Grant Crilly is the Executive Director and cofounder of ChefSteps. Grant is a classically trained chef and, prior to ChefSteps, he worked on the award-winning cookbook series Modernist Cuisine and cooked at various restaurants, including L’Astrance in Paris, Busaba in Mumbai, and Mistral Kitchen in Seattle.

Grant Crilly

Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

You don’t need to head to a fancy restaurant to enjoy perfectly seared salmon with ultra-crispy skin. With proper technique, you can sear salmon fillets like a pro from the comfort of your own kitchen. The key to achieving crispy skin and perfectly silky fish is managing the temperature of your pan. For skin-on salmon, we use unilateral cooking to sear—cooking the fillets most of the way on medium-high heat on the skin side, before flipping and lowering the heat to “kiss” the fish on the flesh side to finish cooking without hammering it. Pull the fillets from the pan and, with <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/carryover-cooking-why-you-should-let-meat-rest">carryover cooking</a>, let them “rest up” to serving temp for an easy weeknight meal. This tried-and-true restaurant kitchen method is a breeze to pull off at home if you have precise control over the temperature of your pan throughout the cooking process. EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve updated this recipe after considering reader feedback. It now has a defined ingredient list, suggestions for kinds and cuts of salmon to use, more detailed cooking/timing instructions, and target internal serving temperature.

Precision Pan-Seared Salmon