Miso Salmon - Super Easy, 5 Ingredients

Recipe: Miso Salmon Recipe »

You must make this restaurant style miso salmon with this easy 4 ingredient marinade! Sweet, savoury and perfectly glazed, this marinade is super easy. Perfect for a weeknight dinner but yet also an impressive dinner party dish!

About This Miso Salmon

This Miso Salmon is based on the famous Nobu black cod dish by Chef Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa that he is famous for. It pairs fish with a savoury glaze made with miso paste, mirin, sake and sugar. This simple 4 ingredient marinade makes the BEST flavoured glazed salmon! Seriously, we keep white miso handy in the fridge just to make this salmon.

I promise that this marinade and glaze is super simple and takes less than 5 minutes to make with only 4 ingredients. It isn't easy to find black cod here while salmon is very easy to get so we usually use salmon.

Chef Nobu actually marinates the white cod for 3 days but we only need a couple of hours for salmon. I wouldn't skip the marinating step because the flavour really penetrates into the salmon.

I actually thought I had shared this recipe with you as Mr NQN was eating it and he loved it. "Yeah I put it up ages ago," I said to him. But then I searched for it and I couldn't find it!

Video How To Make Easy Miso Salmon

Video: How to Make Miso Salmon

Ingredients For Miso Salmon

Miso Paste - We use white miso paste here because it is mild, light and sweet and doesn't over power the flavour of the fish.

Salmon fillets - We are using salmon fillets for this but other fish that goes well with this are halibut or monkfish. Plus of course black cod or sablefish. Ask for the centre cut (rather than a tail cut). Skin on or skin off salmon is perfectly fine. The skin helps the salmon avoid sticking to the foil.

Sake - I use an inexpensive cooking sake for this. Save your really good sake for drinking. We cook the alcohol off the sake so this can be served to anyone. Other people have also used other spirits like Shaoxing wine or tequila with success. I buy this at the Asian grocery store although you can also find cooking sake at the supermarket.

Mirin - Mirin is a sweet, low-alcohol Japanese rice based cooking wine. It's syrupy in texture and is often used in Japanese recipes and can be found at the supermarket.

Sugar - Use caster or superfine sugar for this. White sugar can also be used as it will dissolve in the sake. It will seem like a lot of sugar but miso is very salty so it needs the sweetness to balance it. Also most of it isn't eaten as it is in the glaze.

Tips For Making Miso Salmon

1 - Centre cut salmon is preferable over tail cut of salmon as has a more even thickness and therefore cooks more evenly.

2 - Using a whisk to make the marinade helps to break up the white miso, especially if yours is from the fridge.

3 - Marinate the salmon at the very, very least for 15 minutes, 2 hours is great or even up to 2 days. Make sure the marinade covers the skinless side of the fillet.

4 - Watch the salmon while it is grilling, especially towards the end of the time so that the top doesn't burn. Make sure that the grill element is a few inches away from the top of the salmon.

5 - I prefer to grill the salmon rather than pan fry it because I like the top to be caramelised. However you can also roast the salmon in the oven at 180C/350F conventional or 160C/320F fan forced for the same amount of time.

I make salmon a lot so try this sweet soy glazed salmon next or this hoi sin glazed salmon.

Miso Salmon Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 5 minutes plus 15 minutes cooling time 2 hours marinating time

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Makes: 2 salmon fillets

Ingredients Needed

• 2x 125g/4oz salmon fillets (centre cut)
• 60ml/2flozs sake
• 60ml/2flozs mirin
• 60g/2ozs caster or superfine sugar
• 75g.2.7ozs white miso paste
• Oil for greasing

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 MARINADE - Add the sake and mirin to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Whisk in the sugar and simmer for 2 minutes. Using a whisk, add in the miso paste whisking until you get a smooth mixture. Cool (put the saucepan in a bowl of ice water to hasten cooling).

Step 2 COVER - Place the salmon fillets in a ziplock bag or a container and cover completely with the marinade. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Step 3 GRILL - Preheat grill and line with foil. Drizzle a teaspoon or so of oil to prevent salmon sticking to the foil. Take the salmon from the fridge and place on grill, skin side down. Grill salmon for 7-10 minutes (6 minutes for rare inside, 10 minutes cooked through depending on thickness) or until caramelised and cooked through to your liking. Serve with rice and vegetables.

Personal Note

We try and eat a lot of fish because it's good for you and your skin. I made myself some miso salmon one night when I knew that Mr NQN was going out for drinks with his former colleagues and I was at home.

After I ate the salmon I went upstairs and watched the night fall. That's my favourite part of the day and I get annoyed if I miss the sunset. After that I got ready for bed and tv. Another thing I do for my skin is use a red light mask. I do it every night in the bathroom and it only takes 3 minutes so I scroll Tiktok while it works. But this evening I had to grab a drink from the bedside table.

LED masks are quite scary looking things and if I ever get an intruder at night, I'll run at them at full speed while wearing the mask!

Little Milo was lying on the bed and the poor little thing looked terrified when he saw me! In fact I've never seen him looking so scared in his life! "It's just mummy!" I said but I think I may have scarred him.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you eat foods for their health benefit a lot? Have you ever tried the miso black cod dish and what did you think of it?