Roasted Salmon With White Wine and Lemon Butter Sauce

Individual portions of salmon are roasted in the oven and then served with a buttery and refreshing white wine and lemon butter sauce. The aromatic sauce has both creamy and acidic notes in it, complementing the fish so well.

You guys! I’m so excited to share this recipe with you. I absolutely love seafood and salmon is one of my favorites. Not only does it taste phenomenal and have amazing texture, it’s also so simple and quick to prepare. Like I mentioned before, being a night nurse has made me appreciate these quick weeknight dinners and because of that, I have an abundance of them up my sleeve.

I roast the fish in the oven, first by preheating the oven to a roaring 500 degrees, and then decreasing the heat to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and cooking the fish at that low temperature. The salmon is SO JUICY. Four of the best accompanying flavors to salmon are all combined in this super sauce – white wine, lemon, butter and fresh herbs.

Served with a luscious white wine and lemon butter sauce, the salmon is coated with a punch of fresh, aromatic flavor. It’s also so creamy and velvety but the tartness cuts through the richness of the salmon.
Ingredients:

4 portions of salmon fillets

1 1/2 Tablespoons oil

salt and pepper

Sauce:

1 shallot, minced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 cup dry white wine

juice from 1 lemon

6 1/2 Tablespoons butter, cut into 1 Tablespoon chunks

1 Tablespoon fresh parsley, minced

Roasting the Salmon in the Oven

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Place a rimmed baking sheet into the oven to heat up.

You will need 4 equal portions of salmon fillets.

I’ll share a tip with you: when you’re buying salmon at fish department, ask the seafood person to cut you the salmon portions from the center of the fillet. The portions of fish will be the thickest there and you’ll get the best use of your money and you won’t  waste any of the fish.
Season each fillet with salt and pepper and rub each fillet with oil all over. When the oven has preheated to 500 degrees and the baking sheet has been in the oven for about 10 minutes, take out the baking sheet and place the salmon, skin side down, onto the searingly hot baking sheet. You will hear it sizzle and the skin will start to sear right away.

Place the fish in the preheated oven. Reduce the heat to 250 degrees and roast the fish for 12-15 minutes. The skin stays behind on the baking sheet, or, if you like fish skin, you can serve it with the fish. It gets really crisp and crunchy, so it’s perfect either way.

Making the White Wine and Lemon Butter Sauce

While the fish is in the oven, melt 1/2 Tablespoon of butter in a skillet on medium high heat. Add the shallot and garlic clove. Season with salt and pepper.  Cook them until the shallots are tender and start to turn golden. Deglaze the skillet with the white wine and then add the lemon juice. Turn the heat up to high and reduce the liquid until it has reduced to half the amount.

Turn off the heat and whisk in the butter, one Tablespoon at a time. The sauce will become thick and velvety.
Add the parsley to the sauce. Spoon the sauce over the roasted fish and serve. 

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Roasted Salmon With White Wine and Lemon Butter Sauce

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5 from 3 reviews

Individual portions of salmon are roasted in the oven and then served with a buttery and refreshing white wine and lemon butter sauce. The aromatic sauce has both creamy and acidic notes in it, complementing the fish so well.

  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x
  • Category: Main Course

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 portions of salmon fillets
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons oil
  • salt and ground black pepper

Sauce:

  • 1 shallot (minced)
  • 1 garlic clove (minced)
  • 1 cup dry white wine (I like Sauvignon Blanc)
  • juice from 1 lemon
  • 6 1/2 Tablespoons butter (cut into 1 Tablespoon chunks)
  • 1 Tablespoon fresh parsley (minced)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Place a rimmed baking sheet into the oven to heat up.
  2. Meanwhile, season each fillet with salt and ground black pepper and rub each fillet with oil all over.
  3. When the oven has preheated to 500 degrees and the baking sheet has been in the oven for about 10 minutes, take out the baking sheet and place the salmon, skin side down, onto the searingly hot baking sheet. You will hear it sizzle and the skin will start to sear right away.
  4. Place the fish in the preheated oven. Reduce the heat to 250 degrees and roast the fish for 15 minutes.
  5. While the fish is in the oven, melt 1/2 Tablespoon of butter in a skillet on medium high heat. Add the shallot and garlic clove. Season with salt and pepper. Cook them until the shallots are tender and start to turn golden.
  6. Deglaze the skillet with the white wine and then add the lemon juice.
  7. Turn the heat up to high and reduce the liquid until it has reduced to half the amount.
  8. Turn off the heat and whisk in the butter, one Tablespoon at a time. The sauce will become thick and velvety. Add the parsley to the sauce.
  9. Spoon the sauce over the roasted fish and serve.

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48 Comments

    • olgak7

      Awesome! The best thing about this dinner is that you can make it without too much planning in advance. Feel like salmon, make it tonight:). I love this one.

  • Oksana K

    oh boy! this looks real good! Gotta try ASAP!!!
    My grocery hopping list today: White wine. Fresh Salmon!
    LOL! since i have the rest of the ingridients at home…
    thank you so much for sharing this yuminness!!! 😀

  • Nataly

    Hi, Olga, another great recipe!!! Thank you!!! My hubby went tuna fishing a couple weeks ago, we’ve canned it for winter, but still have e few fillets in the freezer…. Do you have any recipes with home cooked tuna, how to make delicious??? I would really appreciate your answer.

