Should You Grill Salmon With The Skin On?

From honey-baked salmon to salmon patties, salmon is probably one of the most versatile ingredients to cook with. It can be the star in your kitchen or on restaurant dinner menus and add a lot to a meal. Plus, salmon tastes delicious and is one of the most nutritious food we can eat, as it reduces the risks of suffering some diseases (via Healthline). Salmon is great for skin, hair, and the immune system, with its many vitamins and minerals like selenium. So, high five if you are a regular salmon eater!

On the other hand, if you are familiar with cooking salmon, you might understand that slight frightening feeling of committing a mistake. It's a widely available fish, but it can be expensive to buy, and if not cooked well, it can turn out too fishy, slimy, and unbeatable. But with the right ingredients, salmon can taste like heaven. 

From all the methods we can use, grilling salmon brings great results with fewer ingredients, utensils, and time, but it will require some special care during the process. Once you buy the freshest salmon possible, make sure not to remove the part of the salmon known for bringing extra juiciness.

All Recipes explains that the skin is the part that brings moisture and flavor to the cooked salmon. The site recommends keeping the salmon skin while grilling, either in a pan, on grates, in foil packets, as a kebab, or hot plank. Remove any bones from the fish, but keep the skin before you get to marinating, brining, or other steps. For Bon Appetit, the skin is also a way to protect the flesh from falling apart once you use the spatula to flip it or remove it from the pan. They say the salmon skin protects the flesh, so it should be cooked first. Once crispy, you can get to grilling the flesh. 

Kitchn says that although quite fatty and sometimes thick, the skin gets really crispy once grilled, which will give a nice crunchiness effect to the fish filet. You can also leave the skin and just remove the flesh from the pan, but you will probably miss that extra flavor of the salmon. If you are definitely sure you don't want to eat the skin, you can reuse it and deep-fry it to have a wonderful snack. For those salmon skin keepers, once your salmon is grilled, you can serve the fish with easy and appetizing sides like macaroni salad, potato salad, or roasted vegetables. Keep the skin, and enjoy your salmon moist and crunchy at the same time!