The Best Smoked Salmon Recipe

This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission when you click the links at no additional cost to you.

Jump to Recipe

Get ready to make the best smoked salmon you’ve ever tasted! This recipe is how smoked salmon is done right.

Smoked Salmon

Smoking food takes time and patience but the results speak for themselves. Smoking fish has always been intimidating so we took the process of creating this recipe slow to make sure we did it right for you. We perfected the technique to get an amazing smoky salmon flavor that satisfies your cravings.

Our recipe can be used to make smoked salmon appetizers or to eat just as is (trust me, it’s amazing either way!) Since the process does involve a bit of prep work, I highly suggest making enough smoked salmon for dinner and enough for leftovers so you can try our smoked salmon dip. It combines the delicious smoky flavors from the salmon with just the right amount of everything else.

Brining the salmon takes the longest amount of time for the recipe but it’s completely worth it. When you brine your salmon you are preventing it from drying out while it’s cooking by dissolving some of the muscle fibers in the protein. The brine also seasons the meat. Technically, you could skip this step but the results just will not be comparable.

How To Smoke Salmon

This recipe is really basic and as we stated above, you can switch out the seasonings to create the best experience for your taste buds.

First, you brine your salmon. Once the brine is applied, it needs time to do its work. The salmon will need to sit for up to 12 hours in the dry brine. Once you’re satisfied with the timing, remove from refrigerator and rinse. Let sit again for 4 hours in your fridge.

After brining is complete, you are ready to smoke your fish! Place the salmon in your smoker and be sure to brush with honey every hour that it’s smoking. Doing so will give you the beautiful colors shown in our photos.

When your salmon is finished, you can serve as is for dinner, make a delicious smoked salmon dip, serve on top of crackers or save for later! We have meal prepped this before but it doesn’t seem to last long. If you want to save some for meal prep, be sure to double your batch!

Common Questions

There are tons and tons of questions about smoked salmon. To be honest, we had a list of our own before creating this recipe. We’re sharing answers to some of the most common questions below.

Is smoked salmon still raw?

Our smoked salmon recipe uses hot smoke to cook the fish so it is not raw. There are ways to cold smoke as well as brine in salt & sugar to create Lox but that is not what this recipe will do.

Is Smoked Salmon Healthy

Yes! Salmon offers a high amount of protein, omega-3 fatty acids and other vitamins your body needs.

How Do You Eat Smoked Salmon

The possibilities are endless. To start, you can enjoy your salmon as is with a side of roasted potatoes and asparagus for a full meal. You can also serve your salmon on top of crackers with mayo and a splash of lemon juice.

As mentioned earlier in this post, our smoked salmon dip is a must try with any leftovers. It combines unseasoned smoked cream cheese, mayo, sour cream and just the right amount of seasonings as to not overpower the smoked salmon flavors that everyone will be looking for.

Be sure to check out some of our other recipes below!

Can’t get enough of that delicious smoky flavor? Try some of our other recipes linked below.

Smoked Queso Dip

Everything Bagel Smoked Cream Cheese

S’mores Smoked Cream Cheese

Also, be sure to sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss what’s next. We’re working on long over night recipes that are perfect for back yard get togethers and simpler recipes like our brand new Smoked S’mores Brownie recipe. If we can dream it, we’ll be sharing it with you!

You can find our link to sign up to the right of this post. We promise, we won’t spam you. Our goal is to start sending a monthly newsletter out in November of 2022 sharing all of our new creations with all the smoke lovers out there.

Pin This For Later

Our Pinterest account is home to all of our recipes at The Smoked Kings. From the very first to the absolute latest, you can find everything we make over there.

Pin the image below to your Pinterest board so that you can easily find the next time you are ready to start smoking. If you click on the image, it will open a new window to this pin so you can save for later.