I’ve cooked every salmon recipe the chef has published, 13 dishes across 9 of his cookbooks, and this page helps you pick the right one. The fastest is ready in 9 minutes, the slowest cures overnight.
Each recipe below links to my full tested version with his exact method and the book it comes from. Sunday Lunch alone has three, though his own “current favourite” is the teriyaki from Ultimate Home Cooking.
If you’re not sure where to start, the table shows difficulty and time at a glance. Below it I’ve grouped everything by situation, because a Tuesday dinner and a Christmas centrepiece need very different recipes.
| Recipe | Difficulty | Total time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crispy skin salmon | Easy | 9 min | Fastest weeknight dinner |
| Scrambled eggs with salmon | Easy | 15 min | Breakfast, Christmas morning |
| Pan-fried salmon | Easy | 17 min | Weeknights, glass-crisp skin |
| Salmon steaks | Easy | 18 min | Weeknights, something punchier |
| Teriyaki salmon | Easy | 28 min | Weeknights, cooking with kids |
| Baked salmon | Easy | 50 min | Whole fish, hands-off |
| Grilled salmon | Medium | 50 min | Summer BBQ, feeding a crowd |
| Salmon wellington | Easy | 50 min + chilling | Dinner party showpiece |
| Salmon en croûte | Medium | 1 hr + chilling | Dinner party centrepiece |
| Poached salmon | Easy | 1 hr 20 min | Christmas, served cold |
| Salmon fish cakes | Easy | 1 hr 30 min (incl. chilling) | Batch cooking, freezes well |
| Salmon burger | Medium | 1 hr 35 min | Weekend cooking project |
| Beetroot cured salmon | Easy | 8 hr 20 min | Party starter, make-ahead |
Quick weeknight salmon (under 30 minutes)
Crispy skin salmon
Start here. It’s the fastest recipe he has, a skin-on fillet in hot olive oil, done in 9 minutes with just 5 ingredients including the seasoning. That’s the whole point of Quick & Delicious, where it comes from, and his one rule is that the flesh should stay “a little translucent” in the middle. Full recipe: crispy skin salmon.
Pan-fried salmon
Once that feels easy, this is the same skill turned up. The F Word version scores the fillet, rubs it with Cajun spice, then bastes it with garlic, thyme and butter. His rule doesn’t change though: “the secret is making sure you cook it skin side down.” Full recipe: pan-fried salmon.
Salmon steaks
If fillets are starting to bore you, swap the cut. These are thick steaks on the bone from Great British Pub Food, and the bone keeps them juicier than any fillet while a butter sauce of brown shrimps, capers and lemon does the shouting. Full recipe: salmon steaks.
Teriyaki salmon
The one exception to all that skin obsession, because here the glaze matters more. He calls it his “current favourite” way with salmon in Ultimate Home Cooking and cooks it on camera with his daughter Tilly: soy, maple syrup, mirin, ginger, 20 minutes marinating and 8 in the pan. Full recipe: teriyaki salmon.
Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon
And if it’s morning, not dinner, this is his actual Christmas breakfast from his Christmas book. Eggs cooked low with cold butter, spooned over croissants, smoked salmon draped on top. I make it on ordinary Sundays and it loses nothing. Full recipe: scrambled eggs with salmon.
Whole fish showpieces
When you’re feeding a table rather than a family of four, he stops cutting the fish at all. A whole salmon sounds harder than fillets, but all three of these are actually more forgiving, because the size protects the flesh.
Baked salmon
The gentlest of the three. A whole fish sealed in foil on a bed of herbs with star anise, lemongrass and caramelised lemons, from Sunday Lunch. It steams in its own fragrant air rather than drying in open heat, so the oven does everything. Full recipe: baked salmon.
Grilled salmon
The same idea taken outside. A whole 2kg side of wild salmon on the BBQ, from World Kitchen, and the skin shields the flesh exactly like the foil did indoors. I’d only ever grilled fillets before this one, and the side turned out easier. Full recipe: grilled salmon.
Poached salmon
The third route skips dry heat entirely. A whole side poached in a fennel and white wine court bouillon, cooled in the liquor, served with tarragon mayonnaise. It’s his Christmas recipe, a break from all the heavy meat, and you can poach it the night before. Full recipe: poached salmon.
The pastry showstoppers
Two dishes here, and people mix them up constantly, so the real question is which pastry you want.
Salmon wellington
Puff. Four fillets sandwiched around a spinach cream cheese filling, wrapped in a herbed crêpe that keeps the pastry dry, then baked into a golden log. Built from his Academy video using the sandwich technique from Sunday Lunch. Full recipe: salmon wellington.
Salmon en croûte
Shortcrust, and that’s his own twist. In Sunday Lunch he picks it “as a change from the more typical puff pastry” and fills it with a spiced currant butter nobody expects. It’s also the richest dish on this page at 920 calories a serving, so it earns its dinner party slot. Full recipe: salmon en croûte.
Something different
Salmon fish cakes
The Make It Easy trick that quietly powers two dishes on this page: he purées a quarter of the salmon to bind and dices the rest, so you get proper chunks of fish, not paste. Makes 8 and they freeze well. Full recipe: salmon fish cakes.
Salmon burger
That same purée is what holds this patty together, because he’s never published a salmon burger and I built one from the fish cake method. The bun, sauce and build come from his Ramsay in 10 bacon cheeseburger, sriracha mayo included. Full recipe: salmon burger.
Beetroot cured salmon
The only recipe here with no cooking at all. Grated beetroot, coriander seeds, orange zest, salt and sugar from Ultimate Home Cooking, cured for 8 hours into magenta slices. He wanted “to put the excitement back into” salmon, and at 146 calories it’s also the lightest thing on this page. Full recipe: beetroot cured salmon.
FAQs
Which recipe uses the fewest ingredients?
Crispy skin salmon, with 5 including the oil and seasoning. That’s the whole point of Quick & Delicious, where it comes from: minimal shopping, maximum technique.
The teriyaki runs close with 8, and most of those live in your cupboard already. Both prove his salmon cooking is about method, not long ingredient lists.
Which recipes work with a whole salmon?
Three, and they’re the whole showpiece section above. The baked salmon takes a whole fish in foil, while the grilled and poached recipes both use a whole side. All three come out juicier than fillets because the size protects the flesh.
A whole side sounds intimidating but it’s the opposite. As I found with the grilled version, one big piece is more forgiving than six small ones drying out at different speeds.
Does Gordon Ramsay have a smoked salmon recipe?
Two ways. His Christmas book breakfast drapes bought smoked salmon over scrambled eggs, and that’s the dish he actually eats on Christmas morning.
If you want to cure your own, the beetroot cured salmon gives you the same silky slices with 20 minutes of work and 8 hours of waiting. The rinsed fillet keeps wrapped in the fridge for several days, so it beats packet salmon for a party.
How long does salmon take to cook?
In a pan, 4 to 5 minutes skin-side down then a minute or two on the flesh. In the oven, 15 to 20 minutes at 200°C. Salmon is safe at 63°C in the middle, though Gordon pulls his just under and serves it slightly pink.
The exact numbers shift with thickness and method, so I keep a full salmon cooking times guide covering oven, pan, poaching and cooking from frozen, all pulled from his books.
Which one should a beginner start with?
The teriyaki. The marinade does the flavour work, the timings are forgiving, and burnt glaze is the only real risk. Move to the pan-fried once you want to practise skin.
Save the en croûte for last. The shortcrust and the currant butter are not hard, but the assembly punishes rushing, and it’s the one dish here where a mistake costs you a whole side of salmon, which is why I put it last in the pastry section.
