Cooking for One

Buffalo-Glazed Salmon With Blue Cheese Kale Salad

by:
October  4, 2022
4.6
20 Ratings
Buffalo-Glazed Salmon With Blue Cheese Kale Salad
Photo by Jenny Huang
  • Prep time 10 minutes
  • Cook time 10 minutes
  • Serves 1
Author Notes

Here I've pared down my favorite meal—Buffalo-style anything with blue cheese whatever—to a single-serving supper for one. Salmon fillet and gorgeous hunk of Gorgonzola aside, it's likely you’ll already have all these ingredients on hand, and dinner will be ready in 20 minutes tops.

What makes this dinner so gorgeous is how the glaze caramelizes in the oven and bakes onto the fish, not to mention the meaty kale salad that it goes with. Everything comes together swiftly and easily, perfect for busy weeknights when the last thing you want to do is cook. —Eric Kim

Test Kitchen Notes

Featured in: A Hero 20-Minute Recipe for When You're Dining Alone. —The Editors

What You'll Need
Watch This Recipe
Buffalo-Glazed Salmon With Blue Cheese Kale Salad
Ingredients
  • Buffalo-glazed salmon
  • 1 center-cut salmon fillet (about 6 to 8 ounces)
  • 1 tablespoon your favorite hot sauce, especially a vinegary one like Tabasco or Frank's RedHot
  • 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • Freshly ground black pepper, lots of it
  • Blue cheese kale salad
  • 1 ounce blue cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
  • 2 teaspoons malt vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 pinch celery seed, optional
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 1 small bunch Tuscan kale (also known as lacinato or dinosaur), cut into bite-size pieces
Directions
  1. For the salmon, whisk together the hot sauce, mayonnaise, sugar, and black pepper and marinate the fillet in this for 10 minutes or so.
  2. Heat a nonstick pan and fry the salmon (no oil required, as the mayo will melt into its oily base) for 4 minutes on its first side, then another 2 to 3 minutes on its second side. (Though, it’s important to cook your fillet based on its thickness rather than on its weight, which is to say: the thicker the fillet, the longer the cooking time.) Raising the heat to high, add any leftover marinade and let it bubble up into a sticky glaze.
  3. Meanwhile, for the salad, whisk together the blue cheese, mayo, vinegar, olive oil, celery seed, salt, and pepper until amalgamated into a dressing. Massage this dressing into the kale. Crack some more black pepper overtop for good measure and enjoy with the salmon.
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  • Greg Crawford
    Greg Crawford
  • Molly
    Molly
  • Rosalind Paaswell
    Rosalind Paaswell
  • Safinaz Yazed
    Safinaz Yazed
  • Eric Kim
    Eric Kim
Eric Kim
Eric Kim was the Table for One columnist at Food52. He is currently working on his first cookbook, KOREAN AMERICAN, to be published by Clarkson Potter in 2022. His favorite writers are William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, and Ernest Hemingway, but his hero is Nigella Lawson. You can find his bylines at The New York Times, where he works now as a writer. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @ericjoonho.

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12 Reviews

Greg C.
Greg C. February 20, 2021
Really nice recipe. Loved the combination of the slightly spicy salmon with the blue cheese kale salad. Easy to prepare...cooking salmon on the stove can be tricky, with different thicknesses but if you have quality salmon, you don't need to cook it to death. I was worried that the 'buffalo' would detract from the delicious salmon flavor but my worries were misplaced. By the time everything cooks, there's a nice bite of spice but nothing that overwhelms the fish. Putting this one in the favorites category.
 
jys.40@cox.net
[email protected] May 22, 2020
I never comment on anything but this time............i was forced. Thank you for that recipe. I owe you for it but can never repay you. I think I lost consciousness while eating it.
 
Kelly
Kelly May 29, 2019
That glaze is lick-the-plate kind of stuff! The salad is fantastic too. I used Gindo's hot sauce for the glaze and red-wine vinegar for the dressing.
More salad than I could eat by myself in one sitting. I hope the kale holds up to the dressing for my lunch tomorrow.
 
Stephanie
Stephanie February 13, 2019
I didn't have any hot sauce so I used gochujang instead and skipped the sugar. Is that cheating? I don't know but it came out great!! Also, I put it onto of some quick stir fried sesame ginger rice. AWESOME. Thanks, Eric.
 
Eric K.
Eric K. February 13, 2019
Sounds incredible! Gochujang has sugar, so that's a great substitute. Now I want to try it.
 
Molly
Molly January 7, 2019
I would make again without the sugar in the fish marinade. It definitely overpowered the hot sauce and still tasted sweet after it was cooked. We used shaved brussel sprouts instead of kale.
 
Julia
Julia October 7, 2018
Followed recipe. Delicious and way too easy. Love adapting the classic flavors of buffalo wings and blue cheese to two of my favorites: salmon and kale!
 
Eric K.
Eric K. October 7, 2018
Thank you so much for reporting back, Julia. I love this meal; glad it worked for you, too.
 
Rosalind P.
Rosalind P. September 30, 2018
one person revolt here: I will not massage any leaf, ever again. Tossing with my hands, ok. But i don't consider massaging a tough green a good use of my time. I will eat kale in other ways; and I will use Swiss chard to substitute for raw kale. As for everything else, it was as promoted: fast, easy and delicious!
 
Eric K.
Eric K. October 7, 2018
Swiss chard sounds like a great substitute.
 
Safinaz Y.
Safinaz Y. September 27, 2018
This recipe was too good to be true on the account of how easy it was to make. I was skeptical (and I'm sorry, but I've been burned way too many times - figuratively and literally). But some things are that great and simple and unbelievably so. Thank you Eric!
 
Eric K.
Eric K. September 27, 2018
Thank you for making it!