Oven Baked Juicy Blackened Salmon with Dill Rice in One Dish

If you’re looking a for a weeknight meal thats super tasty, easy to make with almost no dishes to clean this is your recipe! This salmon recipe is moist and flavorful due to the blackened seasoning and time spent marinating. There is no need to cook a stovetop rice, in this recipe the rice and salmon are cooked in the same dish. Fresh dill brightens the basmati rice while also garnishing the salmon.

Ingredients for Blackened Salmon:

• Salmon Fillet: Atlantic salmon or farm raised salmon works best in this recipe, due to the fat content of the fish. Wild caught or sockeye salmon would not work best for the moist and tenderness achieved in this recipe. Due to the low fat content of the sockeye salmon this variety cooks tough and dry.

• Chili Oil: You can find this ingredient in almost all supermarket due to its recent trendiness. It’s typically used in Asian cooking. I find that it imparts a rich flavor to the blackened salmon marinade. I used Fly by Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp in this recipe and loved it. You can also use Momofuku Chili Crunch which you can find at any Whole Foods. Trader Joe’s carries their Chili Onion Crunch which could be used in this recipe as well. If you don’t have these at home or want to buy this ingredient you can easily make this at home.

• Basmati Rice: The most important step in the rice making process is the rinsing step. Rinse until the water runs clear. This took me around 10-15 rinses until the water ran clear. This step is really important for the rice to have the best flavor.

Variations

Blackened Salmon Dry Rub vs Marinade

I tested this recipe using a dry rub and found that oven baking a salmon fillet lacks that moisture and taste that only a marinade can give. A typical dry rub Blackened Seasoning will not take away that fishy flavor and dry texture while letting the salmon marinade for at least 30 minutes keeps it moist and flavorful.

Instructions

• In a small bowl, combine Blackened seasoning ingredients until it forms a paste, set aside.

• Season salmon fillets with the juice of 1/2 lime
• Spread Blackened Seasoning Mixture on salmon fillets with a silicone spatula or basting brush. Let marinate for 30 minutes – 2 hours.

• Place an oven rack in the center position and heat oven to 400℉
• In a small saucepan, bring 2 ¾ cups of chicken stock to a boil.
• To a 8×11 medium baking pan, add 2 tbsp of olive oil and move to coat the bottom of the pan.
• Add rinsed and drained rice, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 cup of dill to the pan.
• Spread rice evenly along bottom of pan .
• Add the boiling 2 3/4 cup chicken stock and stir to combine.
• Place in oven uncovered, bake until most of the water has been absorbed from the top, 17 – 22 minutes. See image below as a point of reference. Note that the rice still has water on the bottom and its not fully dry.

1. Remove pan from oven and stir rice before placing salmon fillets on top.
2. Place salmon fillets on top of rice and cover tightly with aluminum foil.
3. Bake until rice is fluffy and salmon is tender around 16 – 20 minutes.