Make a delicious Creole Salmon Caesar Salad with a pan-seared salmon fillet topping a crisp salad in about 15 minutes from start to finish!
- 4 cups chopped Romaine lettuce
- 2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese or more, if desired
- ¼ cup Caesar salad dressing or more, if desired
- ¼ teaspoon coarse black pepper (optional) to season salad to taste
- 10 salad croutons or more, if desired
- 10 ounces boneless, skinless salmon fillets
- ½ teaspoon Creole seasoning mix (¼ tsp. per fillet) or more, if desired
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon butter
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Place chopped Romaine in a medium bowl. Add lemon juice and pepper; toss to combine. Top salad with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
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Add Caesar salad dressing to salad and toss well, to combine salad and dressing. Refrigerate salad while salmon cooks. Don't add croutons (they can get soggy).
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Pat salmon dry with paper towels. Lightly sprinkle each piece (one side only) with Creole seasoning. If you really like it spicy (heat), add more, as desired.
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Heat olive oil in a medium skillet on medium heat. When oil is hot (but NOT smoking), add salmon fillets seasoned side DOWN. They should sizzle when they hit the hot oil. Once fillets are in the skillet, do not move them! Pan-sear them for 4 minutes, then carefully turn fillets over using a spatula. Salmon should be nicely browned (on top). Immediately add butter to the skillet; let it melt.
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Continue cooking salmon 3-4 more minutes or until fully cooked through (about 8 minutes total). While it's cooking, continually spoon melted butter over the top of the fillets. As the melted butter cooks, it will become "browned butter" which adds more flavor to the salmon! Keep spooning the melted butter on top!
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TO SERVE: Right before serving, add croutons to the salad; toss, to combine. Evenly divide salad onto 2 plates. Use a spatula to carefully transfer each fillet out of the skillet and onto the top of each salad. Serve immediately and enjoy!