hi I'm Frank Proto professional chef and culinary instructor and today I'm going to show you how to make the best pan seared salmon we'll be going over the techniques to make your pan seared salmon have crispy skin and a soft juicy interior this is salmon 101 before we get into cooking our salmon I want to talk about how to select it when you're in the store on a dayto day I prefer Farm R salmon has a little more fat to it than the wild cut salmon if you tend to overcook it a little all that fat helps that it doesn't dry out the farm raise tends to be a little bit better when it comes to being forgiving in the pan the first thing I always do is visually inspected I'm looking at the color first is it appealing does it have a nice pink Rosy color if it's starting to get a little gray don't buy it another thing that the fish monger at the store might not want you to do but I think you should every time and if they don't let you do it don't buy the fish is pick it up put it close to your face take a whiff it should be a light Ocean Breeze it should not not be fishy last thing is I like to touch the salmon you notice how my fingers aren't sticking it's nice and smooth it's not sticky it's not giving me any residue and that means that there's no slime on it and the fish is really nice so if any of those factors don't work for you don't buy the salmon find another store so it's time to cook the fish I'm going to turn my pan on I'm going to go to like a medium high heat I'm putting enough oil in there so that it coats the whole whole bottom of the pan we're not deep frying here but I do want the oil to make one level so that I get really nice Browning and even cooking so while that heats up I'm going to season my fillets a little bit of black pepper a little bit of salt now one of the most important things right now is to make sure that the skin and the salmon is dry I have a paper towel I'm just going to dab it I like to do it after I season cuz salt draws out moisture if we put uh salmon in the pan and it's wet not only is it going to stick we're not going to get a nice crispy skin you can see that my oil is starting to get a little shimmery there should be a light amount of smoke before it goes in I have two tools here I have a pair of tongs and a fish spatula fish spatula has these wide openings and a very thin and bendy blade which is great the only problem with this is that everyone's always trying to force their way under the salmon and usually they tear the skin what's cool about salmon is that it will tell you when it's ready to be turns right that's why I use tongs the tongs will let me gently turn the salmon without ripping any skin or tearing any flesh so you can see that my oil is getting nice and shimmery one last time with a paper towel before we go in the skin side is my presentation side I always put my presentation side in the pan first not only that I'm going to drop it in the pan away from me so that when it splashes oil will Splash that way and not on me now what we want to do is leave it alone I'm going to lower my heat just a a little cuz it looks like it's a little hot a lot of times what people are going to do are they're going to start fussing with this and once you start fussing with it that's when things get ripped and the skin falls off it starts to break it's a little sticky that's okay leave it alone we're going to let the salmon tell us when it's ready let the salmon kind of brown let the skin start to get crispy we're going to cook it most of the way on the skin side main point is leave it alone let it cook trust the process Trust Chef prank these are ready to turn right look how they free themselves up we're going to turn it over and we have some nice crispy skin Crispy Crunchy delicious part of the reason why you probably don't like fish skin is cuz it's not crispy I'm going to lower my heat now and we're just going to let them finish cooking on the flesh side I want it nice and Rosy pink in the center not raw just Rosy pink and still nice and juicy just for a few minutes we're not going to go crazy on the flesh side cuz that's when you start seeing the salmon drying out and stuff like that and at this point the fish will separate itself from the pan and now we're just going to let it cook on low until it's cooked through at this point you might be wondering hey I'm going to cook the sides you can cook the sides if you want it's totally up to you I just like to leave it on the skin or the bottom side I like to see that Rosy pink I don't need that to be brown I think we're good I can take my salmon out let it rest it's still very pink in the the center which is fine let the temperature equalize if it gets cold on the resting rack that's fine I can always reheat it in the oven or in the pan but I'm going to let it rest on a rack I don't want to put its skin side down on the rack we've done a lot of work to get this skin super crispy if you put it skin side down on the rack what's going to happen anyone anyone it's going to get soggy we're not going to have crispy skin anymore so put it on a rack or a tray or a plate skin side up the skin will stay crispy now it's time to Plate my salmon is rested it should be nice and juicy I want to get one more view of this skin listen crispy skin I have a little bit of salad here it's dressed with some lemon juice and olive oil we can put a salmon on this and it's not going to wilt immediately just a little bit of lemon on the side in case someone wants to squeeze it and that's my plate perfectly cooked pan seared salmon but let's see my inside here a look at that still pink still nice and juicy you see how it flakes when I cut it that means it's cooked and not raw let me give it a taste perfectly moist and pink on the inside seasoning is great flavor is great and there you have it folks my paner salmon crispy skin juicy interior every single time