This honey smoked salmon recipe is a “hot smoked salmon,” made by smoking salmon over low heat on the Green Mountain Grills pellet grill. To begin, make a dry brine for smoked salmon, which consists of dark brown sugar, a bit of salt, and some fresh cracked pepper. Smoke the salmon for around 2 hours, then brush with an apricot glaze or some honey. You can serve this as an appetizer with crackers and cream cheese.
Honey Smoked Salmon
Ingredients
- 1 filet fresh wild salmon
Dry Brine
- 2 cups dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper
Glaze
- Apricot Jam or Honey for basting, as needed
Instructions
- Rinse and pat dry salmon fillet. Remove any pinbones and skin (if desired).
- Cut salmon into serving-size steaks.
- Make dry brine by mixing the sugar, salt and pepper together.
- Spread dry brine on a glass casserole dish and pack in layers with the salmon pieces. Put in the refrigerator to set 4 to 8 hours.
- Rinse the salmon pieces under cool running water, thoroughly removing the brine. On a smoker set to 150 F, smoke the fish roughly 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until it reaches your desired firmness. During the last few minutes of cooking, you can brush on some melted apricot jam and/or honey. Serve as an appetizer with cold beer and a chilled glass of chardonnay, or over crackers with some cream cheese and fresh chopped chives. Bon appetit!
