This Brown Sugar Salmon recipe is so simple yet so delicious! Start with a salmon marinade with brown sugar, soy sauce, and bourbon to add lots of flavor. After marinating, glazing, and baking, you’ll have the perfect brown sugar glazed salmon that everyone is sure to love!
Table of Contents
Brown Sugar Salmon
This Bourbon Brown Sugar Salmon recipe is one of my favorites. It’s a few easy steps of marinating, toasting the pecans, glazing, baking, and then done!
When I lived in Florida, I LOVED the fresh seafood. I went back for a visit recently, and me and Pat really enjoyed the seafood, eating as much of it as possible. They salmon down there is just SO good. Missouri is quite a different story as far as seafood goes, but I’m willing to give it a try.
This Bourbon Brown Sugar Salmon recipe is a good place to start. It’s such a simple recipe and it’s filled with so much flavor! It has just the right balance of sweet and spicy, and the texture is perfect. I love the way the toasted pecans create a crunchy layer on top. I’m telling you, it’s so delicious!
This brown sugar glazed salmon starts with some marinating, then we add more and more flavor with glazing throughout the baking process. And of course the layer of pecans on top finishes it off perfectly! This is the perfect simple dinner to make any time!
This Bourbon Brown Sugar Salmon recipe is so simple, so delicious, and so easy to make!
Bourbon Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon
The star of this delicious brown sugar salmon recipe is the salmon marinade with brown sugar, bourbon, and soy sauce. The flavor is plenty sweet, but balanced out by the salty soy sauce and smooth bourbon. First we use it to marinate the salmon fillets for a few hours. Then we take the same mixture, heat it up, let it thicken, and use it as a glaze for the salmon before and during the baking process. So this brown sugar glazed salmon really gets alllll the flavor!
Salmon Marinade with Brown Sugar
This bourbon, brown sugar, soy sauce salmon marinade gives this fish the most amazing taste. The fact that we can use it as both the marinade and the glaze means it works double duty! Of course there are a few other ingredients in the mix to really perfect the flavor.
What’s in this Salmon Marinade/Glaze:
- Brown Sugar
- Soy Sauce
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Garlic
- Bourbon (optional)
- Black Pepper
How to Make Brown Sugar Salmon
Salmon has become one of my favorite things to cook, simply because it’s SO easy to make, no matter how you do it. It doesn’t take long to cook, and you can really change up the flavor with different marinades, glazes, seasonings, etc. This bourbon brown sugar salmon recipe is a favorite because it really is FULL of flavor. I almost can’t believe how simple it is to make something this tasty!
How to Make Bourbon Brown Sugar Salmon:
- Start by making the marinade. Combine brown sugar, soy sauce, bourbon, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and black pepper in a bowl.
- Place the salmon fillets in a resealable bag, then pour in half of the soy sauce marinade and zip it shut. Set the other half of the marinade aside for later, to use as the glaze.
- Let the salmon marinate in the refrigerator for 1-3 hours, flipping the bag every 30 minutes or so to make sure it marinates evenly.
- When you’re just about ready to start cooking the salmon, get working on the glaze. Place the leftover salmon marinade in a saucepan and heat on the stove. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer until it thickens.
- While that it simmering, preheat your oven to 400°F.
- Cover a flat baking sheet with parchment paper and place the chopped pecans on it. Toast them in the oven for about 3-5 minutes.
- Now cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place the salmon fillets. Sprinkle the toasted pecans over top and press them gently into the salmon. Brush 1/3 of the brown sugar glaze on top.
- Bake salmon at 400°F for 20-25 minutes. Add another layer of glaze every 8-10 minutes to keep adding in more flavor.
This brown sugar salmon is so flavorful, so sweet, so crunchy…it’s just plain delicious! Serve it along with veggies, salad, rice, or another favorite side dish.
This Bourbon Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon is just so tasty, I know you’re going to love it!!
See the recipe card below for details on how to make Bourbon Brown Sugar Salmon. Enjoy!
