Pan Seared Salmon Recipe with Creamy Mustard Sauce

This Pan Seared Salmon recipe introduces perfectly tender and flaky fillets into a creamy mustard sauce laced with fresh spinach. A meal that's so quick and easy you can serve it to your family any day of the week, yet this restaurant-worthy dish is elegant enough to plate for a fancy dinner party. The combination of these flavors is absolutely divine.

I was about an hour away from dinner one evening when I realized that I hadn't been to the grocery store for a few days. This is pretty weird for me being a food blogger since I'm usually at the store at least once a day, sometimes more. Which is kinda sad. I gotta get more organized. But anyway ...

I did pull out some frozen salmon fillets (which I always have on hand) and placed them in cold water to thaw.  I realized I better use a package of fresh spinach before the date expired. Grabbed dijon and stone-ground mustard from the pantry and a few other "on hand" ingredients.  And "voila" - this heavenly concoction emerged. My husband who is my best critic said it was the best salmon dish he'd EVER had. Wow - I figured I should probably add it to my repertoire of recipes.  So, I present Pan Seared Salmon Recipe with Creamy Mustard Sauce to you.

If you love seafood, definitely check out my Oven Baked Cod with Blistered Tomatoes or a family favorite, Shrimp Scampi Pasta Recipe. Most seafood recipes are a quick and easy addition to your dinner table. These will definitely deliver those results.

Pan Searing the Salmon Fillets

 

Tips on Buying Salmon:

• Unless you live near a large body of water where salmon are caught wild and you are able to purchase them while they are fresh, frozen is your best bet. Don’t be fooled by the thawed salmon nestled atop the ice at your seafood counter. They’ve probably been previously frozen and thawed from a package like what you should be picking out in the freezer section.
• Look for a label that indicates it has been flash-frozen immediately after harvesting.
• Always choose wild-caught instead of farm-raised. Farm-raised fish can have high doses of antibiotics, some have a coating of chemicals used to clean the tanks and some are colored with a pink dye trying to appear as wild-caught.
• For most salmon recipes I make, I chose skin-on, for a couple of reasons. #1 - The skin serves as a safety layer for the salmon's delicate flesh. And #2 - it is a healthy addition to the salmon itself.

Tips on  safely Thawing Frozen Salmon Fillets:

• If you've planned ahead and have time to spare, thawing the salmon in the refrigerator overnight is the easiest and best way. Remove the salmon from the individually shrink-wrapped packages, and place them in a resealable plastic bag. Place them on a plate lined with paper towels, and set them in your fridge. It takes about 24-48 hours depending on how big and thick your fillets are.
• A quicker process is to remove the salmon from the shrink wrap and place them in a resealable plastic bag. Thaw the salmon in a large bowl filled with cold water. It should take about 45 minutes to an hour for the fillets to defrost. Once the water has lost its chill (about halfway through), replace the water with cold water again.
• Never defrost salmon at room temperature, in hot water or in the microwave.

Tips for Prepping your Salmon for Pan Searing:

• Once the salmon is thawed, remove from the refrigerator and place it on the counter for about 15 minutes so that it will come to room temperature. If the salmon is cold, it will constrict and cause the fish to cook unevenly. Cooking it at room temperature will keep it from drying out on the outside while remaining cold on the inside.
• Dry the salmon with paper towels. The flesh of salmon can be quite delicate. Therefore set the skin side down on the paper towels and gently dap the top of the salmon. Drying the salmon will ensure a few things: 1)there is no spattering of grease since the moisture has been removed, 2)the skin does not stick to the pan, and 3)the skin will have a nice crispy texture.
• Salt the salmon right before you place it in the skillet, otherwise, if you season it too soon, it will break down the proteins and draw moisture out of the fish.

Tips for pan searing your Salmon Fillets:

• Let your cast-iron skillet become very hot (on medium-high) before you add the olive oil. Then let the oil become hot.
• Place the salmon skin-side down in the skillet. The skin will act as a protective barrier from the hot pan.
• Once it's in the pan, do not move the fish. Use a fish spatula to gently press down the salmon to ensure the ends don't curl up.
• Let it cook for three to four minutes depending on how thick your fillets are. You'll notice the flesh of the salmon growing pale from the bottom to about ¾ of the way up. It's on this skin-side that the fillet will be cooked about 75% before turning.
• One major mistake in cooking salmon is overcooking it. Once you turn the fillets, cook for one to two minutes depending again on how thick they are.

For this Pan Seared Salmon recipe, remove the fillets from the skillet and cover with foil to keep warm until ready to add them in the creamy mustard sauce.

Preparing the Creamy Mustard Sauce with Fresh Spinach

Ingredients needed for the Sauce:

• One Medium Sweet Onion, finely chopped
• Four large Garlic Cloves, chopped
• One cup half and half
• One cup Chicken Stock
• Five packed cups Fresh Spinach
• Two teaspoons Onion Powder
• One teaspoon Garlic Powder
• Three tablespoons Dijon Mustard
• Three tablespoons Stone Ground Mustard

Tips for Cooking the Creamy Stone Ground and Dijon Mustard Sauce

• Use the same oil that the salmon is cooked in. It will add richness to the sauce. Add a little extra oil if needed for sautéing the onions.
• Don't cook the onions on high heat. Medium is good and cook for about two minutes just until they are softened. Add the garlic and cook for only one minute longer. You don't want to burn the garlic or it can become bitter.

• Turn the heat to medium-high and add the chicken stock to deglaze the skillet. Use a spatula to remove all the flavorful brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
• Bring to a boil and add the half and half and return to a boil then reduce to a low boil. Add the spices and the mustards and cook for three to four minutes until the sauce has thickened slightly.

• Add the spinach. It initially will seem the amount of spinach is too much for this sauce. But it cooks down to the perfect ratio.
• Continually stir until all the spinach is wilted about the same. Pull the skillet off the stove-top. Don't over-wilt it. The photo below gives a good indication of what the sauce should look like when you pull it off the heat.

Something spectacular happens when you blend the creamy mustard sauce with the salmon. The flavors complement each in such an extraordinary manner. Both the dijon and stone-ground mustards add a rich component to the sauce.

And this is where the "joy of cooking" and the "delight of eating" come together. It's time now to bring the salmon and the sauce into a beautiful merging. Place the salmon fillets into the creamy mustard sauce with the fresh spinach. Spoon a little of the sauce over the fillets and you can serve these gorgeous babies right out of the pan.

The appeal of this pan seared salmon recipe is it's all constructed in just one skillet which makes clean up extremely easy. And secondly, it can be on your dinner table in less than twenty minutes making a quick and simple weeknight meal or a stunning meal to serve at any special occasion with very little fuss.

How to serve this Pan Seared Salmon Recipe with Creamy Mustard Sauce:

• I love the chewy firm texture of brown rice with a seafood dish. It adds a depth of substance to the flaky tender salmon and soaks up the succulent creamy sauce. And honestly, this is a meal in itself.
• You can add another green vegetable like asparagus. But because of the spinach, you get plenty of it.
• An oak-aged Chardonnay goes well with this salmon dish.

Perfect for a Low Carb, Keto Diet:

If you are looking to reduce the carbs in your diet, pan-seared salmon with creamy mustard sauce is perfect. This dish ends up being 7 net carbs per serving. Serve it on top of cauliflower rice and you have a fully satisfying meal that works great with your nutritional lifestyle.

If you love this Pan Seared Salmon recipe, please check some other great ones below:

Shrimp Scampi with Spinach and Tomatoes

Sockeye Salmon with Fruit Salsa

Asian Seared Tuna Salad

Salmon in Blood Orange Sauce

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