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Instant Pot Lemon Butter Salmon is delicious, with a buttery lemon and garlic sauce. An easy Instant Pot recipe that can be done in 30 minutes. Pressure cooker salmon with lemon butter sauce is wonderful served with rice, or vegetables that you can cook at the same time!
Instant Pot Lemon Butter Salmon
Living in the Pacific Northwest I have access to a lot of seafood, which we eat often. Salmon is a favorite fish of our family (and Gizmo, our Pug)!
Did you know that you can cook salmon in the Instant Pot? It turns out moist and perfectly cooked. Instant Pot salmon is a quick and healthy meal.
There are many ways to cook salmon, and I would say that pressure cooker salmon comes closest to poached, but with more flavor, thanks to the lemon butter sauce.
Pot-In-Pot Cooking in the pressure cooker
The best method for making Instant Pot salmon is using the PIP (or Pot-in-Pot) method. That’s when you cook the food in an oven safe dish within the pressure cooker’s pot, on a trivet/rack.
The water is below, in the stainless liner pot, with the dish of salmon and sauce on a trivet/rack above the water, so the sauce won’t get diluted.
This method is good for cakes, cheesecakes, and food that you don’t want to get watered down, as you need water to make the steam that brings the pot up to pressure.
PIP also works for thick foods that would not work well cooked directly in the main stainless liner, as they would burn.
Layer the ingredients on the salmon filets like so: salt, pepper, garlic, then the dill on the salmon, followed by the lemon slices, then the butter pats go on top.
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I have two preferred pans for making Instant Pot salmon in. The first is the ekovana Stackable Stainless Pans (affiliate). This pan set is great for making salmon with a sauce.
Since the pans stack, you can cook some veggies in the lower pan and make a complete meal at once. Stack the pan with the salmon on top of pan with the veggies. The veggies will cook slower in the sealed pan, so they will be perfectly cooked!
These are in a set of 2, and each pan is just shy of 2 quarts, making it perfect for other foods besides salmon. There are other sizes available to fit all the pots!
The other pan I like to use is the Fat Daddio’s Square Cake Pans (7 x 2 Inch) (affiliate). This is a shallower (2″ tall) pan that is perfect for pressure cooking foods with sauces. There are other sizes available to fit all the pots!
This photo shows the vegetables in the pan that you cover. The pan (uncovered) with the salmon will go on top of this one.
Instant Pot Lemon Rice
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Pin This Instant Pot lemon butter salmon Recipe
If you make this delicious Instant Pot salmon recipe, please leave a comment and a star rating below. I’d like to know how you liked it!
Instant Pot Lemon Butter Salmon
Equipment
- 6 qt or 8 qt Electric Pressure Cooker
- Stainless Pan that Fits in the Pot
- Trivet/Rack with long Handles
Ingredients
- 1 cup Water (for the pressure cooker) 2 cups for 8 qt pot
- 2 (5-6 oz) Salmon Filets (with skin)
- ÂĽ tsp Salt
- 1 pinch Pepper
- 2 cloves Garlic (pressed or grated/minced)
- 1 Tbsp Fresh Chopped Dill (or 1 1/2 tsp dried)
- 4-6 Fresh Lemon Slices (thinly sliced)
- 2 Tbsp Butter (sliced into 4 pats)
- 2 Tbsp Water (or white wine)
- 2 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
Instructions
- Pour 1 cup of water into the inner liner of the pressure cooker. Then set the trivet/rack inside.
- Place the salmon filets into the pan, skin side down.
- Sprinkle the filets with the salt, pepper, and the garlic.
- Place the dill on the salmon, followed by the lemon slices, then the butter pats on top.
- Add the water and lemon juice to the pan.
- Place the pan into the pressure cooker, onto the trivet.
- Close the lid and set the steam release knob to the Sealing position.
- Press the Pressure Cook/Manual button or dial, then the +/- button or dial to select 5 minutes. High Pressure.
