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★ Why You’ll Love this Recipe ★
This grilled maple chipotle salmon recipe is so simple yet tastes amazing!
Grapefruit adds a tangy-tart twist to this classic sweet and spicy glazed salmon which elevates the flavor, without a ton of effort. Win-win!
A Delicious Way to Eat More Salmon
If you want to eat more salmon for the health benefits, but don't know how to really bring out the flavor, you'll love this tasty glaze.
This particular recipe uses sliced grapefruit in place of a more traditional citrus like lemons and limes.
The tart qualities of the grapefruit really balance out the sweet and spicy flavors of the maple syrup and chipotle pepper. It may sounds a little wild, but trust me. This is good stuff! And it's super easy to pull off.
Simple Homemade Salmon Glaze
The glaze is made using just a handful of ingredients. Brush it on and grill. You'll have a delicious dinner ready in no time. Marinate for extra flavor if you have time, but it's not required.
I'll also give you tips on how to be sure your salmon is cooked just right. Keep reading!
Make it a Meal
Pair this Maple Chipotle Salmon with a bowl of Creamy Clam Chowder, Hawaiian Macaroni Salad, and Chocolate-Nutella Lava Cakes for dessert!
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
There's not a lot to this grilled salmon recipe. It's very simple, yet the flavor will blow you away!
Here's everything you need:
- Salmon. Fresh salmon will give you the best flavor, but you can use frozen salmon too, just thaw it first.
- Grapefruit. Fresh, sliced grapefruit or you can use canned sliced grapefruit to save time. Both are great options. In a pinch, you can even substitute the slices with an extra splash of grapefruit juice.
- Maple syrup. I find real maple syrup has the best flavor but any maple flavored syrup works.
- Chipotle pepper. This is powdered and you can find it with other seasonings if you don't already have some in your spice cabinet.
- Smoked paprika. A little goes a long way with this one. Smoked paprika adds a subtle smoked flavor that is just so perfect with this spicy-sweet seafood dish. If you don't have smoked paprika, regular paprika works, it just won't have as much of that smoky flavor. (You'll get some smokiness from grilling.)
- Red pepper flakes. These add extra spice. You can adjust the level of spice depending on how much you add. Or, not a fan of spice? Leave them out all together.
- Cooking oil. This prevents the salmon from sticking to the foil when cooking. Any high-heat tolerant oil works. You can also use butter instead of oil if you prefer.
★ How to Make this Recipe ★
For extra flavor, you can marinate your salmon before grilling but it's not necessary. You can still achieve a great taste adding the glaze right before you cook your salmon. So it's up to you and how much time you want to spend on this.
The full recipe and a quick how-to video are below, but here are the basic steps:
- Mix together glaze/marinade ingredients.
- Coat salmon with marinade.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
- Heat grill and add oil to foil packets.
- Add salmon to foil and pour over leftover glaze.
- Grill salmon, add garnish as desired, and serve!
Super easy! So much flavor!
★ Tips & FAQs ★
Marinating (or not)
If marinating, lay salmon on a baking sheet, brush with glaze, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate. When ready, transfer to greased foil to grill.
Short on time? Just brush with maple-chipotle glaze, top with grapefruit slices, and grill. Baste with leftover juices when done.
Sweet and spicy is a classic combo that just works. So, all we're doing here is taking something sweet (maple syrup) and spicy (chipotle pepper) and adding some citrus (grapefruit) which does a great job of brightening seafood.
By grilling this salmon, we're adding a touch more of that smoky flavor.
The result is moist, flaky salmon that has a slight crisp and creaminess with subtly spicy flavor that melts in your mouth. Sound good to you? It is!
The spicy-sweet combination works well because the sweetness really tones down the spice. So overall this dish is more on the mild side of the spiciness scale.
This is not exactly black and white.
The FDA clearly recommends cooking salmon to a temperature of 145˚ however many chefs pref to cook to a temperature of 125˚ for a more rare finish. This produces a flakier and more moist texture.
So, if you're OK with the risks involved, you can cook salmon this way. Read more about what the FDA recommends.
Now, there's another factor to cooking salmon to the correct temperature and that is whether the salmon is wild-caught or farm-raised.
Wild salmon is less fatty so it tends to taste more dry if cooked too long. Therefore, wild salmon tastes best cooked to just 120˚. Again, you're assuming some risk doing this but as far as flavor, this is what's typical. For more details, see Cook's Illustrated.
★ More Salmon Recipes ★
Love seafood?
Browse all my easy seafood recipes — Pin your favorites for later.
This Maple Chipotle Salmon with Grapefruit recipe was featured on South Your Mouth!
Maple Chipotle Salmon
Ingredients
- 3 lbs uncooked salmon fresh or frozen and thawed
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon chipotle pepper (powdered)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper chili flakes more or less to adjust heat
- 2 teaspoon sea salt
- ⅓ cup grapefruit juice (about 2 grapefruits squeezed)
- 1 grapefruit peeled and sliced
- 2 tablespoon cooking oil or butter
Mighty Mrs. is a #WalmartPartner.
Instructions
- Combine maple syrup, chipotle pepper, smoked paprika, red pepper chili flakes, salt, and grapefruit juice in bowl to create the marinade and glaze.
- Lay salmon evenly onto a baking sheet. Pour half the juice from the marinade over the salmon. Coat both top and bottom of salmon pieces with marinade using a brush.
- Place grapefruit slices on top of salmon. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate for 4-8 hours in the fridge. Cover remaining marinade with plastic and refrigerate.
- Heat oven or grill to 400°.F Move salmon to a double layer of oiled or buttered foil. Top with remaining marinade. Wrap foil up around the sides of the salmon to prevent edges from burning/overcooking and to keep juices from leaking out.
- Grill for approximately 9-15 minutes (cook time varies depending on thickness of salmon). Salmon is done as soon as temperature reach 125-145°F in the thickest part.*
- Season with sea salt to taste.
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