This post is a Cookbook Club exclusive. Every month, we share recipe variations inspired by or following a certain blueprint. This dish is one of three that utilizes Seattle-style teriyaki sauce in a unique way, alongside this grilled corn and glazed carrots. Join the club to test these recipes alongside fellow Frienjis and provide direct feedback for my next cookbook!

This simple technique simultaneously adds flavor to your grilled salmon while also helping to prevent it from sticking to the grill.

Fatty salmon and teriyaki sauce have always been natural partners—the rich fish loves a sauce that's equal parts sweet, salty, and deeply savory. This is easy enough if you plan on broiling the salmon, but on the grill, the delicate flesh is notoriously sticky, and teriyaki sauce itself is prone to burning. This technique solves those issues.

The trick here lies in the order of operations.

You see, when adding a raw protein to the metal grates of the grill, unless you have your temperatures just right and your grates are nicely seasoned and oiled, some amount of sticking is bound to occur. And that sticking can be powerful. It's a direct chemical bond that occurs between raw proteins and the metal of the grill.

Salmon has it especially rough. The flesh is soft and conforming when raw, so tends to make lots of surface contact with the grill. And when you've cooked it to a perfect medium-rare, it's still quite delicate and flaky, which makes turning it an exercise in care even if it's somehow managed not to stick.

To solve that problem, I start by cooking my salmon in a shallow pan on the cooler side of a grill in a bath of teriyaki sauce that I've diluted with water and butter.

Rather than putting raw salmon directly over the fire, I start it in a shallow bath of teriyaki, butter, and water over the cool side of the grill. As the sauce gently simmers, the outer layer of the fish cooks just enough to firm up the proteins, making the fillets dramatically less likely to stick when they hit the hot grates. Think of it as a reverse sear adapted for salmon: gentle cooking first, hard searing second, followed by one last dunk in the buttery teriyaki glaze.

You can cook this salmon at the exact same time as a few ears of corn for a simple grilled dinner to pair with a salad.

Fill out the feedback form here! 🔗

Recipe: Grilled Salmon with Teriyaki Butter

Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.

What I love about this recipe:

A gentle simmer firms the exterior proteins before the salmon ever touches the grate.

The teriyaki reduces into a sauce while the fish cooks—no separate glaze required.

It works equally well with skin-on or skinless fillets.

Yield: Serves 4Active Time: 10 minutesTotal Time: About 1 hourNotes: You can add other ingredients to the initial simmering phase if you want to flavor your teriyaki sauce. Try it with ½ cup of pineapple juice, or a teaspoon of sesame oil, or a couple tablespoons of chili garlic paste, for instance. You can also add other aromatics like scallions, onions, or mushroom trimmings.

Ingredients

Four (6–7 ounce) salmon filets, skin on or off (I prefer on)

1/2 cup (120ml) teriyaki sauce—following this recipe. (Additionally, see note above.)

4 tablespoons (60g) butter

½ cup (120ml) water, plus more as needed

4–6 thinly sliced scallions

Method

If using a charcoal grill: light 3/4 chimney full of charcoal. When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes.

If using a gas grill: set half the burners to medium–high, cover, and preheat for 10 minutes. Clean and oil the grilling grate.

Meanwhile, combine the salmon, teriyaki sauce, water, and butter in a disposable aluminum baking tray or small rimmed baking sheet that fits everything with space to spare. Turn the salmon a few times to coat in the sauce, then make sure it’s arranged in a single, uncluttered layer with the skin-side up.

When the grill is ready, place the tray over the cooler side. Cover and cook until the butter is melted and the sauce is simmering. By this point, the salmon should be firm enough that it’s keeping its shape but still feels soft and bouncy to the touch.

Transfer the salmon to the hot side of the grill skin-side-down and cook without moving until lightly charred, about 1 minute. Carefully lift the salmon with a spatula, rotate it, and return it to the grill. Continue to cook without moving until well-charred and crisp, another 1 minute. 

Carefully flip the salmon over (using two spatulas if necessary), and continue to cook, rotating once or twice, until the salmon is well-seared on the other side, and registers 110°F (43°C) on an instant-read thermometer for medium-rare, or up to 140°F (60°C) for well-done, 1 to 4 minutes more total.

Return the salmon to the tray with the sauce and butter and baste it with the emulsion a few times until well-coated. Transfer to a serving platter, pour the extra sauce on top, garnish with sliced scallions, and serve.

🔗 Fill out the feedback form for this recipe variation.

🔗 Test this month's other recipe variations.