Bring Big Flavor To Baked Salmon With A Spicy Store-Bought Condiment You Probably Already Have

When fish graces the dinner plate, salmon is a go-to. Its buttery flavor and velvety texture are ripe for a little bit of spice. Enter chili crisp. This crunchy Chinese condiment that brings the heat adds a fiery and unexpected punch of flavor to salmon. Chili crisp is made using oil and chiles, but from there, it is a wide and varied world for chili crisp ingredients. Various versions contain garlic, peppercorns, shallots, mushrooms, soy sauce, red chili flakes, and an array of other sweet and savory spices and seasonings. The blend creates a beautiful umami, which it imparts on whatever dishes it touches. Its taste is distinctive, and its vibrant red hue makes it unmistakable. 

Adding it to salmon is one of the absolute best ways to use chili crisp. Salmon is a fatty fish — full of healthy omega-3 fatty acids — and chili crisp helps cut through the richness of each bite, a nice contrast where neither quality is overwhelmed by the other. The condiment also adds a little crunch, which lends itself perfectly to the softness of the fish. If you are worried that it might be too spicy, don't be. The ingredients of the chili crisp influence the heat, and some premade chili crisps are much milder than others. Check out the label to determine the heat intensity of the crisp you are buying. And you can always make your own, so you can control how much of a kick you want your spice to have.

Incorporating chili crisp into your favorite recipe or ad-libbing one is actually pretty easy. Make a sweet and spicy glazed salmon by simply mixing the chili crisp into a sweet glaze and brushing it all over the salmon before baking. The glaze will caramelize, amplifying the sweetness while the chili crisp offsets it. The end result is a yin and yang of sweet meeting heat that will simply delight the taste buds. 

If you prefer to pan-sear your salmon, add a little chili crisp to the butter before you place your pink fish in the pan. The fat will become infused with the spicy chili crisp and impart the flavor to the fish. You can even mix the chili into bread crumbs and then use it to coat your salmon fillets, an approach that's both tasty and may make your nose run, depending on your preferred level of heat. Pesto-baked salmon may also benefit from a little bit of spice. Sneak some chili crisp into the pesto topping before slathering it on your salmon and wait for your family to ask for seconds.