Smoking salmon is easier than you’d think! This smoked salmon filet recipe on the Traeger pellet smoker is a tasty light meal served with couscous and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Fire up your smoker and let’s get to smoking fish!
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Why Smoked Salmon is awesome to make…
- Great way to cook frozen salmon filets… Just buy them at Costco or wherever you shop and thaw them overnight in the fridge before smoking them.
- Serving tip – Make smoked salmon pasta, in a sandwich, or as a spicy smoked salmon rice bowl.
- Wet or dry brined optional – If you have the time, great, then brine it. However, it’s not completely necessary if you just want some smoked fish for lunch or dinner.
- Smoky flavor! Pellet grill smoked salmon really picks up the flavor of the pellets you use. You can’t go wrong!
New to smoked foods? Scroll to the bottom of this page for a step by step recipe video.
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make Smoked Salmon Filets.
- salmon filet, thawed from frozen
- salt, sea salt or kosher salt
- pepper, black, fresh cracked
- lemon juice, fresh squeezed (juice from about 1 wedge of lemon)
- parsley to garnish (optional)
Scroll to the bottom of the post to print the full detailed recipe.
How to Smoke Salmon Filets
Now I’ll walk you through it…
Quick look at Smoked Salmon recipe
- Preheat the smoker to 225 degrees F and prepare salmon filets with seasoning.
- Smoke for 45 – 60 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F.
- Finish smoked salmon filets with lemon juice.
- Serve and enjoy.
Detailed recipe steps
- Preheat Traeger Grills or Pit Boss or whatever pellet grill you’re using to 225 degrees F.
- Prep salmon filets for smoking. Remove thawed salmon from packaging and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Season salmon filets for smoking by sprinkling salt and pepper on the cut side. Then drizzle with a squeeze of lemon.
- Prepare a foil “boat” or tray / wire rack to rest the salmon on while smoking. You could smoke salmon directly on grill grates, but this is my preferred method. Place salmon on foil (cut side up, skin down) and leave uncovered.
- Smoke salmon on foil, uncovered, at 225 degrees F until done. You don’t need to flip it while smoking.
- Remove smoked salmon filets. When the internal temp of smoked salmon reaches 145 degrees F as measured with an internal read thermometer. (we usually take it off the pellet grill around 140 degrees F and let it come up a bit in temperature).
- Finish smoked salmon and enjoy.
About the white stuff on salmon
If you’re wondering why there’s white stuff on cooked salmon, it’s called albumin.
Usually it’s an indication that the salmon is overcooked.
This salmon turned out tender and beautifully smoky, but you’ll notice by the time I got the photo, the salmon has white stuff on it. My bad!
I’ll be updating this post in the future, but I want to note here that I accidentally let it overcook when waiting to get the final photo.
Timing recipe testing and taking photos is complicated for many reasons, and I’m so bummed from a food photographer standpoint that I didn’t get the final shot right.
So, just don’t overcook your salmon on the smoker, and you won’t get the white stuff.
And even if you DID, they say you can eat salmon with white stuff on it, as long as it’s “done”.
Another way to avoid white stuff on salmon is to brine it.
I’ll share a recipe for brined smoked salmon in the future, too.
See the best game day smoker recipes…
More Tasty Grill + Smoker Recipes
- Smoked mac and cheese
- Smoked cream cheese
- Smoked brisket flat
- 321 ribs
- Beer can chicken on the smoker
- Smoked wings
- Smoked tomahawk steak
- Traeger tri tip
- Smoked turkey breast
- Smoked turkey legs
- Whole smoked turkey
- Smoked Traeger pizza
- Smoked onion rings
- Traeger smoked ham
- Smoked whole chicken
- Smoked jalapeno poppers
- Smoked corn on the cob
- Traeger beef ribs
- Smoked leg of lamb
- Smoked shrimp
- Grilled chicken wings
- Grilled skirt steak
- Flank steak marinade
- Grilled potato wedges
- Smoked pulled pork
- Want more? See my lineup of easy smoker recipes
See this Traeger Flatrock grill review.
See my favorite smoker tools and seasonings in my Amazon Storefront.
Meat thermometer recommendations
Every home chef needs a reliable meat thermometer to cook food perfectly.
On Sip Bite Go, you’ll often see me using:
- Meater thermometer – a fancy wireless thermometer that connects to a phone app – gifted to me from a Traeger partnership.
- ThermoPro digital thermometer – which has a wire that connects the thermometer to a display box outside the oven/grill.
It’s like being psychic! The great thing about either of the thermometers above is that I don’t have to take the food out of the oven to know the temperature.
How to use ‘em… What I do is stick the digital thermometer in steak, pork, chicken, whatever… Then put the food in the oven, on the smoker, or grill.
While the meat cooks, it reads the temperature so I know exactly what temp meat is as it’s cooking. Without having to take it out and check. It’s really difficult to overcook food when you know exactly what temp it is inside!
