This super-simple sheet pan dinner of salmon bok choy is healthful and delicious for an impressive dish to serve guests or a good-for-you meal that’s ready super-fast! {Gluten-Free adaptable}
One of my favorite types of fish to cook is salmon. Not only is it delicious, but it’s also incredibly good for you. It has antioxidants, vitamins, and plenty of protein. It has minerals your body needs like selenium and potassium. And of course, it is very well-known for its omega-3 fatty acid content.
Until you taste my sweet and sour salmon recipe, you won’t believe that healthy food could taste this amazing. Or that you only need seven ingredients to make it. Oh, and you only need one sheet pan. Salmon with bok choy comes together in minutes with a quick sweet and sour sauce with just enough spice to rev it up.
It’s a recipe for two, but you can double it and use a larger pan to feed a family, or for when you have guests over. It’s so quick to make that you won’t have to hide out in the kitchen, either.
With the wonderful sweet and sour sauce, this salmon bok choy will likely become a new weekly item on your home cooking menu. The salmon itself comes out tender and juicy with a sticky-sauced surface. The bok choy makes the perfect bed for it and this sauce will have you eating all your vegetables.
You can serve it with steamed rice – something I definitely recommend because you can use the rice to soak up all that glorious sauce. Noodles would work too, especially if you’re trying to cut down on carbs. They have noodles made from chickpeas and edamame that give you the experience of eating pasta without sabotaging your diet goals.
If you’re craving restaurant-style food, try this decadent sweet and sour salmon that will fool your taste buds while being kind to your waistline.
Big thanks to Copper River Prince William Sound Marketing Association for providing the wild-caught Alaskan salmon for developing this recipe. You can read more about their stories on their website.
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Sweet and Sour Salmon with Bok Choy
Ingredients
- 2 fillets salmon , about 4 oz (113 g) each (*Footnote 1)
- 6 bulbs baby bok choy , split in half (*Footnote 2)
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
Sauce
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sriracha (or your favorite chili sauce) (*Footnote 3)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce (or tamari for gluten free)
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack so it’s 5” (13 cm) under the broiler.Turn on the broiler to preheat your oven.
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small pot. Heat over medium-high heat until bringing to a boil. Boil for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring regularly, until the sauce is thick and glossy. Remove the pot from the heat and add the garlic. Stir to mix well.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper (optional, for easy clean up). Place the bok choy, flat side up on the tray. Brush the whole bok choy bulbs with a generous amount of sauce, making sure some sauce gets between the leaves of the bulb. Flip the bok choy and brush them again. Arrange the bok choy in an interlocking pattern with the leaves in the center. Place the salmon fillets between the bulbs, on top of the leaves (*Footnote 4). Brush both fillets generously with the sauce on all sides. (*Refer to the pictures in the blog post above to see how I arranged the bok choy and salmon)
- Broil at 550°F (288°C) for 8 minutes, until the salmon is cooked through and sauce begins to caramelize. (*Footnote 5) Pull out the baking sheet and let everything sit for 5 minutes.
- Serve hot with the remaining sauce over rice. Drizzle with more sauce if needed, and enjoy!
Notes
- If you use a larger cut of salmon, the baking time will be longer.
- It’s best to use small heads of baby bok choy that are about the size of your palm. If you use larger heads (sometimes they are huge!), you can reduce to 3 to 4 heads but will need more baking time. I couldn’t find small heads of bok choy when I shot the photos for this recipe, so I ended up taking the salmon out first and baking the bok choy a bit longer until they were cooked.
- The Sriracha adds aroma to the sauce and creates a spicy and balanced result. It’s not super spicy because the sugar mellows it out. You can reduce the amount of Sriracha for a less spicy taste but I highly recommend adding at least a small amount for the fragrance.
- It’s important to place the salmon so that it covers the bok choy leaves, so they won’t get cooked too quickly or become burned during baking.
- The cooking time will be longer if you use a larger cut of salmon or larger heads of bok choy. To test the doneness, insert a fork into the thickest part of the salmon – it should flake easily. If your salmon is cooked first, remove the fillets onto a plate and bake the bok choy for another 3 to 4 minutes. Alternatively, if your bok choy is cooked first, remove them and bake the salmon a bit longer until cooked to your preferred doneness.
Nutrition
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
More delicious salmon recipes
- Thai-Style Salmon Curry
- Steamed Salmon in Black Bean Sauce
- Salmon Poke Bowl
- 30-Minute Salmon Noodle Bowl with Coleslaw
- Honey Soy Sauce Glazed Salmon
- Crispy Salmon with Ginger Soy Sauce
Lilja Walter is a part of the Omnivore’s Cookbook team and worked closely with Maggie to develop and test this recipe.
Maggie!!
I’m so glad to see your posts and recipes. I love to cook traditional and non-traditional Chinese recipes at home. I found this site wanting to try a new dish to me at a Northern Chinese cuisine restaurant in Tempe, AZ – Chou’s kitchen : Cumin Lamb. I like my food on the spicy 🌶 side,and your recipe sounds so delicious. I plan to order it for myself (take out) at Chou’s, but also plan to make YOUR recipe at home!!
Thank you- I also want to try the salmon and bok choy recipe as well!!
Carl
I made this the day before yesterday and it is absolutely wonderful. I will make it again but increase the sauce recipe by about 50%. Was not quite enough for my taste but the flavor was outstanding.
I made photos but cannot post them 🙁
Tried this recipe. The flavors were excellent and the instructions were on-point. Thank you so much, Maggie!
Absolutely delicious and easy. It’s going to be a regular go to in my home.
The sweet and sour sauce was very tasty and enjoyed it on the baked salmon. My bokchoi did not come out to my liking- limp and green leaves were a greyish color. I will definitely make this again by only baking the salmon as directed and do a quick stir fry of the bokchoi in oil, seasoned with salt and them drizzle the sweet and sour sauce over when it’s finished., topped with the baked salmon. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
The sauce was very tasty. I was in a bit of a hurry so I used cornstarch to thicken the sauce quickly on the stovetop. A nice balance of sweet and savory. Thank you for the recipe, highly recommend!
L. O. V. E. D….it!!! This was such a simple recipe but tasted like something you’d order in a nice restaurant.
The only thing I’d recommend is adding the sesame seeds and chopped green onions garnish to the recipe list since it’s shown in the photo…I forgot to add them in my dish!
I made this recipe. I think that 1/2 cup sriracha is too hot.
Next time I will cut the hard part of the bok Choy because by the time the salmon was ready, the bok choy was a little bit hard. Still, my family loved the dish.
My boyfriend and I enjoyed this recipe! We ended up baking ours at 450 Fahrenheit for ~20 minutes instead of broiling because our pan could only handle temperatures up to 450, and it still turned out well!
We will make this recipe again, though next time we’ll probably cut the sriracha amount in half, it’s pretty spicy.