Salmon in Foil is a perfect dish for a busy weeknight meal! Light yet flavorful and DELICIOUS, this recipe is quick and simple to make, taking no more than 20 minutes from start to finish.
Salmon in Foil, or SHA-ke no Hoiru Yaki (鮭のフォイル焼き) in Japan, is a fast, simple and delicious dish. You can make the entire recipe in 20 minutes. I grew up eating this dish as my mom had various versions of “salmon in foil” that she prepared when she was short on time.
Watch How To Make Salmon in Foil
Salmon in Foil wins every aspect for a busy weeknight meal: easy and simple to make, takes no more than 20 mins, light yet flavorful and DELICIOUS!
3 Benefits of Cooking Salmon in Foil
1. Moist and tender salmon
First things first, no one likes dry salmon. Cooking the salmon in foil is all about keeping the moisture and the tenderness trapped inside. Covering the salmon in foil, and cooking on low heat, also ensures the proper steaming process, which keeps all the delicious juice locked in resulting in a lush and delicate salmon!
2. Versatile recipe
I am hesitant to call today’s recipe “my” recipe as thousands of people make very similar dishes. I wanted to keep today’s recipe as simple as possible to give you recipe ideas for busy nights. I highly recommend testing and swapping ingredients and seasonings with the same cooking method. I included some of my suggestions below. However, I personally love this particular recipe as you can taste the ingredients (salmon, mushrooms, veggies) themselves without overpowering the flavor with seasonings. This is the essence of Japanese cooking.
3. Quick Cook and Easy Clean Up
There is no pre-heating required (as opposed to oven method), and you can literary cook the salmon in 12 minutes. FAST! If you can wrap up all the ingredients in foil in 8 minutes, this is a 20-minute meal!!
As the whole meal is wrapped in aluminum foil, it’s pretty easy cleanup after the delightful meal. Since there is no oil or sauce, you don’t have to clean the stove or the frying pan!
Variations for Salmon in Foil
If you have tried this recipe and want to test some variations, here are some suggestions for your next salmon in foil dish.
Ingredients
- Enoki mushrooms
- King oyster mushrooms
- Green leafy vegetables (cut vegetables into julienned strips so they will cook fast)
Seasonings
- Butter + Lemon
- Butter + Garlic
- Butter + Shio koji
- Butter + Soy sauce
- Butter + Miso
- Butter + Ponzu
- Mayo + Miso
- Mayo + Soy sauce
- Miso + Mirin
- If using salty seasonings, add in sugar, mirin, etc.
My favorite way to enjoy this dish is to drizzle on Homemade Ponzu.
Do We Add Water in the Frying Pan?
I thought some of you may wonder about this – don’t we need to add water to steam? The answer is no; the salmon will be steamed inside the foil, so water is not necessary for steaming. The majority of Japanese “Salmon in Foil” recipes do not require any water to cook the salmon in foil.
But how about the frying pan? Will it be damaged by the heat? You can certainly put your pan on the stove without any contents and have the pan come out undamaged (especially when using low heat). However, you could add some water to be safe.
With layers of textures and flavors, this salmon in foil is predictably foolproof, every single time. Serve with steamed rice and miso soup, and may be a side of salad if you have extra time. With this recipe in your back pocket, you will have more reasons to cook up healthy meals for yourself and your loved-ones.
If you are interested in other easy meal ideas, check out Weeknight Meal Ideas: 15 Easy Japanese Recipes.
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- 2 fillets salmon (roughly 8.5 oz / 240 g)
- salt (kosher or sea salt; use half if using table salt)
- freshly ground black pepper
- ½ onion
- 2 inch carrot (5 cm)
- ½ shimeji mushrooms (1.8 oz / 50 g)
- 2 shiitake mushrooms
- 2 strands chives
- 1 ½ Tbsp unsalted butter (divided)
- 1 Tbsp sake (divided)
- 2 Tbsp ponzu or soy sauce (for drizzling) (See Notes for homemade recipe)
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Sprinkle kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper on both sides of the salmon fillet.
- Thinly slice the onion and cut the carrot into julienne strips.
- Cut off the bottom of the shimeji mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms. Break up shimeji mushrooms with your hands and thinly slice shiitake mushrooms.
- Cut the chives into small pieces.
