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Baked One Pan Garlic Butter Coconut Salmon – an almost effortless meal! Made with rich salted butter, garlic, spicy jalapeño, fresh ginger, and creamy coconut milk. Broil the salmon first to get it nice and crispy, then finish it up by baking it in the coconut milk until perfectly cooked. I love to serve this saucy salmon over bowls of rice and top it off with a fresh avocado salsa. Just mix, bake, and serve—easy peasy!
I’ve been spending a lot of time chatting with you all lately—between the website, Instagram, and our new community page (if you’re on our email list, you know all about this!). It’s been amazing, and I truly love connecting with you all.
Hearing your stories—where you’re from, when you started following, your favorite recipes, and the ones you’re most excited about—is so much fun and really motivates me. I always learn something new from you!
One thing that’s clear across the board? You all want more dinners that come together easily: one-pan meals, sheet pan dinners, skillet recipes, and slow cooker favorites.
Effortless cooking is the goal—and I couldn’t agree more. Especially as we head into summer, simple and delicious is the way to go. This coconut milk salmon has fresh Thai-inspired flavors, a hint of spice, and a creamy avocado salsa on top. It’s bold, flavorful, and super easy to make!
These are the details
Ingredients – for the salmon
- salted butter
- salmon fillets – use thicker salmon fillets
- honey
- garlic
- shallots
- jalapeño
- ground ginger
- lemon thyme (optional)
- canned coconut milk
- tamari/soy sauce/fish sauce
- lime juice
- fresh Thai or sweet basil
Ingredients – for the salsa
- avocados
- mango chunks – optional, but I love the mango!
- lime zest and lime juice
- cilantro – or use more basil
- sea salt
Special Tools
You need an oven-safe baker or skillet, a salsa bowl, and then just the usuals!
Steps
Step 1: get the salmon crispy
Arrange a few tablespoons of butter in a baking dish or oven-safe skillet. Add the salmon. Drizzle the honey over the salmon. Season with salt and black pepper.
Place the salmon under the broiler and broil until the tops of the salmon are crisping up.
Step 2: add the flavor
Pull the salmon out. Now add the garlic, shallots, and jalapeños. Sprinkle over some ginger.
Pour over the coconut milk. Add some tamari or use soy sauce or even fish sauce.
Step 3: finish baking
Add a few more tablespoons of butter to the salmon.
Bake the dish until the sauce is thickening and the salmon is cooked to your desired doneness. I usually bake for around 10 minutes.
Step 4: mix the salsa
Mix avocado chunks or slices with mango chunks, lime zest, and lime juice, plus fresh cilantro or basil. I like to add some sea salt too.
Step 5: serve
I like to serve the salmon and sauce over bowls of rice and with lots of sauce.
Then add the avocado salsa and top with fresh basil and cilantro…so good!
Looking for other dinner recipes? Here are some of my favorites:
Thai Black Pepper Chicken and Garlic Noodles
One Pot Stove-Top Mac and Cheese
Honey Garlic Salmon Soba Noodle Bowls
Coconut Milk Braised Black Pepper Chicken
Coconut Curry Salmon with Garlic Butter
Lastly, if you make this Baked One Pan Garlic Butter Coconut Salmon, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And, of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Baked One Pan Garlic Butter Coconut Salmon
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- 4 (6 ounce) salmon filets, use a thick cut for best results
- salt and black pepper
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 shallots, sliced or chopped
- 1-2 jalapeños, seeded if desired, and chopped
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons lemon thyme, (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups canned full-fat coconut milk
- 1 tablespoons tamari/soy sauce/fish sauce
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 1 cup fresh basil, torn
avocado salsa
- 2 avocados, sliced or diced
- 1 cup mango chunks
- 2 tablespoons lime zest + lime juice
- 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to broil.2. In a baking dish, add 3 tablespoons butter. Put the salmon on the butter, then drizzle with honey. Season with salt and pepper. Broil 5 minutes, until crispy. Reduce the oven to 400F°.3. Pull the salmon out. Add the garlic, shallots, jalapeños, the ginger and thyme, if using. Pour over the coconut milk. Add the tamari and lime juice. Stir lightly to mix. Arrange 3 tablespoons of butter pats over the salmon. Bake for 10 minutes until the sauce thickens and the salmon cooks to your liking.3. Meanwhile, make the salsa by mixing everything together in a bowl.4. Serve the salmon and sauce over bowls of rice. Top with lots of salsa and fresh basil.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Did you make this recipe? Please rate & comment below.
