This Vietnamese inspired salmon can be made in the Instant pot or the oven. Served with a Vietnamese-inspired sauce.
I’m always looking for new ways to enjoy salmon! This Vietnamese-inspired salmon is a new favourite, that can be made in either the Instant Pot or the oven.
While the Instant Pot doesn’t offer any time saving here, when you factor in the time to bring it up to pressure, the results of the short pressure cooking on the texture of the salmon was outstanding! Perfect, flaky, moist salmon, without any of that white stuff that baking salmon often produces that is so unappetizing. But don’t worry if you don’t have an Instant Pot. The oven version is lovely as well.
Cook’s Notes
If you’re not familiar with Vietnamese flavours, it may take a bite or two to reconcile what you think it’s going to taste like with what it actually tastes like :) Your head may be expecting the sweetness of teriyaki (soy with sugar), but what you’ll taste is something distinctly earthy and complex, from the use of fish sauce with sugar. It’s different, but equally delicious! That said, I suspect this dish isn’t high on the kid-friendly scale. I know my kids would probably not have approved in their early years :)
This salmon is perfect served with rice, which will soak up the lovely sauce beautifully. Something green, like just wilted baby bok choy or spinach is also nice on the side.
Classically, you would pair this dish with cilantro. I am not a fan of cilantro and usually substitute with flat-leafed parsley. But since I happened to have some pea sprouts in my fridge that needed using, so they went on top instead. They turned out to be a lovely fresh note with the earthy sauce. I’d do that again :)
Looking for Instant Pot Salmon Recipes? You might also like my Instant Pot Teriyaki Salmon!
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Get the Recipe: Instant Pot or Oven Vietnamese Salmon
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 3 Tablespoon Asian fish sauce
- 1 1/2 Tablespoon soy sauce, low sodium recommended
- 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger, or ginger paste
- Finely grated zest of 1 lime
- Juice of 1/2 lime
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 4 fresh skinless salmon fillets, preferably centre cut (or frozen, fully thawed)
For garnish:
- Sliced green onion, white and green parts, cut diagonally
- Fresh cilantro leaves
- Fresh lime wedges, for drizzling
Instructions
- *See Recipe Card Notes below for the Oven-Method.Set the Instant Pot to SAUTE (normal heat). Add the oil, brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, ginger, lime zest, lime juice and black pepper to the Instant Pot. Bring to a simmer, then turn off the cooker.
- Place the fish into the cooker, with the flat side that had the skin up. Spoon some of the sauce over the fish. Cover the cooker and cook on LOW PRESSURE for 1 minute. Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, then release the remaining pressure manually.
- Switch the cooker back to SAUTE (normal heat) and cook your salmon and sauce for another 30 seconds - 1 minute or so, or until salmon is cooked to your liking.
- Carefully lift the salmon from the cooker and place onto a rimmed serving platter, flipping them over so that the side that was down is now up. Continue cooking the sauce in your cooker until reduced and syrupy, about 3 minutes more.
- Spoon reduced sauce over salmon and garnish with sliced green onion and cilantro leaves. Serve with fresh lime wedges for drizzling.
Notes
Preheat oven to 350F. Combine oil, brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, ginger, lime zest, lime juice and pepper in an oven-proof baking dish just large enough to hold your salmon fillets flat. Place salmon fillets into dish with sauce, with the flat side that had the skin facing up. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until salmon is cooked to your taste. Remove dish from oven, then remove salmon to a serving platter, flipping the salmon so the bottom side is now up. Place dish with sauce back into the oven under the broiler (about 6 inches from heat) to reduce and thicken the sauce slightly, about another 1-2 minutes or so. Spoon reduced sauce over salmon. Garnish with green onion and cilantro leaves and serve with lime wedges for drizzling.
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Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Hello! Â I love your recipes. Â With this particular one, would you please clarify for me…you replied in the comments: Â “Hi Deborah, Glad you enjoyed it! . . .this recipe calls for an immediate pressure release, so that means that as soon as the 1 minute cook time has expired you would manually (and carefully :) open the pressure valve to release all the pressure . . .” Â
However the recipe states to cook in the IP for 1 minute and then do a natural release for 5 minutes, after which do a manual release.
I am looking forward to giving this recipe a try!
Hi Mikie, I’ll try to find that comment, but it is probably a typo on my part in the comment. You’ll want to use the directions as stated in the Recipe Card.
Absolutely delicious. I didn’t have lime so I used lemon. Best salmon recipe ever.
So glad you enjoyed it, Beverly! Thanks so much :)
Works well with other types of fish too! New favorite fish recipe.
Glad to hear and also that it’s nice with other types of fish, as well! Thanks :)
This recipe is excellent. I like that it’s so easy and simple to make. I eat Keto and all I had to do was to swamp out the brown sugar for Lakanto Golden Monk Fruit Sweetener. I have used Keto maple syrup or powdered stevia in the past but my husband said the Lakanto Golden tasted the best sauce. The sauce later crystallized from sitting around with what little salmon was left over and I saw my husband eating the sauce by itself.
So glad to hear, Sonia :) Thanks so much!
Hello! Do you think this would work if I’m using the ceramic non-stick Instant Pot insert, instead of the regular one? Just wondering if the sugar would still caramelize. This looks so good and I don’t want to mess it up!
Hi Jasmine, I don’t have a ton of experience with the ceramic insert, but this sauce is quite liquid-y, so despite the sugar, I don’t think it’s dry enough to cause issues for you.
Thanks! I just made it and it is SO good and easy. The ceramic insert worked great. I used brown sugar Swerve, because I can’t eat real sugar, so for those who need to make this Keto-friendly, no problem! Swerve worked great. I used low-sodium soya and that was the right call. You could even sub half the soy sauce for water if you’re really sensitive to salt. Jennifer, this was a winner. Will make often.
So glad you enjoyed it, Jasmine! Thanks so much :)
Just made this tonight — my first time ever cooking anything in an IP — and it was amazing. What do you do if you want to cook for company, though? I made about 1.5 lbs of salmon in the 6 qt and we have a serving left over. But if I were cooking for another couple, too? The dish is definitely company worthy. Thanks so much for this inspiring recipe!
Hi Jaime, So glad you enjoyed it! I think you might need to use the oven method to cook for more people. It works nicely as well :)
WOW! WOW! WOW!!! Perfect salmon.
This was amazing. So fast, simple and delicious. We modified the sauce slightly by adding chili garlic sauce and substituting 1/2 sesame oil and 1/2 veg oil for the olive oil. We also garnished with a light sprinkle of sesame seeds.
So glad you enjoyed it! I too love what the instant pot does for salmon :) Thanks!
Do you think the brown sugar could be left out for a Keto diet?
Hi Kimbra, you could use a sweetener other than brown sugar, but I think you need a sweetener of some sort. Fish sauce straight up (without sweetening) is pretty harsh. Maybe some stevia instead?