Delicious Baked Balsamic Glazed Salmon

The Perfect Meal Prep: Baked Balsamic Glazed Salmon

We love using balsamic vinegar to marinade and glaze our favorite fish in the Baked Balsamic Glazed Salmon recipe. Generally, we both love vinegar of all kinds. Balsamic is our favorite and pairs well with a nice cut of wild salmon! We use our leftovers in salads all week!

Because we use the leftovers for lunches for the week we buy our salmon whole from Costco. You can choose to use salmon fillets from your local fishery or grocery store. Another good alternative would be salmon steaks. The skin is on the outside of the cut but can be just as delicious. Remember that cooking time will change based on the thickness of your salmon.

Calling all salmon lovers!

A lot of home chefs do not know this but salmon can be cooked to a temperature like a steak. My preference is medium rare (internal temperature of 125 degrees). Matt prefers medium well (135 degrees internal temp). So when you roast the salmon skin-side down in the oven we use these Bluetooth thermometers and cook to temperature. If you do not want to do that you just have to wait until your fish flakes easily with a fork.

To make clean-up easier I always cover my sheet pan in parchment paper or aluminum foil. Before adding my salmon skin side down to the prepared baking sheet I always spray some nonstick spray. A drizzle of olive oil will also do if you do not have any on hand. Don’t have a sheet pan? You can also use a shallow baking dish to make your salmon. If your whole fillet is too big cut it into two pieces.

Balsamic Glaze

Not all balsamic vinegar is created equal. We try to always keep a solid balsamic on hand. We usually look for region and age when we purchase ours. 12 years (or older) is a good age to look for and you want your vinegar to be thick and sweet. This can be a trial and error-process since you cannot try them until you get home. Once you find one that you love stick to it!

In a small bowl, you are going to mix all of your glaze ingredients. A lot of people add sugar to their glaze which allows it to cook down and carmelize a little more but I prefer honey in this step. I also prefer to leave out the black pepper. One must remember that salt is required because it enhances flavor but black pepper is a flavor alone. You are not required to add it to every recipe. Whisk together your balsamic vinegar, olive oil, djion mustard, garlic, salt and pepper. You can pour and go with your salmon or allow your salmon to marinate a bit before putting it in the preheated oven. This truly is an easy salmon recipe.

Side Dishes and Storage

We love asparagus and our Lemon Pepper Asparagus recipe is a perfect side for this bake balsamic salmon. Garlic green beans or broccoli florets would be a perfect pair for this easy recipe as well.

Picking a starch for a side dish is also a great idea. We usually choose pearled couscous with a little bit of lemon juice drizzled in at the end.

If you are just making this on busy weeknights and not looking to use it for meal prep cook just enough for your party. If you want to use the leftovers later in the week you can store them in your fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container. I like to crumble cold leftover baked salmon on a salad with some extra balsamic vinaigrette the next day for another healthy meal!