  • Valentin Goncharenko

    Another stellar recipe post Olga. You are doing tremendous work! The salmon with this sauce is such a pleasant combination! Just enough acidity of the lemons to make the fish flavor and texture stand out! Keep up the wonderful work Olga!

    • olgak7

      Lemons and fish go so well together; I absolutely always have them together. Fish just doesn’t taste the same without some sort of acid to balance it out. Glad to see that you like it too.

  • yelena

    I made this for dinner and it was one of the best fish recipes ever! I absolutely loved the sauce. Definitely going in my recipe folder. Thanks Olga! 🙂

    • olgak7

      Hi Paul,
      I was actually thinking about the exact same thing last night!
      I think it would work great. I would sear the prawns first, take them off the heat and make the sauce in the same skillet and serve them together, or even return the prawns to the skillet for a few seconds just to heat through.

  • Liz

    I don’t know if you will see this. I just made this. Honestly, I think it might be the most delicious salmon recipe I’ve ever made. It’s amazing. I followed it exactly. The only change I made was I cut the recipe in half. I used cooking wine. It would probably taste even better if I used wine that was suitable for drinking.

  • TakeTheCakeParis.com

    I was looking for a sauce to serve with my salmon and sautéed zucchini and onions tonight, and this looks just PERFECT! I love finding a recipe that makes me want to roll up my sleeves and jump in the kitchen. Look forward to tasting it!!

  • Maria Busca

    Delicious! Thanks so much for sharing!
    I really impressed my mother in law tonight with this recipe.

  • linda

    live in Seattle so I have many good salmon recipes this was perfect. simple, fresh, good flavor, I’m glad I ran into this definitely will use again

  • Karla

    I made this for dinner tonight. It is AMAZING!!! My family is crazy about it! It is one of the best salmon recipes I have ever made! The way the salmon is cooked is brilliant! I never would have thought to do it that way. I will definitely make it again.

  • Natasha

    Hi Olga, I cook salmon and sauce, salmon turned out very good but sauce is not its don’t get tick as you said what is could be wrong?

    • olgak7

      Hi Natasha.
      This is a pan sauce, and it’s not meant to be very thick, like a gravy. The liquid in the skillet should reduce by half, and it will get a little bit thicker, like a syrup consistency. If your liquid doesn’t reduce by half, it means that you haven’t cooked it long enough. If you want something thicker, you will need to use some sort of thickening agent, like flour or cornstarch, which would also be good, just different. In that case, you would add the flour to the skillet first before adding the liquid (broth or wine) or whisk some cornstarch into some cold water, broth or wine and then add it to the skillet, which will thicken it up. I personally like a pan sauce better for delicate things like fish, since it just adds a lot of flavor, but doesn’t make the dish too heavy.

  • Allison

    I made this tonight. The fish was PERFECT – I will definitely, absolutely cook salmon like that again. I was super hungry, so I kinda didn’t wait for the wine and lemon to reduce enough, but it was still soooo tasty! Thanks! My daughter thanks you, too. We’ve both been craving salmon and this recipe totally delivered. I made some rice pilaf and steamed asparagus as well — both ate well with the sauce!

  • Carolynne

    I’m making this delicious sounding sauce to spoon over lobster ravioli. Can the recipe be easily doubled – or will I need to make the amount I need in 2 batches? Thanks so much!

  • Merrill Clark

    After searing the salmon, would it work to pour the sauce over the salmon and let it finish cooking in the sauce at the lower temperature? If so, how long to sear it before pulling to pour sauce? And add time to cook it in the sauce? Thanks

    • olgak7

      Hi Merrill.
      This sauce is meant to be served right away after making it. If you pour it over the salmon and put it in the oven, the butter will separate and the sauce will be ruined.
      I honestly prefer roasting salmon in the oven, not searing it in on the stove, but that’s up to you. In that case, just make the sauce separately and pour it over the salmon when serving it.

  • Robyn

    If I use completely skinless salmon, will the salmon stick to the pan at such a high heat? What adjustment, if any should I make? Also, if I don’t use all of the sauce and refrigerate it, is there any way to reheat it without it breaking? I ask because I saw that you responded no to a person inquiring about baking the salmon with the sauce; said sauce would break.

    • olgak7

      Hi Robyn,
      Yes, the salmon will stick to the roasting pan if you don’t use the skin unless you use a newer nonstick skillet, although it may still stick to it.
      I don’t recommend refrigerating and reheating the sauce. It will break when reheated.

  • Ramon

    Fantastic and easy recipe, thank you! I wasn’t being too precise with the sauce, and I thought it might have come out too sour/tangy at first, but it really came to life on the salmon and the asparagus that I poured it over. Got compliments and one person licked their plate!






  • jonathan yu

    Hey how did you get the consistency of the sauce to be white and creamy? What causes that opaque creaminess? Mine turned out just clear butter looking

  • H.T.

    I did it!!!!
    This salmon recipe is soooooo delicious, so yummy!!!!!!
    I prepared it for my friends and everyone enjoyed it.
    I followed your instructions step by step. It was easy and very simple and came out absolutely delicious.
    Thank you very very much.

  • rgarcia

    We didn’t have shallots on hand but had leeks. Turned out fantastic. Easy way to make a fantastic meal. Add a class of white wine and you have a better meal than most restaurants!






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