Air Fryer Citrus Garlic Salmon

With bright citrus flavors and savory garlic, this air fryer salmon recipe is a treat any day of the week. With just 7 total ingredients, this dish is ready in about 10 minutes. Perfect with fresh veggies, mango salsa, rice and so much more.

Salmon filets are perfect for making in the air fryer. We don’t use any breading, rather a simple combination of ingredients that will create a flaky and delicious salmon with the perfect color and crust.

Fresh 6oz Salmon Filets

For this recipe we’ll use fresh salmon filets of about 6-8 ounces in size. Skin-on or skinless are both fine. If you have larger filets, you can always cut them to size or add a couple of minutes to the cooking time as necessary. Since we’ll be marinating the salmon for a brief period of time, we’ll want to make sure we’re using fresh and not frozen. Let frozen filets defrost for this recipe.

Simple Ingredients

Along with two fresh salmon filets, we need just 1 orange (for juice and zest), 1 lime (also for juice and zest), minced garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. That’s it! The zest from the orange and the lime really kick up the citrus flavors of this recipe. Use as much zest as you can get from each fruit.

Marinate for at least 30 minutes

We start by zesting the lime and the orange. You only want to zest outside colored peel of the fruit, not the white pith underneath which is bitter and not tasty. After we’ve zested the lime and orange, cut them both in half and squeeze the juice out by hand. There’s no exact amount necessary, just the juice of both. Combined with the zest, we now have the basis for our citrus flavors. Then add 2 cloves of minced garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. Mix it all together well and add to a shallow container or zip top bag with the salmon filets. Make sure they’re well covered will all the marinade. Put in the fridge and let marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat air fryer and air fry at 400° for 10 minutes

Spray a little cooking spray on the basket or tray of the air fryer and preheat for 5 minutes. Add the salmon filets and pour some of the remaining marinade on top of the filets. Especially any bits of zest and garlic. You can also add additional zest at this point too for more flavor punch. Set the air fryer to 400°(F) and use the air fry setting to cook for 10 minutes. No need to flip. The salmon will be done when the internal temperature is at least 145°(F) and easily flakes with a fork.

Serving Suggestions

With the bright citrus flavors one of my favorite ways to serve our salmon is with Thick and Chunky Mango Salsa. It’s the perfect compliment and adds another layer of sweet and savory that’s out of this world good! With a side of white rice, you’ve got a meal you won’t forget. You can also go simple and add some lemon wedges and fresh dill to let that salmon flavor really shine through. Of course some air fryer asparagus to go with it and the happy meter is on high.

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