Instant Pot Poached Salmon

Instant Pot Poached Salmon is delicious, healthy, and very fast and easy to make. Perfect for meal prepping or just easy dinner.

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Poaching salmon isn’t difficult but it requires time in the kitchen in front of the stove. Making Poached Salmon in Instant Pot is really convenient, fast, and easy.

Salmon is cooked from fresh or frozen in a fragrant herb and lemon poaching liquid. Eat the poached salmon with rice, add to salads, make delicious sandwiches or pasta. It’s a great staple that is perfect for meal prepping.

Ingredients to make Instant Pot Poached Salmon

• Lemon
• Dill or parsley
• Old Bay Seasoning
• Water
• Frozen or fresh salmon filets

You can also add onions, garlic, carrots, parsnips, peppercorns, fennel leeks to the pot for a more flavourful and aromatic poaching liquid.

Also, feel free to use your favourite spices instead of Old Bay Seasoning. You can use some lemon salt and lemon pepper.

How to make Poached Salmon in Instant Pot

Making Instant Pot Poached Salmon is super easy, it’s a basic “dump and push start” recipe that requires minimum prep.

1. Layer your aromatics and flavourings into the Instant Pot insert. I like using just lemon and dill or parsley.
2. Place the salmon filets on top of the aromatics. You can use frozen or fresh (defrosted) salmon filets.
3. Sprinkle the fish with seasonings. I like using Old Bay Seasoning but you can use your favourite spices like lemon pepper, paprika, or just simple salt and pepper.
4. Add one cup cold water to the pot.
5. Cook on High Pressure for 1 minute regardless of whether the fish is frozen or not.
6. Do a quick release and remove the fish.

Questions and answers about Instant Pot Poached Salmon

Do you need to change time for frozen salmon?

No, timing stays the same for both frozen and fresh (defrosted) salmon filets. Instant Pot with frozen salmon will take longer to come to pressure but the fish will cook the same once the pot gets to pressure.

Is 1 minutes enough to poach salmon in Instant Pot?

Yes, it is!! I started testing this recipe with 4 minutes, then went down to 3 minutes, then 2 minutes, and finally I stopped at 1 minute. I have a suspicion than it would even work at 0 minutes but I haven’t tried it just yet.

Can you do natural pressure release (NPR)?

No, you cannot. Natural pressure release continues cooking the food while the pressure is released. It means that the fish will be overcooked if you allow your electric pressure cooker to release the pressure naturally.

Can you double the recipe?

I have not tried doubling the recipe but I suspect it may not work as well. The idea that the fish is in just single layer in Instant Pot so it cooks through.

Doubling the recipe would mean that the salmon filets would need to be stacked on top of each other which would mimic a very thick piece of fish which may or may not cook through in 1 minute.

If you do decide to try and double the recipe while stacking fish, please let me know in comments if the timing worked!

How to use Poached Salmon

Poached Salmon is a great ingredient to have on hand in the fridge for various recipes. You can make it on the weekend and then keep in the fridge for various meal preps.

• Mix it into creamy pasta.
• Make it into Salmon Rillettes.
• Make a salmon salad (in place of tuna salad) sandwich.
• Make Fish and Potato Cakes.
• Use in place of tuna in Nicoise Salad.

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