One-Pan Chili Lime Baked Salmon

One of my favorite baked salmon recipes, this one-pan chili lime salmon really comes to the rescue at the end of a long day.

Our day was full of possibilities when we woke up this morning, so we decided to take a jaunt down to the Animal Kingdom as a family.

We were enjoying the day when the sky grew cloudy and was nowhere near the 91 degrees the weatherman promised. We were wet from rain and freezing cold by 5:00 p.m. Jessie was a trooper in her stroller shivering.

We made it to the car when Mr. L asked what we were doing for dinner.

Que “deer in headlights panic.” I had not prepared for this.

I had anticipated a whole day at Disney and maybe getting cheap-ish quick service for dinner. Not wanting to waste money on take-out,  I knew something would have to be made.  The poor guy had a french bread pizza for dinner last night, because I worked late. I kind of owed him.

As we sat in the miles of I-4 traffic, I went to Pinterest and stumbled across this recipe from Karina over at www.cafedelites.com and knew it would be a winner with my salmon-loving man.

I sweetly asked my husband to make a stop at Aldi ( my favoritist grocery store ever). We did need butter, after all. He graciously obliged knowing that I wouldn’t want to go back out after we got home. He waited in the car with the kids (who by that time were warm, content and asleep) so I could go in alone. Purely glorious.

20 minutes and $91 in groceries later ( I ended up doing a week’s worth of shopping at a high-speed pace because I loathe going to the store after a full work day), I came out with all the necessities to tackle this recipe, with a few tweaks of my own.

The goodness takes less than 20 minutes ( not including grocery store time). Perfect for nights when you have no time… which, in this house, is almost every night.

Here are the leading characters sans the minced garlic. (Can’t believe I forgot to photograph the garlic….I hope it forgives me.)

Can I just say how happy I have been that our Aldi sells salmon consistently. Seriously, $7.79/lb and it is just as delicious and good as what we get from Publix ( No hard feelings Publix, you and I are still sympatico). I’m just saying that Aldi salmon and I have never had issues.

Start by taking out your sheet pan and applying some aluminum foil, then spray with cooking spray.

This whole dish is made on one pan.

Amaze-balls.

Squeeze two limes into a measuring cup. Side note… if you don’t have a juicer (like me), the easiest way is to squeeze limes and lemons right through your fingers. This will catch the seeds in your hand (always wash before cooking, please). Just watch out for hangnails…that isn’t gonna be a good time for you.  This will save you from fishing seeds out of your marinade.  You’re welcome.

Stir your olive oil, salt, honey, salt, cumin, chili flakes and water into your lime juice.

Don’t be too stuck on measurements. I added measurements to the bottom as a reference, but really…just do what feels right. You do you. I promise it will be okay. If I was making this for myself only, I probably would have only used a 1/2 tsp of chili flakes. However, Mr. L likes spice, so I kicked it up a notch. You will want to adjust for your taste.

Set your marinade aside for the moment while you chop up your peppers and onions.

For this recipe, I only used two of my three peppers. Aldi sells the 3 pack of multi-color pepper. Since I was just feeding the two of us ( J and J wanted waffles for dinner. At 7:30 p.m. by the time we were home, clean and thinking about getting dinner ready, I didn’t argue with them). I decided to use the red and orange pepper and save the yellow pepper for fajitas later this week.

Just chop the peppers into large-ish chunks and sliver your onions. All will be well.

Lay your salmon fillets on the baking sheet and spread your veggies around it.

Some of the salmon fillets were a little thinner and had thin edges. I didn’t cut these off for consistency, because I like the crispiness that happens to the thin pieces of salmon. If you don’t, you will want to make sure your salmon fillets are consistent in size.

Give your marinade another quick stir in case the oils and acid separated.

Reserve a few tablespoons of your marinade and then pour the rest over the veggies and fish.  Stir it all around in the pan in your hands ( don’t be afraid to get messy in the kitchen) to make it all happy.

Throw the salmon and veggies in the broiler for ten minutes.

While it broiled, I cheated and threw some steamable quinoa blend (also found at Aldi) in the microwave.

For $2.99 it did the trick to add a little bit of extra something-something to the meal when I didn’t have the wherewithal to make a side from scratch.

10 minutes later, all was done! Nicely charred peppers and onions with spicy, citrus-y broiled salmon = yumminess.

You may need to adjust your time to cook the fish to your likeness. I suggest checking after 8 minutes to determine if you want it more charred or not.

For an extra pop of flavor, pour the last few tablespoons of marinade over your cooked salmon.

You are all set!

Seriously, it takes 20 minutes or more to get a pizza delivered. This was so easy! If you need to feed more than two adults, just add extra everything (peppers, onions, salmon) to the pan and double your marinade ingredients. Mr. L went back for seconds. He is a picky eater, so that’s how I know it was a success.

Enjoy!

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If you made it, I would love to hear what you think in the comments!

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