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Air Fryer Jerk Salmon Recipe – delicious spicy jerk salmon air fried for a crispy outside and tender, juicy meat!
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At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe – my goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
I want each reader to walk away with a solid knowledge of each recipe, with all of the tips I’ve gathered from extensive testing of each recipe. I also answer questions my friends and family have asked about my recipes, to help everyone better understand the processes we use – and why!
Table of contents
Delicious Air Fryer Jerk Salmon
If you love the spicy flavors of the Carribean, and love salmon, this recipe is a super easy way to whip up a delicious keto salmon dish – right in your air fryer!
We’re marinating salmon in jerk sauce and air frying, because we love the crispy crunch you get on the outside of your salmon, while the meat inside stays perfectly tender, moist, and delicious.
I’m also recommending my favorite authentic jerk sauce recipe to take the flavor over the top – while you could use a store bought jerk sauce, we found the flavors were out of this world delicious when made with a fresh sauce – especially since a big part of jerk sauce is simple flavors that honor really fresh ingredients.
We hope you love this easy salmon recipe as much as we do.
How To Air Fry Salmon
If you’ve never used an air fryer machine before, you might not get the fuss.
I will note, however, before we get into this recipe more, that the name “air fryer” is a bit misleading – since nothing actually gets fried in oil.
Instead, it’s more like a super-convection broiler – where food is bombarded with quickly moving super hot air, mimicking the way food would fry in hot oil, but on your countertop with only a bit of oil.
This allows you to cook at a steady high heat with less oil – giving you crispy crunch on the outside, and juicy, tender, and never dry meat.
Air frying salmon is a great way to cook your salmon perfectly, every time!
Tips to Perfect Air Fryer Salmon
To air fry salmon, I recommend following the tips below:
-Drizzle olive oil over your salmon evenly.
This will help give your salmon a lightly fried texture and allow the oil to crisp on the salmon. Don’t skip the oil!
-Season salmon liberally.
-Take your salmon’s temperature!
If you don’t want rare salmon, aim for 145 degrees for fully cooked salmon. Remove salmon from air fryer at 130-135 degrees, as it will carryover cook.
To buy an air fryer lid for your Instant Pot to be able to make this in your instant pot, please buy one with my affiliate code here – Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid.
How Long To Air Fry Salmon
Knowing how long to cook air fryer salmon can be tricky – especially since when cooked in the air fryer you can’t see it.
This is a recipe where you have to trust in the process – which I will admit is not my strength!
For salmon filets (no thicker than 3-4″ across), follow these times for desired doneness when air frying at 400 degrees:
-10 Minutes for salmon filets that have just a little bit of red in the very center (medium).
-12 Minutes for salmon with no red in the middle, but still soft.
-14 Minutes for well done salmon filets.
Easy Jerk Sauce
You can use storebought jerk sauce for this recipe, but I used a recipe from Jessica in the Kitchen – her easy homemade jerk sauce was a perfect spicy sauce and super easy to whip up.
To find her homemade jerk sauce recipe, click here.
Jessica’s vegan takes on the traditional Jamaican recipes she grew up with are always incredibly delicious if you’re looking for some great meat free meals – but her jerk is hands down the best!
Jerk sauce is delicious on all sorts of meats, fish, and vegetables – and it is naturally low carb and keto.
What to Serve With Jerk Salmon
You can find some of our favorite vegetable side dishes below:
If you’d like to see more of our vegetable side dishes, please click here for our vegetable side dish recipe index.
Other Salmon Recipes You’ll Love
If you love salmon, you’re in luck – we have plenty of delicious, easy, flavor-filled salmon recipes.
Please check out some of our favorites below:
You can also find our entire salmon recipe index here.
Recipe FAQs
Salmon can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to four days.
Air Fryer Jerk Salmon Recipe
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Air Fryer Jerk Salmon Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 salmon filets
- 4 tablespoons jerk sauce
- juice of 1 lime, fresh
- 4 cloves garlic, minced finely
Instructions
- Pat salmon filets with paper towel to remove any excess water.
- In a small bowl combine jerk sauce with 1/2 lime juice and garlic. Stir to mix well.
- Pour over salmon and let marinate at least 10 minutes. Can be marinated up to a day in advance.
- Preheat air fryer to the highest temperature possible (in a ninja foodi with broiler lid, it is broil setting at 450 degrees) and let air fryer get scorching hot, about five minutes.
- Spray inside of air fryer basket with olive oil cooking spray or line with a piece of foil.
- Place salmon in air fryer, skin down, and close lid.
- Cook for 8 minutes, check salmon. For rare, you can pull the salmon once the outside has browned, right around 8 minutes.
- For fully cooked salmon, continue to cook in air fryer until salmon meat reads 135 degrees with a digital thermometer. It will continue to cook after you remove from air fryer.
- Drizzle remaining 1/2 lime juice over salmon and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
