Bourbon Brown Sugar Salmon Recipe

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!

Brown Sugar Salmon being with bourbon glaze being poured with spoon

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!

overhead shot of bourbon salmon with salad

bourbon salmon on plate with asparagus

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

salmon salad on plate

up close picture of pecan crusted bourbon salmon

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.

fork full of bourbon glazed salmon