Very unappealing. Salmon was incinerated. Sauce was gray and greasy. We ended up ordering pizza. My dog ate some of the salmon after I rinsed the sauce off. He wouldn’t have liked that
Sorry to hear this, Gerry!
The many spices/seasonings didn’t go well together at all, and even using thick cuts of salmon, they still dried out. The oven temp & cooking time seems pretty high.
Hi Rachel,
Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy the flavors in this dish. The oven temp/time is what worked best for me, but I have reduced that now. Have a nice Sunday!
I haven’t made this yet but looks delicious if you are into the spices, thai flavor and salmon of course. I read the comments always before deciding on making the dishes. I have tried many and most of them are really good. My advice to the readers on here: read the entire recipe before beginning. Make adjustments that you think will work for you and your liking. Remember, can always add more butter, salt, seasoning, whatever, but can’t take out. If you don’t think something isn’t good, don’t add it in. Do what works for you. Give Tieghan a break as she is doing this for the masses and not individually necessarily. You should always review a recipe and see how you can do it for YOU! Taking things out, using a different method, pan, whatever. I am a seasoned cook, a decent one but by no means an expert. Just be gracious and kind and by all means, cook as food is medicine! Fresh, whole foods just like Tieghan uses. I am excited to try this and will most likely reduce the butter, possibly add avocado or olive oil, but with the coconut milk and fat from the fish, will reduce it for sure. What can be bad tasting with that butter? Yummy! I also will try and partially put the shallots, garlic etc in the oven first for a few, then add the rest of ingredients and broil for a minute at the end instead of the beginning to not overcook it. Typically, I do about 9-10 minutes for a portion of salmon that is thicker in the middle. If you can buy (ex: Whole Foods) can get all middle portions to cook more evenly. The thinner ends on regular cut salmon will cook quicker just like chicken or something else not evenly proportioned. Bon Appetite y’all. Enjoy and many thanks for the great recipes and ideas Tieghan!!
Thanks so much, Sue!! I am so glad you are able to take the recipes and make them to your liking, that is so important! I hope you love this dish, let me know how it turns out for you! Have the best weekend! xx
This was so good!! I don’t understand the low star reviews. Get thick salmon, our salmon did not dry out at all. It was perfectly cooked. This recipe is easy, flavorful, and we will definitely make it again!
Thanks so much, Deb! So glad you enjoyed this dish, I appreciate you making it and your feedback! Have a wonderful weekend! xx
These flavors sound amazing and I feel they all go so well together. I would like to try this recipe with shrimp.
Thinking because shrimp cook so quickly I would add the raw shrimp starting with direction #3. Maybe put the pan in the oven for a bit to heat through and thicken the sauce and them add the shrimp for 3-4 minutes.
How would you do this?
Hey Marlene,
Sure, I think adding shrimp at step 3 would probably work best for you! I hope you love this recipe, let me know how it turns out! xx
A lot of competing flavors & spices/herbs that didn’t compliment each other. I cooked my salmon less time than the I instructions after seeing how “crispy” it was on Instagram to avoid it being dry.
Thanks for sharing this feedback, Craig. I’m so sorry to hear the flavors were not what you were expecting. Thanks for trying this dish! x
My salmon looked pretty done after 5 minutes under the broiler and I was hesitant to do another 10 minutes at 450 (especially because most baked salmon recipes have 400 as the temp) but I decided to trust the recipe and that was a mistake. Completely overdone and really fishy tasting by the end. Pretty upset I wasted an expensive piece of fish on this.