- Prepare two 12” x 12” (30 x 30 cm) sheets of aluminum foil. Thinly spread the butter in the center on both sheets.
- Place half of the onion slices and put the salmon on top, skin side down.
- Put two kinds of mushrooms and then carrot julienne strips on top of the salmon.
- Add ½ Tbsp sake and ½ Tbsp butter on top.
- Bring the top and bottom aluminum foil over the salmon and fold a few times. Then bring the sides together and fold few times to make sure the foil is tightly closed and there is no opening. Repeat the same process for the second salmon.
Place the two sets of salmon in foil on a frying pan and cover with lid. Cook the salmon over medium heat for 2 minutes, then medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Carefully open the aluminum foil to enjoy the salmon, sprinkle chives and drizzle ponzu or soy sauce on top. Enjoy!
Ponzu: For the homemade recipe, please click here.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
This looks great..Thanks for explanation of no water in pan…I was curious about that aspect….I bet this would work with black cod as well?
Hi Lyn! You’re welcome. 🙂 Sure, try with black cod – If you use miso, make sure you placed some veggies on the bottom of the fish so miso doesn’t get burnt between fish and frying pan. 🙂
Thank you Nami for this amazing recipe and all the recipes that you share with us! I enjoyed mushrooms very much. It provides moisture and adds umami to the dish.
Hi Iris! Thank you for your kind note, and I’m so happy to hear you enjoy my recipes. Thank you! Yes, I agree. I appreciate the flavor and texture of mushrooms way more than when I was younger. 🙂
I’m so excited about this recipe! Christmas has come early.
Hi Bret! Hope you like this recipe! Merry Christmas to you! xo
Okay, you know I love trying new recipes to begin with, but… these are the ones I truly wait for. Healthy, filling, delicious, AND easy to make. One you can memorize and make it again and again for a quick and healthy dinner. Yatta!!! This is awesome! I just made it and it was delicious! I sprinkled a little Yuzu juice onto mine too and I ate it with edamame pods on the side with ponzu to dip them in, and some Japanese rice. Only thing that would’ve made it better was a little bit of shibazuke and a beer. I should’ve had that too! Lol. I am eating too much.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe!!! A great trade-off for my usual ochazuke.
Here’s a great tip for those who can’t get Japanese-style salmon filets. Get a skin-on American style salmon filet (about 8oz) and just cut it lengthwise down the middle to make two long, thin filets. I found that this was closer to a Japanese sized portion and with the amount of veggies in there, and when served with rice and a side, it was plenty of food. If you’re not planning to make any other food with it, then you could use a whole filet. Also, you could use skin-off salmon just as easily, but this recipe makes the skin so soft you won’t notice it, if you’re picky about skin.
Hi Lion! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thank you for already making this dish. I know you two enjoy fish, so I thought of you guys. And yes on Yuzu! I am with you on shibazuke – I miss eating it with steamed rice!
Thank you also for sharing your tip on cut on salmon. I’m sure other people think it VERY useful! So thank you!!
Would this style of cooking work with a smaller, whole fish too? I have some whole mackerel and was hoping to follow this recipe for cooking them.
Hi Josh! Sure, you can definitely use the whole fish too!
Hi Nami,
It was so nostalgic seeing this recipe on here because my host mother used to make it for me all the time when I lived in Japan. One quick question I had in regards to that, when my host mother used to make it for me she always used the oven instead of the pan method in your recipe.
I’m not exactly sure how she did it but it always turned out great. Do you know much about this?
Hi Justin! Happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe your host mother made. Sure, you can make it in the oven too! It will take a little longer than frying pan (frying pan heats up fast and cook faster). 🙂
Can you substitute other vegetables for the mushrooms? I love mushrooms but my husband can’t eat them. Are there any veggies you recommend? Thanks!
Hi Nattie! Sure, you can do that. Make sure to use veggies that will cook in 10 minutes or use blanched veggies if necessary, or cut thinly if that helps to cook evenly and faster. Any veggies will work – it doesn’t have to be specific. 🙂
Moist and delicious salmon. It is a big hit. The ingredients can easily be customized to accommodate allergies and picky eaters.
Hi Kiyo! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! So happy to hear you enjoyed it! 🙂
Hi Nami,
I always like your recipes and kind sharing ! thanks!
