The air fryer is truly a wonder appliance. From wings and steak to burgers, chicken and hard "boiled" eggs (along with crispy cheeses and leftovers, too), there's no shortage to the amount of foods the air fryer can cook perfectly. It's even better for the air quality in your kitchen!
As someone who prioritizes texture over practically anything else, the air fryer has been astonishing across the board, crisping and caramelizing countless foods that would've ended up limp — and then likely wound up in the garbage).
One food item that I had, up until this point, not introduced to my air fryer was seafood. I( had reheated some fried shrimp in an air fryer to great results, but no actual from-scratch, raw seafood).
As my colleague Ashlie Stevens outlined, though, salmon and the air fryer make for great pals.
Similar to how I cook chicken breast in the air fryer, my primary goal is texture: crispness, browning, crunch. Generally, it's challenging to get that with salmon without intensely high heat and lots of oil — but alas, the air fryer does all that and then some in 15 minutes or less. The air fryer is also adept, unfortunately, at burning certain things. So if you were hoping for a brown sugar coating or a sugary marinade here, you'll be disappointed.
I went very barebones here, with nothing but a spray of Pam, kosher salt, garlic powder, onion powder and a touch of paprika. The real power of this recipe comes in the sauce and garnish: salmoriglio, an Italian sauce that's like a mashup of pesto, chimichurri and salsa verde — and the crispiest fried leeks imaginable.
Altogether, the color, flavor and textural differentiation is incredibly varied: briny, oily, herbaceous sauce slicks the crisped salmon, with the crunchy leeks providing another dimension of flavor and texture. I fry the leeks on the stove while the salmon air-fries, but if you'd rather, you can most certainly air-fry the leeks, too.
This is a perfect meal for warm, sunny spring days — and it all comes together in practically no time at all.
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Ingredients
For salmon:
2 to 3 skin-on salmon filets
Pam or cooking spray
Kosher salt
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Paprika
For salmoriglio:
2 lemons, juiced and zested
Palmful of oregano, roughly chopped
Palmful of parsley, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (or grated on a microplane)
Kosher salt
1/4 cup olive oil
For leeks:
1 to 2 large leeks, trimmed (hairy end and dark greens cut off)
1/3 cup neutral or olive oil
Kosher salt
Directions
- Add salmon filets to air fryer basket skin-side up. Spray with pam and season with salt. Cook in air fryer at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.
- At the 6 minute mark, flip salmon and season with garlic powder, onion powder and paprika. Season again with salt. Return to air fryer.
- At the 12 minute mark, evaluate your salmon. If you'd like it darker or crispier, cook another 3 to 5 minutes.
- While your salmon is cooking, heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks, in batches, stirring often to help break up the leek strands and to help circulate. Once leeks are golden brown, remove from pot with a slotted spoon and let drain on an oven rack over a sheet tray or a paper towel-lined plate. Season with salt while still hot.
- For salmoriglio, stir together lemon zest and juice, herbs, garlic and salt. Drizzle in olive oil, stirring consistently, until the sauce is pourable.
- To serve, remove air-fried salmon to a plate, drizzle with salmoriglio and finish with crispy leeks. Serve immediately.
Cook's Notes
- If you're one who prefers a flaky, tender salmon, more akin to a poached filet, then cut the cook-time down a bit here. As I previously noted in an air fryer chicken breast piece, "I'm always a sucker for over-done, uber-crisp proteins, so this might even veer on overcooked for a normal person." This goes for all proteins, so feel free to cook a good five minutes less or so if you prefer a lighter, softer salmon.
- If you're going for a skin-on filet, you can feel free to air-fry with the skin-side up first, to render the skin and get it crispy-crunchy, which will make flipping and cooking the other side much easier than doing this in the opposite order.
- Stir together the salmoriglio just before you are ready to serve. It's at its best when its bright, punchy and fresh as can be.
- Do your darnedest to cut the leeks as thinly as possible. They’ll crisp up and be immensely delicious, similar to a shoestring fry or those cans of fried shallots or onions that people sometimes buy to use on green bean casseroles.
- I like using a neutral oil here, but you can use an olive oil, too.
- Be sure to season well once the leeks have been fried and crisped — and pull them out of the oil a shade or two lighter than you’d like them to be, as they'll darken in color ever so slightly as they cool and drain on paper towels or an oven rack.
- For leeks: a good method for this is to trim your leeks of the hairy end and the darkest green parts, then cut the remaining leek into thirds. Cut thin strands, end to end — without cutting through entirely — and repeat with remaining leek pieces. Rinse under cold water (don't skip this: leeks can get incredibly sandy), throughly. Dry with paper towel and now finish cutting through entirely, resulting in thin, matchstick-sized leek pieces.
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