Jack Daniels Salmon

AKA by Alan as “Heaven on a Plate”.

This recipe is divine…no really… Di-Vine.  Not only is it a cinch to pull together, it’s both my husband’s and my mom’s favorite, which is pretty much a grand-slam home run any way you look at it.  I could never take credit for the recipe of course (which taste’s um, remarkably similar to a restaurant chain you may know).  I first found this sauce on a quest to make Alan think I was a kitchen goddess on a wonderful site called Top Secret Recipes, which I highly recommend if you love to eat out. Like moi. 

This is my slightly tweeked version however, which I think tastes just as good and also requires a little less prep and cooking time (about an hour less).  So ready?  Yay!  Here we go!

What you’ll need:

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup water
• 1 20 oz can of crushed pineapple in juice (no sugary stuff – we’ll add that later)
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Teriyaki sauce
• 1 Tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 1/3 cups dark brown sugar (packed)
• 3 Tbsps lemon juice
• 3 Tbsps minced white onion (I cheat and buy the pre-chopped, I cry like a baby when I chop onions and this sauce is nothing to be sad about)
• 2 Tbsps chopped garlic from a jar
• 1 Tbsp Jack Daniel’s Whiskey (yep, that’s all…I know that’s quite the bottle I have in my pic, you can choose to believe I make this sauce every day, or… in fact yes, believe that)
• 1/4 Tsp cayenne pepper (whoo boy!)
• 4-6 Salmon fillets (or less, this keeps well) about 1/2 inch thick

Directions:

1.  First, open that big can o’pineapple and pour out all the juice until you have 1 cup.  You may need to squeeze it a bit, and don’t worry if any bits fall in.  Or if you like you can buy plain old pineapple juice, but this is cheaper.  You’ll have enough…see?

2.  Now, combine the water, pineapple juice, olive oil, teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar in a medium sauce pan.  (This is your dentist’s favorite recipe too by the way).  Stir over medium until the sugar is dissolved, and then crank it up to a boil.   Once it boils, reduce the heat to a simmer.

3.  Next, throw in just 2 Tbsps of the actual crushed pineapple (save the rest for another use) and the remaining ingredients (except the salmon) into the mix.  If you sploosh a little extra Jack Daniels in there, or into your Diet Coke as you’re cooking, well that’s the chef’s perogative. 

*Note on the cayenne pepper – you will notice the heat from that little amount, and as the sauce sits it will mellow out.  It will especially mellow out in the fridge for leftovers the next day.  But keep to 1/4 tsp.

It looks like this – yum already!

Looks a bit chunky for a sauce, but all that lovely texture of the onion, garlic, and crushed pineapple will reduce into luscious flavor bits.

4.  Let it simmer for a good 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occaissionaly until it’s reduced by about half.  See above?  When it’s done it will have reduced to about this:

Ugh, this is SO good.

5.  To prepare the salmon, brush the filets with a little olive oil and broil under high heat for about 5 minutes.  Remove, and brush a thin layer of sauce over top, and continue to broil 3-5 more minutes until done. 

Then serve!  Plate a piece of salmon and top with lots of this wonderful elixr, love potion no. 9, happy sauce, whatever you choose to call it.  It also is wonderful on steak, shrimp, pork, ribs, you name it.   You can keep it in the fridge for about a week – it will thicken up in there, but just heat it up again to make it saucy again.

Thanks for stopping by today, and enjoy!