- When the cook cycle has finished, immediately turn the steam release knob to the Venting position to Quick Release the steam/pressure.
- When the pin in the lid drops back down, open the lid and carefully remove the pan.
- Serve immediately with some of the lemon butter sauce over the filets.
Notes
- Larger (thicker) filets and frozen will need additional cook time.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
RESOURCES TO MAKE Instant Pot Lemon Butter Salmon recipe and more
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Sandy, this salmon recipe with lemon butter is OUTSTANDING! I have some salmon in the oven, on the stove, in the microwave and in my air fryer, bit none of that can TOUCH the salmon I cooked tonight on my Instant Pot! I was fortunate to have all the ingredients in hand – even the dill, which I had dried and put in my freezer a year ago – and both whole and sliced lemons I had frozen last citrus season! Oh my goodness!! It’s Valentine’s Day and I wanted to make something special. THIS WAS IT! Hubby raved about it, said it was the best salmon I’d ever cooked. I had to agree. My IP is worth its weight in gold. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Excellent! I am so happy that you and your hubby enjoyed this recipe!
In doing pot in a pot I didn’t see anything about covering the inner pot with foil?? Do we need to do that or just leave it uncovered??
Just leave it uncovered.
This was my first attempt at using my instant pot for fish, and it was a hit with my entire family (including ages 8 and 5). Since my filet was over a pound, we had leftovers, and my 5yo requested them for her lunch the following day.
I’ll admit that I rarely measure when I’m cooking, so my seasoning might have been slightly different than what’s printed because I season by feel. We loved the combination of flavors though, and since I’m not brave enough to try this many seasonings at a time on salmon without someone’s suggestion, we might have never known how yummy they can be together. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!
That was a few weeks ago, and I’ve been wanting more. I found some salmon on sale last night so, I’m making this again. Everything is prepped and waiting to go in for tonight’s supper. I’m looking forward to it!
CAN A SPRINGFORM PAN BE USED FOR THE SALMON? THANKS ,LOU
if you line it with foil, the butter and lemon juice won’t run out. Give it a try!
Sandy, do you have any recipes for the instant pot steammed veggies?
Nothing specific right now. I just use what I have on hand. I will look into some specific recipes, knowing that you would like some!
Cool. Thanks!
Can you make this in a 3 qt pot
Yes. You just need 6 inch diameter pans instead of 7 inch.
love all your recipes I dug out my xl instant pot because I had put it away didn’t know how to use it right but since I started using your recipes every thing is turning out great!!!!! Thank you The only thing I am not sure about is the pip Can one use a glass pie pan say for the salmon? Thanks Wanda
I have used oven safe glass dishes with no issues, but can’t officially recommend them.
I love your recipes. They have all turned out perfectly. For this one, I did cook the filet longer because I had a larger filet than what the recipe calls for. My husband ate his and the little bit of mine I couldn’t finish.
Hi Sandy,
I made this recipe on Saturday and we LOVED the salmon. I never thought I’d like fish cooked in a pressure cooker, but this salmon was a game-changer and I’m thinking of other fish I’d like to cook in my Instant Pot.
I was going to also cook broccoli in the pot with the salmon but read somewhere that the smell of a strong vegetable like broccoli might affect the taste of the fish. I paid too much for the salmon to risk it, so just did the broccoli on the stove.
Next time I might change the lemon butter so it’s more of a sauce that will “stick” to the salmon rather than run off. A nice Hollandaise might be good.
Can you tell us more about the veggies?
Hi, yes, if you scroll down in the post you can see the photo with the pan of veggies. I just use what I have. That day I had broccoli, a parsnip, and part of a red onion. I put them in the pan, added 2 Tbsp of water, and a pinch of salt & pepper. Then you either cover the pan with foil, or put the veggies in the bottom of the stackable pans. The ideal cook time will be between 5 and 7 minutes (the size of your salmon filet will determine that), with a quick release. Experiment with different veggies. If they are not cooked enough, cut them smaller. If too soft cut them larger.