Gochugaru Salmon With Crispy Rice Recipe (2024)

By Eric Kim

Gochugaru Salmon With Crispy Rice Recipe (1)

Total Time
20 minutes
Rating
5(4,259)
Notes
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Gochugaru, a mild, fragrant red-pepper powder, bedazzles this quick salmon dinner. As a key ingredient in Korean home cooking, gochugaru proves that some chiles provide not only heat but fruity sweetness as well. Here, that’s especially true once it’s bloomed in maple syrup, vinegar and butter. If you like shiny things, you may find great pleasure in watching this pan sauce transform into a mirrored, crimson glaze. Try to get long center-cut salmon fillets for uniform thickness and even cooking. Their crispy skin tastes wonderful with white rice, which toasts in the rendered salmon fat. To balance the richness of the fish, serve it with fresh, crunchy things, like cucumbers or pickles, or a big green salad.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

  • 4skin-on salmon fillets (6 ounces each)
  • Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and black pepper
  • 1tablespoon olive oil
  • 4cups cooked white rice, preferably leftovers
  • 4teaspoons gochugaru (see Tip)
  • 2tablespoons maple syrup
  • 2tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 2tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, kept whole
  • Sliced cucumbers or pickles, for serving (optional)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Make the recipe with us

  1. Step

    1

    Season the salmon on all sides with salt and pepper. Heat a large cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium-high. Add the olive oil and sear the salmon fillets skin side down until the skin is browned and crispy, 2 to 5 minutes. The salmon’s orange flesh will begin to turn pale coral as the heat slowly creeps up the sides of the fish; you want that coral color to come up about two-thirds of the way at this point for a nice medium-rare. Carefully flip the salmon and cook the second side until the flesh feels firm, another 1 to 2 minutes. When you press it, it should not feel wobbly. Transfer the salmon to a plate skin side down and keep the pan with the rendered fat over the heat.

  2. Step

    2

    Add the rice to the fat in the pan and spread in an even layer, packing it down as if making a rice pancake. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the bottom is lightly browned and toasted, about 5 minutes. You should hear it crackle. Flip the rice like a pancake, using a spatula if needed. You may not be able to flip it all in one piece, but that’s OK. Cook until lightly toasted on the second side, another 1 to 2 minutes. Go longer if you want crispier rice, but the trifecta of crispy-chewy-soft tastes wonderful.

  3. While the rice is cooking, stir together the gochugaru, maple syrup, rice vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. When the rice is done, divide it evenly among the plates. In the now-empty pan, add the gochugaru mixture and cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat until it bubbles up and reduces significantly, 15 seconds to 1 minute. It should look pretty sticky. Turn off the heat and add the cold butter, stirring with a wooden spoon or tongs until fully melted and incorporated into the gochugaru mixture. Pour this glaze over the salmon and serve with cucumbers or pickles, if you’d like.

Tip

  • You can find gochugaru, or red-pepper powder, at Korean or Asian supermarkets and at most grocery stores, as well as online. It sometimes comes in larger bags, which is not a problem because it freezes beautifully and tastes great dusted over just about anything.

Ratings

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4,259

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Nancy

I just purchased Gochujang concentrated chili paste for another NY Times recent recipe. Would it be possible to substitute the paste for the powder?

Sue

Gochujang contains salt and sugar along with red chile, so if you substitute one for the other, you'll want to dial back the sugar and salt. I'd probably omit the maple syrup altogether and replace both it and the gochucharu with 2 tbsp gochujang, and skip extra salt. You'll miss the maple flavor, but the glaze should form up nicely and I'd expect the dish to work well as a whole.

Felicia

I subbed the Gochugara with Gochujang and reduced the maple syrup to 1 tbsp. Everything else I followed exactly and this was one of the best meals we've made in a long time. it was also easy to prep and clean up. We'll be adding this to the regular rotation!

Ashley

Rice tip: if you don't have leftover rice, smash your hot, fresh rice onto a plate and stick it in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Cools it down and removes some moisture so it's pretty similar to leftovers.

megan b

Trying not to be overly dramatic here - but this is a pretty life changing salmon dish. Possibly one of the best NYT recipes I’ve tried. Thank you Eric Kim!

alex

Double the sauceDouble the cucumberHalf rice (2 cups)Add a little hot sesame oil and salt to cucumbers

Corbin

I will make the sauce in a separate pan before cooking and use it to baste the salmon as it cooks. I’ll also mix it in with the rice before frying it for more flavor, also I won’t have to clean a sticky sauce out of my cast iron :)

J

Roasted salmon at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Mixed together sauce ingredients without cooking, then basted salmon with it after first 10 minutes in oven—it turned into a beautiful, glossy, just sticky enough sauce and saved another pan. Excellent dinner.

Pinkney

This is a very good dish. The sauce recipe NEEDS TO BE DOUBLED to go far enough for four. It barely made three as written and photographed. We will do it again. Not having left over rice we made four cups of Jasmine rice in the rice cooker, let it cool and it worked very well. Ordered the gochugara spice on line. Just fine from Amazon.

