Lemon Butter Salmon With Dill

Updated April 16, 2025

Lemon Butter Salmon With Dill
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich.
Total Time
1 hour 35 minutes
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes, plus 1 hour's resting
Rating
5(369)
Comments
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Glossed with a tangy blend of honey and lemon, this salmon caramelizes around the edges while staying juicy and tender. Dill, lots of it, brings freshness, green as cut grass. Wild salmon works especially well here because the butter in the sauce gives the lean fish richness. (Fatty farmed salmon will simply taste even richer, not a bad thing at all.) Quick-pickled cucumbers and mustard seeds offer a cool, crunchy pop to this dish, but the salmon is also tasty on its own. Serve this with rice, potatoes or a tray of asparagus roasted alongside the salmon.

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Ingredients

Yield:6 to 8 servings
  • 1whole (2 to 2½-pound) salmon fillet
  • Salt and black pepper
  • ¼cup plus 1 tablespoon honey
  • 3tablespoons rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar
  • 2teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
  • 1lemon
  • 3Persian (baby) cucumbers, scrubbed and thinly sliced
  • ¼cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 3tablespoons chopped fresh dill, plus fronds for garnish
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

219 calories; 13 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 17 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 13 grams sugars; 11 grams protein; 465 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Place the salmon on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan and sprinkle all over with salt. Refrigerate uncovered for 1 hour to draw out excess moisture and intensify its savoriness.

  2. Step 2

    Combine 1 tablespoon honey, the vinegar, mustard seeds and 1 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Zest the lemon over the mixture and whisk until well combined. Add the cucumbers and stir to coat well. Let stand, stirring occasionally, for at least an hour, until ready to serve.

  3. Step 3

    Heat the oven to 425 degrees about half an hour before you’re ready to serve. Remove the salmon from the refrigerator and pat dry with paper towels. Wipe away any excess liquid from the pan as well.

  4. Step 4

    Squeeze the juice from the zested lemon and whisk with the butter, dill and remaining ¼ cup honey until well blended. Season the salmon generously with black pepper, then spoon the lemon-butter sauce on top.

  5. Step 5

    Roast until a thin paring knife inserted into the thickest part slides in easily and comes out quite warm to the touch, 15 to 20 minutes. Spoon any sauce around the pan over the fish, which will continue to heat through just past medium-rare.

  6. Step 6

    Sprinkle with dill fronds and serve with the pickled cucumbers.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
369 user ratings
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Comments

This was delicious! My only complaint was that the sauce was too sweet for my taste; next time I will cut the honey in half and add a salty element, perhaps miso? The cucumbers, however, were perfect. My husband and I cleaned our plates! Served with asparagus, drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, then roasted along with the salmon.

Thermoworks says: "The USDA says that salmon needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 140°F (60°C) for food safety. If you have any immunity issues, that’s a good idea, but for the tastiest salmon, most chefs call for a pull temp of 125°F (52°C). "

@Garbanzo try a different recipe

I didn’t measure the ingredients for the salmon marinade I just eyeballed and this turned out to be one of the best salmons i ever had!!! 10/10

As @Mama Liz said, the cucumbers are perfect. I served them as a condiment with burgers. Also put them on a sandwich with the roasted salmon which I had made into a salad. They got rave reviews. .

I made the "single person's" version of this. I used a single serving salmon fillet that was about 4 1/2 oz. I mixed up a small amount of the sauce and put it on the fish before cooking in a toaster oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. The result was amazing. As long as I have some fresh dill around, this will be my new go to way to cook up some salmon. I had leftovers of NYT's French Lentil Salad and that was my accompaniment instead of the cucumbers.

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