One question: does putting water into the pan have the same effect as steaming this salmon in foil ? Or if I steam the fish in foil, would it have the same outcome?
Thank you!
Hi June! Thank you for following my blog! 🙂
No, salmon doesn’t get benefit of steaming (moisture) as the fish is wrapped in foil, while steam is going outside of the foil. I do “steam” the fish inside the foil with sake + butter you add (moisture).
I LOVE this recipe! It is amazingly healthy and no clean up, YES! Thank You
Hi Cathy! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Hi Nami san, do you have tips on how to clean store bought salmon fillets? And how to debone them too?
Hi Carmen! You can sprinkle some salt and wait for 10-15 minutes, and quickly rinse it, and then use it. Japanese usually don’t debone for this kind of cut as we eat and debone while we eat with chopsticks or fork/knife…. But if you have a fish tweezer (https://amzn.to/2CYyPyg) you can do so before cooking. It’s a lot easier to debone after cooking (but need some technique if you’re not used to it). Hope this helps??
Thank you for the recip, I love your recipes!! I would like to make the Salmon in Foil for my book club of 8. Would it work if input the foil packets in the oven instead because there’ll be so many? If yes, at what temperatures and for how long?
Hi Daisy! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy my recipes! I am so sorry for my late response. Yeah you can use the oven instead. 400F for 15-25 minutes (depending on thickness – my cut is pretty thin).
Hi Nami,
Thank you for sharing your recipe! I’m very excited to try it.
I was wondering if this recipe is meal-prep/freezer friendly? Could I prepare this in bulk and just pull out the package and cook it throughout the week?
Thank you!
Hi Grace! I hope you enjoy this recipe! Good question about the meal prep… In general, I think the fish release some moisture while keeping in the fridge. So if you prepare ahead, the packet will probably contain excess moisture, which could dilute the taste… However, you can prepare the ingredients separately, and wrap up in the foil right before cooking it. I know it’s extra time needed, but I would probably do that instead. 🙂
Hi Nami! I’ll definitely try to do that and prepare this meal next week. Thank you for your response 🙂
Hope you enjoy, Grace!
This is tasty and easy! I try many things! Such as asparagus. Now that it is mushroom season, I add many mushrooms. Thank you for this recipe!
Hi Anna! Yes, it’s really easy to put other ingredients in the foil and cook together with fish. I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your feedback. xo
Nami, do you remember, several months ago I asked you if you have any dish recipe using Kome Koji like with Shio Koji? I wanted to make Shio Koji with that, but was puzzled because the Kome Koji I bought was brown just like miso, not white. So it just lingered in my fridge.
Then I thought of using Kome Koji and butter for seasoning in this recipe, because I read one of your seasoning suggestion was butter + Shio Koji. Guess what? A cheesy flavor was created by the Kome Koji. Wow! I couldn’t believe it. Previously I had used this Kome Koji for seasoning steak and didn’t turn into anything special. Maybe this time it’s because of the combination with butter, or the different way of cooking. I don’t know. I’m dancing now. At last! I have found something great to make with this Kome Koji.
Hi Shuni! Yes, I remember! Wow thank you so much for sharing your kome koji journey with us! I love reading your experiments and findings and thanks for sharing them! It’s fascinating to hear about the cheesy flavor. Maybe fermentation too?
Thanks a lot for the recipe! I cooked that two days ago and the result was tasty!
I was thinking to cook noodles (after boiling) with the vegetables instead of salmon next time. Is that a good idea?
Hi Damian! Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe! Do you mean cooking noodles with vegetables? Sure!
Thanks for sharing the reciepe, really easy and simple.
Just wondering if we can use parachment paper instead of foil?
Hi EmEm! Thank you for reading this post! Yes, you can use parchment paper instead of aluminum foil. 🙂
Thanks! Will try it!
What do I do with the other half of the onion slices?
Hi Kay! Use the other half for the second salmon. 🙂
Ohhh I see! Thank you.
No problem! Enjoy! 🙂
Is it possible to take the salmon after all the ingredients were added and it was wrapped in foil and place it in the fridge for a few hours? My wife and I work opposite schedules so wanted to prepare it so all she has to do when she gets home is place the foil in the frying pan and cook it.
Hi Jason! That’s very sweet of you. Sure, that will work just fine! 🙂