Delicious Dry Brined Smoked Salmon

Smoked salmon is one of those dishes that tastes great because of its rich and distinct flavor. The beauty of this recipe is that it's very simple to make, although it does take a bit of planning to have enough time for the brining period and the smoking to complete. This recipe is a popular one that uses brown sugar and salt as the main dry brine ingredients.

A dry brine is typically a combination of sugar and salt, opposed to most (wet) brining recipes that dissolve salt and sugar in water or beer. Wet and dry brines both require a submersion time, but with dry brines the meat just absorbs the seasoning and relies on its own fat content to provide the moisture. A salmon with a healthy fat content is the ideal choice to dry brine and smoke.

Combine all the salt and sugar in a bowl and mix well. This makes a dry brine for the salmon.

Softly pat the dry brine in the bottom of a large baking pan that can hold the entire piece of salmon.

Lay the side of salmon on top of the dry brine mixture with the skin side down. We used a beautiful piece of Copper River Salmon. Copper River salmon is a premium salmon that has a higher fat content. The fat helps absorb the dry brine and keeps the fish more moist as it is smoked. Copper River Salmon is seasonally on sale at Costco for about $10 a pound. A side of salmon is about two pounds.

Bury the salmon in the remaining half of the brine and pat it down. Crimp the edges of brine mixture down so that the salmon is completely sealed in the mixture. Place in the refrigerator for two and a half hours.

Take four good sized handfuls of hickory smoking chips and place them in a good sized bowl of water. Let the chips soak for about twenty to thirty minutes.

Scoop a handful of the chips out of the bowl and place them on a good size square of tinfoil. Fold the chips in the tinfoil up in a square and poke holes with a fork.

Place your charcoal in your barbecue on one side. This works well for Kamado type grills and charcoal Weber grills. For gas grills, place the smoking chips on the grill over the hot burners. You'll need at least two burners in a gas grill to setup indirect heat. Turn one burner on and place the fish on the opposite side.

Remove the salmon from the refrigerator after two and one half hours. Notice the moist outline around the salmon packed in the brining mixture. This means that the fish has had plenty of time in the mixture.

Run cold water over both sides of the salmon and rinse the salt and brown sugar off of the meat. Then pat the salmon dry with paper towels.

After drying the salmon off, an extra step that can add to a rich smokey flavor is a process of adding a pellicle formation to the salmon. A pellicle formation is where the skin will become tacky to the touch and the meat will have shine on it. To get a pellicle formation, lay the salmon on a rack in a cool place and circulate air over it for as short as two hours and up to six hours.

This process will help the meat absorb smoke, it also seals in some of the moisture. I've noticed that when I use this step, it prevents the white fatty substance from oozing out of the meat.

Place the salmon on a baking sheet while you make sure your fire is at about 250 degrees. Either use a grill thermometer or on a Webber grill, this is the bottom holes closed and the top holes about half open.

Place the salmon on the grill. It should be placed on the side of the grill without direct heat. Be sure to spray a little oil on the grill before putting the fish down. The smoke will cook the salmon. Close the lid on the smoker and let it smoke for two and a half hours.

After two and a half hours the salmon is fully smoked. Remove from the grill and serve. We serve this with crackers and lemon slices as an appetizer. For a main course we serve it over the top of a citrus salad. The grilled salmon in this recipe can be replaced with the smoked salmon in this delicious recipe for an outstanding smoked salmon salad.