If you like this brown sugar glazed salmon, you’ll love our other easy salmon recipes too:
- Apple and Horseradish Glazed Salmon
- Grilled Salmon Fillet with Peach Salsa
- Herb Crusted Salmon with Goat Cheese Polenta
- Parmesan Crusted White Wine Dijon Salmon
- Pecan Crusted Honey Bourbon Salmon
- Baked Pesto Salmon Recipe
Bourbon Brown Sugar Salmon Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 c. Brown Sugar - firmly packed
- 1 c. Soy Sauce
- 2 t. Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 t. Garlic - minced
- 1/2 t. Black Pepper
- 2 T. Bourbon opt.
- 1/2 c. Chopped Pecans - toasted
- 1-2 Salmon Filets 2-2 1/2 lb. total
Instructions
For the Marinade
- Combine all ingredients except the Pecans and Salmon in a bowl.
- Place Half the marinade and the Salmon in a Ziploc bag - squeeze out the air and zip the bag tightly.
- Set aside the other half of the marinade to use as a glaze.
- Marinate the Salmon for 1-3 hours. Flip the bag every 1/2 hour or so to marinate evenly.
For the Glaze
- Place the remaining half of the marinade in a small saucepan on the stove.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the temperature to low and simmer until the mixture thickens and reduces a little.
- While the glaze is simmering, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
For the Pecan Topping
- Place the chopped pecans on a flat baking pan which has been covered with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
- Toast the pecan for 3-5 minutes until they darken a little and they start to smell sooo good.
- Watch closely - the nuts can burn quickly!
For the Salmon
- Cover a baking dish or pan with aluminum foil.
- Spray the foil-covered pan with cooking spray.
- Take the Salmon out of the marinade and discard the marinade.
- Place the Salmon (skin-side down) on the prepared pan.
- Sprinkle the salmon with the toasted pecans pressing the pecans firmly into the salmon.
- Brush or spoon 1/3 of the glaze onto the salmon.
- Place the salmon in the oven.
- Re-glaze the salmon with the glaze every 8-10 minutes (about 3 times).
- Bake at 400 degrees for a total of 20-25 minutes until the salmon flakes easily.
Last step! Don’t forget to show me a pic of what you made! Upload an image or tag me @thecookierookie on Instagram!
Nutrition Information
We eat salmon frequently and I needed a change from my usual recipes and I’m so glad I tried this one- it was amazing! I never would have thought to use the pecans as a topping. A new go to for my family for sure!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing, Melissa!
I made this recipe for Easter, I was a bit worried about the other comments about it being too salty. Here is what I did, I used reduced sodium soy sauce. I also used equal parts brown sugar and soy sauce. I did a little taste to make sure it wasn’t too sweet and I thought the flavor was good. First time making this recipe and everyone LOVED it. It was also my first time making salmon. It is definitely a keeper. I wish I had a picture because it looked exactly like the picture in this recipe.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing, Lisa!
Read other reviews that it was too salty, so I substituted about 1/4 of soy sauce with chicken broth and I used Lite soy sauce. Oh and I skipped the pecans step. It was delicious.
Thanks for sharing, Sylvia!
Way too salty, couldn’t even eat this
I am so sorry this wasn’t to your taste, Laura!
We eat a lot of salmon and this is a tried and true bourbon recipe. Not sure what others are talking about when they say its to salty. Maybe they let it sit in the marinade to long. We’ve been using this type of marinade for years and it produces the best salmon everytime. Thanks for the toasted pecan addition, it was a stopper!
Thanks for sharing!
Substitute the pecans for some other nuts substitute the cause for other nuts
This looks good! I can’t wait to try this. I’ll maybe lessen the soy sauce to not make it too salty. Thank you for sharing this recipe! :)
Definitely modify it to your tasting! Thanks for stopping by.
Too much soy sauce, not sure if it was written properly. Spent a lot of money on the salmon, only to barely be able to eat it because it was so salty. Glaze turned it a black color, nothing like the photo. Not sure how a cup of soy sauce wouldn’t do that, to be honest.
I am sorry it didn’t work out for you, Andie!
Loved it! Used low sodium soy sauce and a little extra bourbon.
Yum, that sounds delicious!!
I followed the directions exactly as directed and sadly this was so salty it was inedible. So disappointed as it was a beautiful filet of salmon I had purchased. I used baking pecans so they weren’t salted. I’d suggest cutting way down on the soy.
I’m so sorry this one didn’t turn out well for you!