Also, after chopping garlic, shallots, jalepeno, and thyme, and then making a salsa where I had to cut avocado, mango, and cilantro, this took a LOT longer than 15 minutes to prep. Probably double that.
Hi Anabel,
Thanks for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback, sorry to hear it was not enjoyed. It sounds like you just needed to reduce the cook time for your salmon to your liking. Again, sorry it didn’t turn out!
This was so greasy. I didn’t look at the pictures closely enough but now I see in the pics there are puddles of grease. Salmon is already a fatty fish and the addition of all that butter made this super super greasy. The salmon was also over cooked and dry. The flavors were good, might make again and not add all that butter and reduce the cooking temp.
Hi Patty,
I appreciate you trying this dish and sharing your feedback, so very sorry to hear it was not enjoyed! xx
I just made this dish this evening. So goooood! Going to add muscles next time. I made garlic bread for dipping in the sauce. Another great recipe by you
Thanks a lot, Carl! I appreciate you making this recipe and your comment, love to hear it turned out well!🌼
Followed the recipe exactly and the salmon turned out so dry. What a waste of ingredients.
Hi Sarah,
So very sorry to hear this. Was your salmon super thin by chance? Let me know if I can help at all. xx
No, my salmon was not super thin.
In addition, there is nothing notated above about the size of the salmon. Might be worth noting in your instructions.
Looks delicious and since I have all the ingredients, I’m thinking it may be dinner tonight. However, I just wanted to point out that step 3 could use a little bit of clarifying…see my suggestions in (parenthesis): 3. Pull the salmon out (and set aside). Add the garlic, shallots, jalapeños, thyme, ginger, paprika, and cumin (to the pan). Pour over the coconut milk (Pour the coconut milk over the ingredients in the pan). Add the tamari and lime juice. Stir lightly to mix. (Return the salmon to the top of the mixture). Arrange 3 tablespoons of butter pats over the salmon. Bake for 10 minutes until the sauce thickens and the salmon cooks to your liking.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for sharing your suggestions! Let me know if you give this dish a try, I hope you love it! Have a great Thursday! xx
Made this for dinner tonight. My husband and I LOVED it. The sauce thickened up and it was delicious. I served it with pan fried (gluten free) gnocchi but it would also be great with coconut rice. Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
Thanks a lot, Margaret! I appreciate you making this recipe and your comment, love to hear it turned out well!🌼
This looks AMAZING! Going to make this this weekend!
Thanks so much, Jennifer! Let me know how the dish turns out for you! xx
I asked a legitimate question and it’s already been deleted? The question was, “what are those white strings floating on top of the salmon in the photo?” An honest curious question. What are they? And why am I deleted?
Hi Lee,
Please note, your questions are not being deleted:) We now have a pre-approval process, so your comment/question will only be posted once it has been approved. If it is not posted the second you share it, it’s because it is waiting approval. I hope this makes more sense:)
What are the white string-like things floating on top of the salmon in the first picture?
Hi Lee,
So sorry, I am not sure what you are referring to. I don’t see any white like strings….please let me know how I can help further! xx
It’s just a shimmer at the edge of the salmon pieces
Sliced shallots. Zoom in closer and you can see it pretty easily
It’s a sheen from the oil slick on top from all the butter
This looks so good! How can I adjust the cook time/process if I use chicken instead of fish?
Thanks so much, Roxanne! I would increase your bake time in step 3 to 20 minutes or until your chicken is cooked through. It just depends on how thick your chicken is. Please let me know if you give this recipe a try! xx
Super fast and delicious. The sauce is rich but that’s what the rice is for. I also added some spinach when I poured the sauce over for extra vegetables. Even my kids ate it and they have never eaten salmon before.
Thanks so much, Claire!! Love to hear this dish was enjoyed by your family, I appreciate you making it! xx