Steve

I love gochugaru, but I've never experienced it as "mild," and I enjoy chilis of all kinds. The Kimchi that I ferment has quite a kick of heat, which comes from the gochugaru that I use.

Sarah P

Another masterpiece from Erik Kim. That man can do no wrong in our household. We made this dish as written and added some homemade Korean radish kimchi to go with it. Fantastic balance of flavors. 10/10, recommend!

Alicia

This was so good! Super high flavor to effort ratio, my favorite kind of weeknight recipe. Well-written recipe, easy to follow, short list of ingredients, and tasted great. Wouldn't change a thing, except use 100% leftover rice (I did 50 leftover/50 freshly cooked bc it's what I had) to get some extra crisp factor going on. It makes a difference. Slam dunk, Eric Kim!

gerry in Oregon

I found the gochugaru at a local Asian market. Made this last night with tofu slices baked in panko crumbs (425 degrees-15 min). Served over cauliflower rice with a side of steamed asparagus. A wonderful veggie meal. Doubled the shimmery sauce and made it in a small sauce pan. Next time I will cut the salt in half.

Sherri

They aren't really interchangeable normally, although a glaze made out of gochugang might also be good. The paste is a fermented mix of chili with glutinous rice and some other stuff. Gochugaru is more like chili powder, but with a smokier and sweeter flavor. My guess is that a mix of chili powder with a bit of smoked paprika would be closer. Just a guess, though.The recipe looks great, and I already planned on salmon tonight!

Tal

Just tried this recipe tonight. My son and I were pretty happy with the flavor. I am GF, so i used Gluten Free Gochujang paste (amazon- Yoon Jiyeong Artisanal). This paste is not very spicy, but the flavor is very good. I would add a bit more other smoky hot chili powder to give it a bit more of a kick. Moreover, next time I’d try to use only 1 tbs butter to finish off. I found that (my generous) 2 tbs butter called for separated from the glaze when the fish cooled and made it too ‘greasy’

Wok Don't Run

I turned on the broiler after 10-ish minutes of baking at 400 so that the skin would blister and crisp a little. Do it!

Karen D.

I didn’t have day old rice but freshly made sushi rice crisped up nicely. Doubled the sauce, cooked it in a separate saucepan, and used earth balance rather than butter. Found gochugaru in Fresh Market. Just Wow!!

Candice

I love this meal and have cooked it several times. To add more veggie, I have cooked hearty greens in the pan after I’m done with the sauce and they’ve turned out really delicious. Highly recommend!

Marisa

Amazing dish that is a great addition to my more traditional repertoire. Have many many times in the last 2 months since I discovered this recipe. As others stated, double the sauce recipe. I have better luck with the sauce by not reducing the liquid ingredients before I add the butter. I just add the liquid, stir a few times as the hot pan does it’s magic, then add the butter.

jean

Very good but everything took longer to cook. Quadruple the sauce - it was that good. Used gochujang, butter, and a little maple syrup and rice vinegar. 1 1/2 cups uncooked rice. No leftovers.

hannah & matt

This recipe rocks !!! We’ve made a dozen times. Our only adjustment is as a couple we still make the banging sauce for four.

Jacque

I loved this dish. Next time I will make the sauce in a separate pan while the rice is crisping. I made the mistake of putting the sauce in a too-hot cast iron pan and it immediately burned to a crisp. We enjoyed our salmon and rice with re-made sauce with all our windows and a fan running to clear the smoke in the house on a coolish Minnesota evening. ;)

Jen

I cooked this in a cast iron pan and there was a lot of spitting and splatter, the complete opposite of Eric’s video. I took care to pat dry the excess moisture on the salmon and let it air dry a bit in the fridge before cooking. Is it because the temperature got too high? Thank you fellow cooks for any insight!

Elaine

Made an adapted version of this last night. I didn't realise the sauce was made using gochujang powder (I only had paste), but I managed to adjust the level of spiciness by doubling the other ingredients. Made it with noodles for an even quicker meal and added the juice of half a lime to the sauce instead of butter - delicious! Saved to my favourites, packs a lot of flavour! Can't wait to try it with crispy rice.

t. Luckett

Delicious. Followed the recipe as written, but leaving the fish a tiny bit more rare. Absolutely perfect. Tender fish, great balance of mild spice and sweetness. The maple doesn’t really gut through, but the sweetness remains. I think it could probably be closely approximated using agave or honey instead, if needed. Ate with kimchi, to balance out the buttery texture of the fish/sauce.

sarah

This made for multiple enjoyable meals for me. I’m the only person in my house who doesn’t love salmon so I make it all the time but rarely love it myself. This is now my favorite way to cook it and I’ll look forward to eating it again. Made more and had leftovers with gim and avocado— delightful. Thank you EK, your recipes are always perfect.

