Cooking salmon can sometimes be intimidating. HOWEVER, cooking sous vide salmon will be your full-proof method to achieve that crisp, but fall-apart flaky deliciousness… that’s fit for any main course meal. Get your sous vide machine and let’s get that water rolling!
Find more sous vide recipes in The Home Chef’s Sous Vide Cookbook…
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Why Sous Vide Salmon is great to make…
One of my favorite sous vide fish recipes is this precision cooker salmon dish…
- It’s lightly seasoned – The flavor of the salmon is brightened with some lemon.
- Beautiful presentation – Cooked sous vide style, salmon turns out a perfect translucent pink color. The texture is flaky and smooth.
- Easy to finish with crispy skin – The outside can be easily crisped when pan seared in a cast iron skillet on the stove after sous viding.
New to sous vide recipes? See my step by step video for beginners (scroll to bottom of page).
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make sous vide salmon. Scroll to the bottom of the page to print out recipe details.
- 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)
- olive oil (for searing after sous viding salmon)
- Parsley (to garnish)
How to Sous Vide Salmon
Now I’ll walk you through it…
Quick look at Sous Vide Salmon recipe
- Preheat the sous vide machine to 125 degrees F and prepare the salmon with seasoning.
- Vacuum seal the salmon and place it into the water bath and cook for 45 minutes.
- Remove salmon from the bag and sear in a cast iron skillet for 60 – 90 seconds to finish.
- Serve sous vide salmon over couscous and enjoy!
Detailed recipe steps
- Preheat the Anova, Joule, Instant Pot or whatever sous vide machine you’re using to 125°F.
- Season the salmon with salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice.
- Vacuum seal the salmon in a flat layer and drop the bag into the sous vide bath for 45 minutes.
- Prepare an ice bath with water and ice in a large bowl.
- When done, carefully remove the bag from the hot water and shock the bag in an ice bath for 2 minutes.
- Remove the salmon from the bag and pat dry with paper towels. Set aside.
- Sear finish sous vide salmon in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil until it is shimmering. Add the salmon filets, skin side down (only sear the skin side) until it gets crisp. This is fast and will take about 30 to 60 seconds.
- Serve and enjoy!
FAQs
Sous vide cooking is a French technique where you cook food under water in a vacuum sealed bag. What happens here is that the food is cooked at an exact temperature throughout the cooking time, so the food cooks evenly. Using the sous vide method also will ensure that your food does not over cook since the cooking temperature remains constant.
Cooking salmon sous vide will take about 45 minutes to finish depending on the thickness of your salmon filet. I cooked my salmon to 125 degrees F.
Yes, you can definitely sous vide salmon as seen in this Sip Bite Go recipe. Sous vide salmon is a great way to cook a salmon that comes out perfect every time. Versus a pan seared salmon that has a changing heat source. (ie, gas or electric stovetops)
Yes, frozen salmon sous vide can be done! All you have to do is add one hour to the sous vide cooking time.
No, you do not need a vacuum sealer when using the sous vide cooking method. What you can do instead, is place the salmon into a zip lock bag and use the water displacement method when adding the salmon to the water bath. This is an alternative to vacuum sealing.
What you’ll do is place the salmon in a ziplock bag and zip it closed 90% of the way. Then place the salmon into the water bath and the rolling water will force the remaining air out of the ziplock bag. Once the air is out and the salmon starts to sink into the water bath, fully close the ziplock bag.
If you have a salmon filet that still has the skin on, then yes, keep it on. The skin will help keep the salmon intact during the cook. Once the salmon is done in the sous vide, then you’ll want to crisp up the skin by pan searing it in a cast iron skillet.
There’s no need to flip the salmon when you sear it. Just sear it skin side down the pan or skillet.
My recommendation for a firm but flaky salmon, is to use a 125 degree F cooking temperature and cook for 45 minutes in the sous vide water bath.
Searing sous vide salmon is super simple and quick! After you remove the sous vide salmon from the bag, you’ll first want to pat the skin side dry. Add olive oil to a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.
Once the oil is hot, place the sous vide salmon skin side down in the pan and sear for 60 – 90 seconds until the skin is crisp. Remove from the pan and let rest for 60 seconds before eating.
The Perfect Sous Vide Setup
Everyday I’m asked, “what do you need to sous vide food?”. Here’s my answer.
- A sous vide machine.
Option 1: “stick” models like the Joule, Anova, or Instant Pot Slim.
Option 2: “multipot” models like the SousPreme or InstantPot Duo Evo Plus. - Sous vide container.
If using a sous vide “stick” model, you need something to hold the water the food cooks in, like a bucket or stockpot. - Bags to cook sous vide food.
Keep it simple and sous vide in ziplock gallon bags, or get fancy like me with a vacuum sealer setup. - Nice-to-have accessories for sous vide cooking.
– Sous vide weights to hold down food that floats.
– Mini mason jars for desserts and sous vide egg bites.
– Cast iron skillet to sear sous vide steaks to finish them. - My sous vide cookbook with 100+ recipes.
Try a new sous vide recipe…
- Sous vide salmon
- Sous vide frozen steak
- See how long to sous vide chicken
- Learn how to sous vide frozen chicken breast
- Sous vide chicken wings
- Sous vide chicken breast tenders
- Sous vide pork chops
Are you a foodie, too?
Hey home chefs, hope that answers all your questions about Sous Vide Salmon. Also see how to smoke salmon on the Traeger pellet smoker grill.
Connect…
- Instagram / TikTok / YouTube
- Browse the Sip Bite Go recipe collection
Sous Vide Salmon Recipe | sipbitego.com
Equipment
- 1 sous vide machine
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)
- 2 tsp olive oil for searing after sous viding salmon
- 1 tsp parsley fresh chopped (optional)
Instructions
Detailed recipe steps
- Preheat the Anova, Joule, Instant Pot or whatever sous vide machine you’re using to 125°F.
- Season the salmon with salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice.
- Vacuum seal the salmon in a flat layer and drop the bag into the sous vide bath for 45 minutes.
- Prepare an ice bath with water and ice in a large bowl.
- When done, carefully remove the bag from the hot water and shock the bag in an ice bath for 2 minutes.
- Remove the salmon from the bag and pat dry with paper towels. Set aside.
- Sear finish sous vide salmon in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil until it is shimmering. Add the salmon filets, skin side down (only sear the skin side) until it gets crisp. This is fast and will take about 30 to 60 seconds.
- Serve and enjoy!
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