Sweet Spicy Salmon Over Dirty Quinoa

Have you seen the new show on NBC called Food Fighters? Home cooks get to take their best recipes up against professional chefs to win money. I love a show that celebrates home cooks! In the first episode the woman took her salmon and quinoa up against Lorena Garcia. I met Lorena Garcia earlier this year when I was in Miami. 

I decided I needed to create my own and came up with this beauty of a dish. That salmon isn’t burnt, it has caramelized sugar on the skin and it’s pretty delicious. Serve it over a dirty quinoa with some veggies and lots of flavoring and you have yourself a really healthy, easy, and delicious dinner. I’ve even included a little cooking lesson so you can perfect your salmon. Go home chefs! You know how to rock your own kitchen!

Time to Make it: 30 minutes

Yield: Serves 4




Ingredients

Quinoa

1 TB olive oil

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 onion, diced

1 jalapeno, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup quinoa

2 cups chicken broth

Salmon

4 salmon filets, skin on

1 TB brown sugar

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp salt

2 TB olive oil

Instructions

1. Heat a medium or large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add in 1 TB olive oil and toss in red bell pepper, onion, and jalapeno. Saute for about 4 to 5 minutes. Add in garlic, chili powder, cumin, paprika, and salt. Let toast for a minute. Pour in quinoa and chicken broth, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and let simmer, covered, until quinoa has absorbed all liquids, about 20 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, combing brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, paprika, and salt. Rub over the salmon.

3. Heat a heavy skillet over high heat. Once the pan is sizzling hot, add in 2 TB olive oil and let sit for 30 seconds. Place the salmon filets in, skin side down, in the hot oil. Immediately reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook until salmon reaches 120 degrees, or flakes easily with a fork. Cooking time will be dependent on the thickness of your filet, but should take less than 10 minutes. You don’t need to flip these. 

4. Serve hot quinoa topped with the crispy skin salmon.

When it comes to salmon, people are always asking me how I get it so there isn’t that white stuff coming out. Well guys, that white stuff means you cooked your salmon wrong. No worries though, you can do it right! Keeping the skin on will help you out here as the skin provides insulation while cooking. You want to add your salmon to a sizzling hot pan and then reduce the heat. A blast of heat followed by a lower cooking heat will help render out that fatty white stuff. And then watch it carefully so you don’t overcook it. That white stuff is a sure sign the salmon is overcooked. You can use a thermometer for accuracy. I just got a thermapen and it is amazing for stuff like this! 

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