Kyl Haselbauer

Digital scale

1-gallon Ziplock-style freezer bag(s)

Joule® Turbo Sous Vide

1/2 Sheet pan(s)

Hotel pan, half-size (12 3/4-inch by 10 1/4-inch by 2 1/2-inch)

Roasting pan

Breville Smoking Gun® Pro

Wood chips for smoking

Breville Joule® Oven Air Fryer Pro

Mini needle probe (Type K)

Salmon fillet(s)

Brown sugar

Kosher salt

Liquid smoke

Salmon varieties: There are many <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/cooking-salmon-everything-you-need-to-know">different kinds of salmon available on the market</a>. Fattier salmon will taste less seasoned and leaner salmon will taste more seasoned when using the same salt-to-salmon ratio.

This recipe was developed using farmed salmon. If using a leaner salmon variety, such as wild sockeye or coho, we recommend setting the sous vide bath temperature to [f 122].

Liquid smoke: Adding liquid smoke bumps up the smoky flavor so that the fish tastes closer to a traditionally hot-smoked piece of salmon. 

Smoker setup: We recommend using the <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/add-a-kiss-of-smoke-with-the-smoking-gun-pro">Smoking Gun</a> to infuse the salmon fillets with smoke, but you can use a cold smoker or a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/tip-trick-diy-cold-smoker">DIY cold smoker setup</a>. If you use a smoker without reliable temperature control, we recommend closely monitoring the internal temperature of the fillet so that it does not exceed [f 125]. To do so, insert a probe thermometer in the thickest part of the salmon fillet, 1/4 inch away from the edge.

Before we begin

Super-speed hot-smoked salmon: If you want hot-smoked salmon for dinner—like, right now—then try Grant&#39;s fast-and-furious version, which you can check out in the video. It gets you 80% of the ultimate result in 0.8% of the time. To speed things up, you have to tweak the recipe slightly. Grant uses the following ratio of ingredients with skinless salmon fillet cut crosswise into 1-inch-thick tranches:

Brown sugar: 10% of salmon weight

Salt: 2% of salmon weight

Liquid smoke: 2% of salmon weight

Mix together brown sugar and salt until well combined. Coat the salmon pieces with the liquid smoke, followed by sugar-salt mixture.

Preheat an air fryer to [f 300]. Cook until thickest part of salmon fillets register [c 50] on an instant-read thermometer, 7 to 10 minutes. Serve.

Super-speed hot-smoked salmon: If you want hot-smoked…

Weigh salmon fillets; if salmon is far off the total target weight of 900 g (2 pounds), scale cure ingredients using percentages provided above. (Our scaling tool will do it for you!)

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, salt, and liquid smoke (if using), and stir until well combined and the mixture resembles wet sand.

Make cure

Place salmon fillets in a 1-gallon ziplock-style freezer bag or vacuum-seal bag, arranging them in a single layer. Add cure evenly between fillets, making sure to coat all of the flesh; no need to cover the skin. 

Seal bag using water displacement method or vacuum sealer, and refrigerate, skin-side up, for 2 hours. Gently massage bag to redistribute cure.

Return bag to the refrigerator and continue to cure until salmon is firm to the touch, at least 16 hours and up to 22 hours longer (18 hours to 24 hours total cure).

Cure salmon

Heat sous vide water bath to [f 131].

Heat sous vide bath

Lower bag into sous vide bath until salmon fillets are fully submerged, and clip to side of water bath container.

Cook for 1 hour.

Once cooked, salmon can be held in sous vide bath for 15 minutes (1 hour 15 minutes total) without any loss in quality.

Cook salmon sous vide

Remove salmon fillets from bag and transfer them to a paper towel–lined plate or tray; discard bag and accumulated juices. Gently pat salmon dry and allow to cool at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Using a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/add-a-kiss-of-smoke-with-the-smoking-gun-pro">Smoking Gun Pro</a>, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/tip-trick-diy-cold-smoker">DIY cold smoker setup</a>, or smoker, smoke salmon, skin-side down, for 30 minutes.

