Blackened Baked Salmon

This Blackened Baked Salmon recipe is the most flavorful weeknight dinner ever. Filets of salmon are laid on a bed of lemon slices. Topped with dijon mustard + a homemade blackening seasoning. And baked to perfection in the oven.

Oven baked blackened salmon results in tender, buttery, flaky, flavorful salmon.

The whole recipe can be made in 20 minutes. And there’s no marinade required. So this is one of the easiest and most enjoyable weeknight meals to make.

For salmon recipes, I prefer Atlantic salmon. Atlantic Salmon has a more mild fish flavor compared to Alaskan salmon. But any kind of salmon will work for this recipe. Use the kind you love!

Flavor comes from the top and bottom

The salmon gets laid on a bed of lemon slices. Then topped with dijon mustard and a homemade blackened seasoning. That way you get flavoring on the top and bottom of the salmon.

You can use a cedar plank instead of lemons on the bottom

I also make this recipe by baking and grilling with a cedar plank on the bottom.

You can order cedar planks on Amazon. But I can often find them in my local grocery store too!

To bake, bake the salmon on the cedar planks with the same instructions in this recipe.

To grill the cedar plank salmon, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Then turn the the grill down to medium-high. Place the cedar planks on the grill and close the grill top. Grill for 15 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through. You want to keep the grill top closed so the salmon cooks through. Because you aren’t flipping the salmon.

Typically blackened salmon is pan fried, but I prefer baking it

Baking it’s so much easier than pan frying.

Easier to clean up. Because you don’t have any oil splatters to clean up.

And it’s easier to control the heat.

And easier because baking allows you to cook all of the salmon at once. So you don’t have to cook in batches.

Why bake the salmon at 425 degrees?

425 degrees the perfect temperature to make sure the homemade blackened seasoning and dijon mustard caramelize. You want the two to meld together so it forms one coating. Almost like a crust.

What to do with the leftovers?

Turn them into tacos! Blackened salmon tacos are absolutely incredible. Flake the leftover salmon and use this recipe with the avocado salsa!

You could also put it on top of a salad. A salmon caesar salad would be delicious.

What to serve with this blackened salmon recipe?

Honey Roasted Carrots – you can skip the basil goat cheese sauce to make it easier.

Lemon parmesan asparagus and our house salad.

Roasted sweet potatoes.

Or this rice pilaf with arugula pesto!