Pan-Seared Salmon Steaks
Delicate salmon cooked in soy sauce right in the skillet. Steaks of white and red fish are having a real moment—you'll find them on just about any restaurant menu. But you don't have to go out to treat yourself to great fish. Steaks like these come together in just minutes at home.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
Gather the ingredients. To make pan-seared salmon steaks, you'll need: 500 g (about 1 lb) salmon steaks, 50 ml (about 3 1/2 tbsp) soy sauce, and 1 tbsp sugar.
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Step 2:
Rinse the fish steaks well so they aren't slippery, then pat them dry with paper towels. Ready-cut portioned steaks are your best bet. If you're working from a whole fillet, it's easiest to cut it into steaks while it's still partly frozen—the slices come out cleaner.
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Step 3:
In a bowl, combine the soy sauce and sugar. Stir and let it sit until the sugar fully dissolves.
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Step 4:
Pour the soy marinade over the steaks and let them marinate for 15–20 minutes. Don't go longer, or the fish will soak up too much marinade and the fillet will start to fall apart as it cooks.
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Step 5:
Heat the skillet. There's no need to oil it—salmon has plenty of fat of its own, and the fish has soaked up the sauce besides. Lay the steaks in the pan. A grill pan works well here too. If you like, brush the steaks with the soy-sugar sauce. Cook over medium heat until golden, about 6–8 minutes. Flip the steaks and cook another 6 minutes.
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Step 6:
Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let the steaks rest in the cooling pan for 10–15 minutes.
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Step 7:
Serve the salmon steaks hot. Enjoy!
- Compared with most other ways to cook fish, steaks are probably the fastest and least fussy—especially if you already have portioned pieces rather than a whole fillet. In that case, dinner is on the table in under an hour. The key is to thaw the steaks ahead of time. If they're frozen, thaw them slowly, in the refrigerator. I've learned this from experience: if steaks thaw quickly at room temperature, then sit in the thaw water for an hour or two, and then go into a marinade on top of that, they'll barely make it to the pan in one piece—the flesh starts pulling away from the bones before it even hits the heat, and keeping the steaks intact while frying and flipping becomes very hard. So thaw the fish properly: ideally in a container with holes and a drip tray, so the fish isn't sitting in water as it thaws.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Soy sauce - 51 kcal/100g
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
