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This grilled King salmon recipe features luscious King salmon cooked on a grill and served with a fresh, homemade plum sauce.
This post is sponsored by Regal New Zealand King Salmon.
How do you feel about grilling fish?
Do you adore the smoky, extra-deliciousness, but dread the grilling part?
Do you watch your fish nervously, and hold your breath to make sure that it doesn’t fall to its doom down into the charcoal pit?
I don’t– not normally, that is.
Why not?
Well, partly because it’s the husband manning the grill. I trust his fish-flipping skills, and grilling fish is easy if your grill plates are clean.
Recently, however, I was staring as two gorgeous, GORGEOUS, fillets of thick, marbled, prized, luxurious King salmon sat on my grill, and I felt fear in my heart.
Suddenly the grill seemed a little scarier, and the fillets a little too delicate– and I wanted reassurance that my fish would NOT fall into the grill.
What did I do?
What can you do, if you’ve got an especially pretty fillet to grill? Keep reading, and find out!
Plus, find out how to make grilled salmon with plum sauce– a spectacular, date-night worthy meal!
How to Use a Fish Basket
How did I ease my worried mind, and keep my fish safe and sound on the grill? I used a fish grilling basket!
A fish grilling basket is a metal basket with a long handle.
They’re inexpensive, and will hold your fish up against the grill, without it actually touching the grill grates.
These baskets are fabulous for fillets– particularly delicate fillets– because when it’s time to flip your fish, you just flip over the entire basket.
For the record, King salmon is not a ‘particularly delicate’ fish– but it is a high-quality, more luxurious fillet, and losing even a little corner of the fish on a grill would be a minor tragedy.
What Makes King Salmon Special?
Have you tried King salmon (or Chinook salmon) before?
It’s the largest species of salmon, has more healthy omega-3 fatty acids than any other species of salmon, has a buttery and rich flavor, and meat that melts in your mouth.
If you love King salmon, check out my other favorite King salmon recipes.
Learn more about salmon: Wild Salmon vs. Farmed Salmon and Types of Salmon
Using (Well) Farmed King Salmon
This summer, I had the chance to try out some King salmon from Regal New Zealand King Salmon.
Regal’s sustainable seafood practices are eco-friendly and sustainable, have earned the Best Aquaculture Practices certification from the Global Aquaculture Alliance, and New Zealand farmed salmon is considered a ‘Best Choice’ by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.
Plus, their King salmon is DELICIOUS on the grill!
Grilled King Salmon with Plum Sauce
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Equipment
- Grill
- Grilling basket
- heat-proof gloves (if your grilling basket does not have an insulated handle)
Ingredients
Plum Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 plums (red or black), pitted and diced Optionally, peel the plums for a smoother sauce
- ¼ cup soy sauce (use gluten-free soy sauce if needed)
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne powder
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar (optional, to taste) Amount needed will depend on how sweet your plums are. If plums are very sweet, you can omit.
Grilled King Salmon:
- 2 King salmon fillets (~4oz each) Regal New Zealand King Salmon recommended
- pinch salt, pepper
Instructions
- Preheat grill and fish basket until they’re both very hot.
- While grill heats up, heat the olive oil on medium-high in a sauté pan. When the oil is hot, and ripples when swirled around the pan, add the plums and stir with a wooden spoon. Sauté about 2 minutes, until the plums soften.
- Add the soy sauce and cayenne, and continue sautéing for another 2 minutes. Once the sauce has thickened, turn the heat to low, and add the vinegar. Taste the sauce, and add sugar if desired. Remove the sauce from heat, and cover the pan to keep the sauce warm while you grill the salmon.
- Pat salmon dry. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.
- Carefully open the hot fish basket, using heat proof gloves if your basket doesn’t have an insulated handle, and set salmon inside the basket.
- Grill the salmon 4-5 minutes, skin side down, then flip the basket. Grill the salmon for about 4 more minutes, until the salmon's translucent pink flesh has just barely turned pale pink. If you're concerned about overcooking your salmon, you can leave the grill lid off, and wait until the flesh has turned cooked through about halfway before flipping the fish. If you leave the lid off, take care to stand back from the grill, since the oil dripping off this extra-oily fish can cause the grill to flame up.
- Remove salmon from the basket, and serve immediately with the plum sauce.
I’m such a fan of good quality salmon. And that plum sauce sounds divine!
My mom loves salmon – I’m forwarding this on to her. And that plum sauce is calling my name!
This plum sauce looks amazing and the perfect addition to the salmon! This would be a perfect meal for a date night in and I can’t wait to try this. Thank for sharing!
Thanks Luci!
The King salmon fillets looks absolutely delicious. Love that Regal’s seafood practices are eco-friendly and sustainable too. The plum sauce sounds wonderful as well!
Yes! I’m really impressed with their salmon- it’s DELICIOUS!
I love eating grilled salmon..this one looks so perfect!
Girl, I’ve got to get myself a fish basket! Keeps everything right in place and definitely no fear of falling through! Love that plum sauce made with real plums! Delicious!!
Yesss I love our fish basket! It’s perfect for fillets 🙂
Sarah — you are tugging at my heartstrings with all these seafood posts! King salmon is the BEST! It’s so fatty and flavorful you’d swear it was coated in butter. But it’s not — and it’s good for you! Bonus. The plum sauce on your salmon sounds positively tingly! I adore spice so the cayenne is right up my alley. Also, I am on the lookout for a good fish rack for my husband — you should have seen how he butchered my fresh mahi fillets last time…
Awww thanks Lisa! King salmon is pretty amazing isn’t it?! And get yourself a fish basket- save those fillets!! 😉
Love working with salmon. It takes on flavors so well, both mild and strong. The plum sauce is a unique ingredient but it sounds divine.
Oooh, one thing I’ve wanted to try for a while (the fish basket), and another that I’ve been a fan of for a very long time (cooking with fruit!). Can’t argue with results, and it certainly looks like you got some beautiful barbecued fish with that basket. When I grill fish, it’s often on a cedar plank so that I can avoid any worries about it getting ruined, but this is a great (and faster) alternative. I might have to invest in one. And as for the flavour combination – well, that simple, sweet/salty/sour sauce is the PERFECT accompaniment to a nice piece of salmon like this! Great idea – and something I need to remember given that we’re in peak plum season right now. Thanks for posting this!
I absolutely love the sauces you come up with for serving salmon. We so easily fall into the “same ol” trap with our salmon (we eat it a lot!) and I’m really excited to start making these recipes and refreshing our menu. The grill basket is also such a great tip for fish fillets. We absolutely love ours. I’m one of those people who will flip fish perfectly when it’s just me eating it, and then when I have company, it’ll stick all over the grates. haha. The grilling basket makes it foolproof!
I’m really loving the grill basket! It’s funny- I never have trouble even with flimsy fillets like tilapia- until I HAVE to have them look perfect (like for photos or company), and then- disaster! Haha. This definitely takes away all pressure!
Lol, the fish basket without insulated handles reminds me of skillets without them-when I’m in a rush I always end up forgetting. I love how simple the sauce is, gotta love plums and soy sauce!
Thanks! And yesss I’m always accidentally grabbing my cast iron skillet’s handle after it’s too hot. I know they sell silicon handles to slide over it, but I’d probably just forget to put it on!! lol