Hot smoking salmon on a Primo Grill & Smoker is an easy way to impart a ton of flavor into salmon without investing a ton of time. Traditional brining/curing and cold smoking salmon can take days- this takes about an hour depending on the size of the cut. Not necessary, but you could choose to brine the salmon for a few hours to overnight. We would use 1/2 cup of kosher salt per gallon of water.
For this, we used a 2 pound piece of salmon. As you get started, prepare the Primo for smoking and soak a few handfuls of applewood chips. For this “hot smoke”, the target cooking temp is 250 to 275.
Rub the salmon well. For this size piece, we mixed together a 1/2 cup of brown sugar with a tablespoon each of kosher salt, smoked paprika, and garlic granules. Ok to let the rub rest for 10 minutes or so on the fish- the rub will start to liquify.
Smoke the salmon using the ceramic d plates and the applewood chips until the internal temp hits 145 or so. This piece took about 40 minutes. A Thermapen thermometer is a very helpful tool here. Also, we would recommend rubbing a little olive oil on the skin side to help prevent the skin from sticking.
When done you have options! Serve as an appetizer or entree, warm or cold. Here is an easy sauce to compliment:
- 1 cup creme fraiche
- teaspoon kosher salt
- teaspoon cracked pepper
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 cup or so chopped chives and dill
- 1 or 2 chopped garlic cloves (depending on size)
Blend together (hand held immersion blenders work well here).
Here as an appetizer we put the salmon on water crackers with the sauce and some fresh dill
A beautiful piece of Scottish Salmon
Here is an entire side – when smoking large pieces we would make a foil tray to make it easy to get off the grill. Thank you to Captain’s Ketch in Easton Maryland for the beautiful filet!
Here is a small filet of Organic Wild Isles Scottish Salmon – brined and rubbed with kosher salt and cracked pepper.