Teriyaki Glazed Salmon

I've had this recipe on my mind for a while now, salmon with a super thick and sweet Teriyaki glaze. My food services company serves one for customer visits that always looks so delicious and pretty.  Yes, this recipe was inspired by my food services company at my work. I'm a little ashamed, but not really because it was a fun challenge to get mine to look just like theirs. A thick coating of sweet Teriyaki glaze that you could eat with a spoon.

Mission accomplished, and we loved it. In fact, we did eat the sauce with a spoon. I coated the salmon first with a mixture of brown sugar, salt, and corn starch, which helps to crisp the top a little bit, and also helps the sauce stay on top of the salmon instead of falling off during cooking.  I made a simple glaze of soy sauce, honey, brown sugar, and orange juice, and thickened it using a bit of corn starch.  To be fair, I don't think this is a true teriyaki sauce. Teriyaki is supposed to have either Mirin or Sake, but I figured most people don't keep ingredients like that on hand so I omitted them.  That and the fact that I had a bad experience with Sake in college and might throw up at the smell of it. But we'll save that story for another day.

This is a very simple weeknight dinner that takes no time to make, but I think you could serve it for an easy dinner party too. Then I would probably throw some sesame seeds on top to be fancy.

Recipe

• 2 salmon fillets
• 1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoons corn starch
• Pepper to taste

 Glaze

• 1/2 cup soy sauce (I used reduced sodium)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2-3 tablespoons fresh orange juice (I actually used the juice of a little Cutie)
• Dash ginger
• 1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch mixed with 1/4 cup water

Preheat the oven to 300. Pat the salmon dry with a paper towel.  Pepper the salmon, then sprinkle on a mixture of brown sugar, salt, and corn starch.  In a medium saucepan, whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, fresh orange juice, and ginger.  Heat on medium low, then add the corn starch mixture to thicken. Bring to a low boil, then remove from heat and set aside (ps- this makes a lot of sauce, so you could make up to 4 salmon fillets, and still have a little sauce leftover).  To give my salmon a nice crisp outside, I pan seared mine first for a couple of minutes. You could skip this step and just bake for about 5 minutes longer.  Heat a nonstick skillet to medium high, coat with nonstick spray, then pan sear the top of the salmon (skin side up), for about 2 minutes. Place the salmon in a baking dish (skin side down, although we had ours removed), brush with desired amount of Teriyaki (we did about 3-4 tablespoons on each salmon), then bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Broil for another 1-2 to caramelize the top a bit.  If you prefer less well-done salmon, reduce the cooking time to 8 minutes.  Serve with sauce on the side.