FAQs
In this recipe, I smoked at 225 degrees F, to speed up the process a bit. It took 45 – 60 minutes to reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees F.
Obviously if you’re cold smoking salmon, it will take longer to finish since you’ll be smoking at a lower temperature.
I’m no dietitian, but smoked salmon is full of vitamins and other nutrients that will positively impact your health. It’s safe to say that eating smoked salmon is healthier vs other smoked foods.
If you’re smoking 1 – 2 salmon filets like I did in this recipe, you really won’t want to freeze them. With that said, the short answer is “yes” you can freeze smoked salmon and it should last for months frozen. I recommend freezing smoked salmon when you cook an entire salmon side vs one filet.
It depends if you are cold smoking salmon or hot smoking salmon. For cold smoking, you should consume it within 1 – 2 weeks if refrigerated. Freeze it to extend its shelf life if you do not plan to eat it within that time window.
For hot smoked salmon, eat it within a week if refrigerated. If you vacuum seal smoked salmon, it will last longer in the fridge and even longer if frozen.
Smoked salmon recipes will differ depending if you hot or cold smoke it. In this recipe, I hot smoked the salmon at 225 degrees F. Given the higher smoking temperature, it will only take about 45 – 60 minutes to reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees F.
You can consume smoked salmon in a variety of ways. You could just eat it as, add it to a smoked salmon dip, make a smoked salmon salad, or even add it to a chowder.
Yes, smoked salmon will eventually go bad. It will last a long time (several months) if frozen and a week or two if refrigerated.
Smoked salmon has this delicious flaky yet firm texture. You can taste the smoky pellet flavor of the wood chips too. In this Sip Bite Go recipe, I kept it simple with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, so it had quite a refreshing bite to it.
I used mesquite pellets for this smoke and it paired extremely well with the fish. It wasn’t overpowering, just a light smoky flavor. If you do not have those pellets on hand, you could use Traeger’s Signature Blend. Probably an alder wood would be nice for salmon.
Now this one is the big debate. It is absolutely necessary to brine a salmon before smoking it…NO. Not brining keeps things quick and simple! As seen in this recipe, I seasoned the salmon with just a few ingredients and got it right on the smoker. There’s not much to it.
With that said, you can totally decide to brine the salmon before the smoke. You can either wet brine it or dry brine it. In a standard dry brine, you’ll want to mix together salt, sugar (typically brown sugar), and some spices of your choosing in a small bowl. Then rub directly on the salmon. For a wet brine, just add some liquid like water to have the salmon sit in.
If you decide to use a brine prior to the smoke, then be sure to brine it a day in advance of the smoke.
Yes, it is cooked if the internal temp reaches 145 degrees F.
Smoked salmon pairs well with a lot of sides. While the salmon is cooking, I recommend making some couscous like you see in the Sip Bite Go photos to have with the salmon. Couscous really pairs well because it’s light and refreshing, similar to the salmon.
Feel free to go to your local fishmonger or grocery store and see what they have fresh. You can’t go wrong with either Pacific or Atlantic salmon.
When you’re smoking salmon, you will start to see a white substance protruding from it. This is called albumin which is a protein that pours out when the salmon is exposed to heat. It’s totally fine to eat and is not a sign of a bad salmon filet.
One way to get rid of albumin is to smoke it at a very low temperature. Try cold smoking it or using a very low temperature like 180 degrees F to avoid albumin. Higher heat creates more albumin.
Are you a foodie, too?
Hey home chefs, hope that answers all your questions about Smoking Salmon Filets. Soon I’ll share a sous vide salmon recipe, too.
See how to get more smoke flavor from your favorite Traeger dishes and check out these game day smoker recipes.
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Smoked Salmon Filets Recipe | Sip Bite Go
Ingredients
- 1 salmon filet thawed from frozen
- ½ tsp salt sea salt or kosher salt
- ¼ tsp pepper black, fresh cracked
- ½ tsp lemon juice fresh squeezed (juice from about 1 wedge of lemon)
- 1 tsp parsley fresh chopped, to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat Traeger Grills or Pitt Boss or whatever pellet grill you’re using to 225 degrees F.
- Prep salmon filets for smoking. Remove thawed salmon from packaging and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Season salmon filets for smoking by sprinkling salt and pepper on the cut side. Then drizzle with a squeeze of lemon.
- Prepare a foil “boat” or tray / wire rack to rest the salmon on while smoking. You could smoke salmon directly on grill grates, but this is my preferred method. Place salmon on foil (cut side up, skin down) and leave uncovered.
- Smoke salmon on foil, uncovered, at 225 degrees F until done. You don’t need to flip it while smoking.
- Remove smoked salmon fillets. When the internal temp of smoked salmon reaches 145 degrees F as measured with an internal read thermometer. (we usually take it off the pellet grill around 140 degrees F and let it come up a bit in temperature).
- Finish smoked salmon and enjoy.
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