Easy French Food and Recipes

Easy Poached Salmon Recipe

This easy poached salmon recipe is one of the simplest and tastiest ways to enjoy this flavorful fish. By poaching your fish, you'll enjoy the added benefits of not stinking up your house and having a healthy, low fat meal . . . errr, well that is before you pour on the fabulous cream dill sauce that goes along with it.

poached salmon

My grocery store sells what they call a "tranche de saumon", which is a completely boneless and skinless piece of salmon that works great for this recipe. You can use also poach tranversely cut steaks (what are called darnes de saumon in France) for this recipe or a salmon filet with the skin still on.

If you are working with a filet, look it over carefully for stray bones and use a pair of tweezers (yes!) to remove them. Then place the filet skin side down in the cooking liquid, and ensure that it is nearly submerged. You can then cook the filet without having to turn it.

The only tricky part about this poached salmon recipe is getting the cooking time right. You'll want to stop cooking your salmon just as soon as it is done. You can take a discrete peek in the thickest part of the cooking fish to verify it's doneness. No need to overcook!

Here are some general guidelines for cooking time based on the thickness of the salmon:

  • 1/4 to 1/3-inch - 3 to 4 minutes
  • 1/2 to 3/4-inch - 4 to 6 minutes
  • 1 to 1 1/2-inch - 8 to 12 minutes

If you are an ascetic, you will enjoy your salmon without any sauce. It's actually such a flavorful, moist fish that you may feel no twinge of denial at all. For the rest of us, I highly recommend this quick dill sauce recipe as an accompaniment. If you are looking for another easy French fish recipe, this baked fish recipe is next to no fuss.

Saumon poché

Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 small sweet onion sliced thinly
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1 cup water, plus more as needed
  • 1 1/2 pounds salmon steaks
  • salt and pepper

Directions

  1. Combine the onion, wine and water in a large skillet and bring to a simmer on medium heat. Add the salmon steaks and enough water to submerge the fish about 1/2 way. Reduce heat as necessary so that the liquid is just barely boiling.
  2. Cook about 4 minutes, then turn steaks over carefully and finish cooking them through (approximately another 4 minutes). Cooking times will vary depending on the thickness of the fish, so please do verify.
  3. Using a slotted spatula, carefully remove the fish from the pan and place on serving plates. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Explore other salmon filet recipes.

Return to French Seafood Recipes.

French Food

French Cooking Help

Noshes and Starters

Main Courses

Les Desserts

Other Recipes

New! Comments

Have your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below.