Smoke salmon

If using a Smoking Gun, place salmon skin-side down on a wire rack set inside a hotel pan, roasting pan, or heatproof baking dish. Position Smoking Gun tube so that nozzle points toward the interior of the pan. Wrap pan tightly with plastic wrap, making sure the seal around the Smoking Gun tube is tight and that there is a vent hole in the opposite corner.

Fill Smoking Gun burn chamber with 1/8 teaspoon of wood chips of your choice. Light chips, set Smoking Gun to high, and fill enclosed container with smoke until smoke begins to flow out of vent hole, about 15 seconds. Turn off Smoking Gun and let salmon infuse with smoke for 5 minutes. 

Repeat smoking process with fresh wood chips 6 times, for a total of 30 minutes of smoke infusion.

NOTE: The video is a general tutorial for our preferred method for using the Smoking Gun. Follow the detailed instructions above for smoking the salmon for this recipe.

Using a Smoking Gun Pro?

While salmon smokes, adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to [f 300].

Once salmon is smoked, transfer fillets to a parchment-lined 1/2 sheet pan and place it in the oven. 

Cook until just warmed through and fillets register [f 115] on an instant-read thermometer, about 5 minutes.

Reheat salmon

Divide kale salad (if using) between individual serving plates and top each with a salmon fillet. Serve.

Our Favorite Simple Kale Salad

Serve

The smoked salmon fillets are also delicious served cold. After smoking the fillets in Step 5, wrap them tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 1 week. 

Wrapped tightly in plastic or in an airtight container, smoked salmon can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Make-ahead and storage

Hot-smoked kippered salmon is a thing of beauty. Tender and succulent , seasoned with salt, sugar, and smoke—it’s one of the best ways to eat salmon. Unfortunately, most people have only ever eaten it cold, or flaked into cream cheese. The best way to eat hot hot-smoked salmon is to make it yourself.But hot-smoking salmon is hard. You need to know your way around a smoker, and you need to be careful with temperature control, both for the internal temp of the salmon fillets and in the smoking chamber itself, or else you’ll end up with tough and leathery salmon jerky.Our method makes it easy: Cure the salmon to season it and firm up its texture, then cook it perfectly using sous vide. Once it dries off a little, give it a quick cold-smoke, then pop it into a moderately hot oven to warm it up before serving. While you compromise a little on the smoke flavor—a cold-smoked piece of fish won’t have as much smoky flavor as a hot-smoked piece of fish, which is why we hedge a little with the liquid smoke—what little you lose in smokiness you more than make up for with the perfect internal temp. The cooked and smoked salmon on the plate looks and tastes just like a beautifully hot-smoked piece of fish—a little sweet, pleasantly salty, with just the right amount of smoke flavor. Cut into it and you’ll see that it’s not just beautifully smoked, it’s also perfectly cooked.

Succulent Hot-Smoked Salmon

For such a light food, kale carries some weighty nutritional symbolism. Somehow, the stuff that used to line the spaces between edible offerings at salad bars—a durable garnish that employees would collect at night, store, and reuse until it turned brown—has become the poster child for healthy eating. But don’t let the trendiness put you off. Kale is nutritious, inexpensive, and admirably indelicate, a hearty ingredient that serves as a welcome break from iceberg, romaine, and the rest of the salad mainstays. They key to a quick raw kale salad? You gotta chop up those leaves into skinny strips. The key to a quick and delicious raw kale salad? You gotta add the right stuff to it. In our minds, that’s pine nuts, golden raisins, olive oil, a little lemon juice, and salt, pepper, and shaved cheese. Mix it all together and there you have it—an uncomplicated, crunchy melange you can serve as a side dish at dinner or top with some chopped chicken breast so you can feel virtuous about your lunch choices. All hail kale! Let’s make some salad.