Baked Lemon Garlic Butter Salmon
Put a quick dinner on the table with this Baked Lemon Garlic Butter Salmon recipe. It’s easy to make and tastes delicious – perfect for busy weeknights!
I have to say, I feel incredibly lucky that both my kids enjoy fish as much as they do. And not just as Crispy Oven Fried Fish, aka homemade fish fingers! They love fish in pretty much any shape or form, so we have it for dinner at least a few times every month.
This is one of my favorite ways to make salmon (or most fish – it’s very similar to my Garlic Butter Lemon Baked Cod!). Easy, quick and so helpful to have in your backpocket on those super busy weeknights!
Ingredients you’ll need
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!
ingredients for lemon garlic butter baked salmon with text labels
Ingredients for Lemon Garlic Butter Baked Salmon: Salmon fillet, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and butter.
Ingredient notes
Salmon
You can either use pre-cut fillets or an entire side of salmon for this recipe.
The side of salmon tends to take an extra 5-10 minutes compared to the fillets. The exact baking time will always depend on the thickness of your salmon though.
Seasoning
I enjoy the flavor of Italian herbs in this recipe, but feel free to switch it up to your taste. Parsley or dill are very delicious, too!
Lemon juice
I used freshly squeezed lemon juice, but juice from a bottle works just as well.
Butter
The butter forms rich and delicious juices to serve over the salmon. If you need the recipe to be dairy free, feel free to use a dairy free butter, or simply drizzle more olive oil over the fish.
How to make baked salmon
1.Start by lining a pan with aluminum foil, then brush it with olive oil.
Place the salmon on top of the oiled foil. It’s fine to have the fish close together, just don’t let it overlap!
2.Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic and seasoning in a small bowl. It will form a paste-like topping.
Spread it evenly over the salmon pieces, then dot with cubed butter.
3.Finally, tent the foil over the salmon and crimp it to seal.
Now just bake it, and dinner will be ready!
Recipe tips
Bake from frozen
It works, even though it’s not my preferred thing to do because it tends to overcook the outside until the middle is done.
But do you ever forget to take meat or fish out of the freezer for dinner? Yep, me too.
For those “oops moments” it can be an absolute lifesaver to be able to bake salmon from frozen.Just follow the recipe. The salmon will take approximately twice as long to bake from frozen vs thawed or fresh.
Baking time
I hate to be so vague, but the exact cooking temperature will greatly depend on the exact size and thickness of your salmon fillet.
It’s generally safe to say it takes around 15 minutes to cook salmon fillets in the oven at 400°F though.
An entire salmon side may take a little longer and small fillets may be done closer to the 10 minute mark. You can tell the fish is done when it flakes easily with a fork. To be safe, check the internal temperature at the thickness part with an instant read thermometer.
Internal temperature for salmon
The USDA recommends cooking salmon to an internal temperature of at least 145°F to be safe for consumption.
You can see the full chart here.
I recommend getting an instant read thermometer, I love using mine and never have to worry about under- or overcooking dinner again.