NanB

The glaze caramelized up quickly and the sugars burned. When I put it on the fish, it formed a hard candy type shell that you couldn’t get a fork through. We ended up removing it (in one piece!) and nibbling it like a piece of candy. Also thought that the rice came out far too oily from all the fat and didn’t hold together at all, despite that it was sticky sushi rice. Salmon tasted good but could have done without all the rest. Would have been happier with plain salmon and rice.

Cathy G.

This was so easy and delicious! I found the Gochugaru at Whole Fooods.

Alice

Yum! Adding this to our weeknight salmon rotation along with Eric Kim’s Doenjang Salmon Rice Bowl (thank you Eric Kim for continuing to introduce me to new delicious ingredients like doenjang and gochugaru) and Melissa Clark’s Vietnamese Caramel Salmon.Easy and delicious. I used a cast iron the first time I made this which ended up too hot and I sort of burnt the glaze (was still delicious, just toffee-like in texture), so I’d recommend a nonstick but could have been user error.

David W

Make the gochugaru vinegar and maple syrup mixed ahead of time, and use 1/2 maple syrup to make it less sweet.

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Gochugaru Salmon With Crispy Rice Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my salmon not getting crispy? ›

The two key things to ensure crispy salmon skin are dry skin, and not skimping on oil! Oil helps distribute the pan's heat evenly as well as fry the skin to help crisp it. If you skimp on oil, the skin will just burn instead of going golden, and it really won't be that crispy.

How do you make salmon skin crispy without overcooking? ›

Though you want fairly high heat at the start, cooking at that temperature the entire time will lead to the salmon overcooking on its outer layers, which can cause it to turn chalky and leak unsightly white albumen. So, just before adding the fish, lower the heat under the pan to medium-low.

Why is salmon and rice so good? ›

The rich, fatty salmon is tempered by the comfortingly bland white rice, the latter absorbing what the former renders in excess. The twin-flame combo may be one of nature's purest forms of culinary symbiosis.

How do restaurants get salmon so crispy? ›

The requirements are few: Dry fillets: Less moisture allows for maximum crisping and a reduction in splatter. Pat dry on all sides just before cooking. Salt and pepper: Simple seasoning is all you need to let the natural flavor of the salmon shine.

What is the best way to cook salmon without drying it out? ›

Wrap your salmon in a parchment packet with aromatics, citrus, veggies, and a drizzle of olive oil. The steam trapped in the packet will infuse the fish with flavor and cook it gently, making it tender and juicy. Bonus: The parchment packets only take about 15 minutes at 425°F and the cleanup is minimal.

Should salmon be crispy skin side up or down? ›

So, you want skin that is super crisp and flavorful, just as you would want with chicken. Starting your salmon skin-side down, and cooking it until it is well rendered, lightly browned, and crisp, and then turning the salmon to finish the cooking, will make for a terrific dining experience.

Is it healthy to eat crispy salmon skin? ›

Salmon is one of the healthiest and most popular fishes to make, and if you like the skin, there's absolutely no reason to discard it. In fact, the salmon skin is known to be an excellent source of minerals, plus omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins B and D, and more nutrients.

Do you start salmon in a cold or hot pan? ›

The Solution: The key to perfectly seared salmon is to add your fillets to a cold, dry pan, then turn on the heat. Starting your fillets in a cold pan cooks the fish slowly and evenly. It gives the skin more time to become crisp and golden and for the natural fat to render.

What is salmon and rice called? ›

Nigiri sushi is a traditional Japanese dish consisting of hand-pressed vinegared sushi rice with a slice of raw fish on top, usually tuna, salmon, or other seafood. It is typically served in pairs and may be accompanied by a dab of wasabi between the rice and fish.

Why not to eat salmon all the time? ›

"While salmon is a nutritious food rich in omega-3 fatty acids, high-quality protein and various vitamins and minerals, consuming it excessively may lead to potential issues, including excessive calorie intake, mercury exposure and nutrient imbalances," she warns.

How many times a week can you eat salmon? ›

As for how much fish to eat, consuming at least two servings of salmon per week can help you meet your omega-3 fatty acid needs. Salmon is rich in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to reduce inflammation, lower blood pressure, and decrease risk factors for disease.

How to get crispy skin when frying salmon? ›

Once the oil is hot, add the salmon skin to the oil, and fry over medium-low heat. Stir frequently so they don't stick—a chopstick is a good tool that can delicately stir them around. It can take a full 10 to 15 minutes for them to crisp up—they will look rubbery at first, but be patient.

How do you get crispy skin on frozen salmon? ›

Flip the salmon so it's skin-side down, and season the flesh side generously with salt, pepper and any other spices you'd like. Cover the skillet with a lid to help trap heat and steam the salmon so it cooks through. While it's steaming, you want the skin against the hot pan so it crisps up instead of getting soggy.

Do people eat crispy salmon skin? ›

“The decision to indulge in salmon skin boils down to personal preference and how it's prepared,” Bryan tells Southern Living. “When cooked just right, it can offer a crispiness and an extra layer of flavor to your meal. That being said, some people will probably want to forgo it due to its distinct 'fishy' taste.”

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