming the salmon fillet.
Trim your Atlantic Salmon fillet, as shown in these photos. Salmon may arrive pre-trimmed or with a thin white belly that you must slice off. If your knife can’t cut thick salmon skin, use kitchen shears.

Next, trace a small paring knife or finger down the fillet’s peak/highest area to find pin bones, then remove them with kitchen-only tweezers.

Pin bones are easier to remove from a cold salmon fillet than one that’s been sitting out.

Step 2: Brine salmon.

To make a wet brine, add hot tap water to a big glass measuring cup or basin and dissolve brown sugar and kosher salt. Put the cup or bowl in the freezer or fridge to chill. This can be done days in advance.

Note: table salt is not kosher salt. Since table salt crystals are smaller than kosher salt, the same measurement contains more salt. If you only have table salt, use half as kosher salt.
Like kosher salt, sea salt can be used in equal amounts. If using “finely ground” sea salt, use less.
Bowl of wet salmon brine

Place the salmon skin-side up in a high-sided dish somewhat larger than the fillet. Add brine until the fillet is submerged; you may not need all of it. Cover and refrigerate salmon for at least 1 hour per pound or up to 12 hours.

Tip: I brine thinner fillets 4-8 hours and broader ones 12 hours.

Step 3: Pellicle development.

Salmon from the wet brine should be rinsed under cold water and placed on a wire cooling rack on a sheet pan. A sticky pellicle will form on the salmon’s skin after 24 hours of refrigeration, helping the smoky flavor stay and lock in moisture.

Press your finger on the fish to feel the tackiness!

Tips: frozen >> thawed salmon may not form a sticky pellicle, which is fine.

Fourth, season salmon.

Like my Air Fryer Chicken Wings, Lemon Pepper Seasoning pairs well with smoked salmon. Lawry’s has garlic and onion, which I like.

Since the wet brine adds saltiness to the salmon, I lightly season it with Lemon Pepper Seasoning if my fillet is thin, or I season it with coarsely powdered black pepper and dried lemon peel to avoid overly salty smoked salmon.

Fifth: Set up your smoker.

Prepare your charcoal, gas, electric, or other smoker to smoke at 180 degrees over indirect heat. After the natural lump charcoal starts, we add a cherry wood chunk or wood pellets if we smoke electric.

Salmon goes well with cherry, maple, apple, and alder wood chips or chunks. Avoid mesquite wood, which overpowers salmon flavor.
green egg smoker ready to smoke

Digital thermometers, not the one on the outside of the smoker, measure the air temperature inside and the interior temperature of whatever we’re smoking.

The ThermoWorks Smoke Remote BBQ Alarm Thermometer fob is great!

Sixth, smoke salmon.

Place the smoked salmon on the grill grate after the smoker reaches 180 degrees.

Insert the internal probe of your thermometer into the thickest portion of the salmon fillet. Let the salmon smoke with the lid closed. No need to flip or move—just leave it!

The time it takes to cook the salmon to your preferred doneness depends on how consistent the smoker temperature is, how large and/or thick your salmon is, and how much fat it contains. The best way to tell if the salmon is done is by its internal temperature, not how long it’s been on the smoker.

The 2lb fillet photoed took 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach 130 degrees internal temperature.

To maintain 180-200 degrees in the smoker, keep the lid down while smoking salmon.
central salmon fillet temperature probe

Smoked salmon! Easy, right?

Let the smoked salmon lie on a dish for 15-20 minutes under loose foil. After removing the salmon from the smoker, carryover cooking may raise its internal temperature.

Smoked Salmon Serving Instructions

We like smoked salmon warm, near to room temperature, or cold, so it’s perfect for a dinner party, cookout, or if your family’s dining hours need to be staggered.

Here are various ways we enjoy it:

Cut into chunks and served with wild rice, air-fried asparagus, and fresh lemon wedges.
Flaked caper-scrambled eggs.
Sprinkled on salad.

Dip flaked smoked salmon in cream cheese, sour cream, capers, minced red onion, fresh herbs like dill and parsley, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
Eat bread or crackers with smoked salmon salad: mix flaked salmon, mayo, capers, minced red onion, chopped fresh dill, chopped roasted red peppers, and fresh lemon juice.