This Air Fryer Honey Garlic Salmon recipe uses only 4 ingredients and cooks in under 10 minutes! It's easy enough to make on a weeknight and is a great pairing with sides like rice and steamed veggies.
Making Honey Garlic Salmon in the air fryer results in a crispy coating, but is still moist and tender on the inside. For a recipe that uses a dry rub instead of a marinade, try this recipe for Crispy Air Fryer Salmon.
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⭐Why I Love It:
- Only 4 Ingredients - Super simple ingredients and you likely keep most on hand already.
- Less Than 10 Minutes of Cook Time - For best flavor, I like to marinate the salmon for about 30 minutes but then it cooks in the air fryer in under 10 minutes. Lately I've been using this Ninja Air Fryer and I love it!
- Reserved Marinade Serves as Sauce - The recipe is designed so you set aside about half of the marinade and then drizzle it over the finished salmon and rice.
🥘Ingredients
- Salmon Filets - You can use filets with or without the skin on. If your filets are frozen, it's best to let them thaw (salmon can be quickly thawed in a bowl of cold water).
- Low Sodium Soy Sauce - Low sodium soy sauce is a pantry staple for me. Also check out these recipes for Slow Cooker Korean Beef, Pork Egg Roll Bowls, or Grilled Sesame Chicken Thighs that all use soy sauce.
- Honey - This adds just the right amount of sweetness, but you can adjust to taste as well.
- Minced Garlic - Freshly minced garlic will have the best flavor, but in a pinch you can use jarred minced garlic as well. You can even swap in garlic powder if that's all you have on hand.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
📖Variations
- Oven instead of Air Fryer - The salmon filets can also be baked in the oven at 400 degrees F for 7-10 minutes. Check out this recipe for oven-baked Bang Bang Salmon for more details on baking salmon filets in the oven.
- Make it Spicy - Try adding sriracha or red pepper flakes to the marinade to add a spicy kick.
🔪Step by Step instructions
Less than 5 minutes of active prep time and less than 10 minutes cooking in the air fryer makes this recipe so easy to make!
Photo 1 - Start by mixing the honey, soy sauce, and garlic together in a bowl.
Photo 2 - Add about half of the marinade to a shallow bowl and add the filets, flesh side down. Cover and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes. Reserve the remaining half of the sauce.
Photo 3 - Place the salmon filets, skin side down, in the air fryer basket. I like to gently pour the remaining marinade from the salmon onto the tops of the filets.
Photo 4 - Air fry the salmon for 7-9 minutes at 400 degrees F until the salmon is cooked to your liking.
💭Recipe Tips
- Reserve half the marinade - I like to save about half of the marinade to drizzle on the finished dish. It's important that you don't use the excess marinade that the raw salmon touched due to food safety concerns.
- Marinade Time - While marinating the salmon filets for 30 minutes helps the flavor incorporate in the salmon, you can shorten the marinade time if you're in a pinch.
- Skin on or off - I prefer to use salmon filets that have the skin for extra flavor and then the salmon flakes away easily after cooking, but you get very similar results with filets that don't have skin.
👩🍳Recipe FAQs
An air fryer is essentially a compact countertop convection oven. A fan circulates the hot air at a quick speed which creates a crispy layer on foods without needing to fry in oil.
Nope! While some recipes call for flipping salmon filets halfway through cooking, I don't find this necessary. The air fryer circulates the heat on the top and bottom so flipping isn't necessary and it makes for easier clean up as the salmon can break while flipping.
Air frying salmon at 400 degrees F gives light browning and slightly crispness on the outside, but also moist and tender on the inside.
🍽Leftovers and Storage
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 days. For best results, I like to either eat the leftovers cold (such as flaked over a warm rice bowl) or reheated in the air fryer (lined with foil so the sauce stays contained) at 350 degrees until warmed or in a 375 degree oven on a foil or parchment lined baking sheet.
🍤Related Air Fryer Recipes...
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PrintRecipe
Air Fryer Honey Garlic Salmon (4 Ingredients!)
This Air Fryer Honey Garlic Salmon Recipe uses only 4 ingredients and cooks in under 10 minutes! It's easy enough to make on a weeknight and is a great pairing with sides like rice and steamed veggies.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings
- Category: Seafood, Main
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients
- 2 salmon filets (5-8oz each). Skin on or off
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- 1.5 teaspoons minced garlic, see note
- Optional for Serving: Cooked rice, sliced green onions, sesame seeds
Instructions
- Mix up Marinade - Start by mixing the honey, soy sauce, and garlic together in a bowl.
- Marinate Salmon - Add about half of the marinade to a shallow bowl of other dish (just big enough to fit the salmon filets). Place the filets, flesh side down, in the marinade. Cover and marinate in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Reserve the remaining half of the sauce.
- Add Salmon to Air Fryer - Place the salmon filets, skin side down, in the air fryer basket. I like to gently pour the remaining marinade from the salmon onto the tops of the filets.
- Air Fry - Air fry the salmon for 7-9 minutes (depending on the thickness) at 400 degrees F until the salmon is cooked to your liking. Salmon is considered fully cooked at 145 degrees F or cooked to medium at 130 degrees F.
- VARIATION - OVEN DIRECTIONS - The marinated filets can also be placed on a parchment lined baking sheet and baked in a 400 degrees F oven for 7-10 minutes.
- Serve - Serve the cooked salmon with rice and veggies, or other sides, and pour the reserved sauce that wasn't used to marinate on top.
Notes
Minced Garlic - Instead of fresh minced garlic, you can also swap in ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 servings
- Calories: 317
- Sugar: 21.7 g
- Sodium: 567.8 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Carbohydrates: 23.8 g
- Fiber: 0.1 g
- Protein: 39.4 g
- Cholesterol: 86.9 mg
Katie says
Making salmon in the air fryer is so easy and I love the 3 ingredient sauce!