Our lemon pepper smoked salmon will give you a bright fresh smoked salmon taste, and all with a fresh lemon pepper seasoning. You will find this lemon pepper smoked salmon recipe is simple to follow, and you will swoon over the final product. 

Lemon Pepper Smoked Salmon

We love salmon around here. It is so delicious, and here in the Pacific Northwest, it is also insanely fresh.

Smoking salmon on your Traeger Grill is always a delicious way to change up from an oven-baked or straight-up grilled salmon recipe, and you can use the smoked salmon in so many different ways. 

More Easy Traeger Recipes here!

Hot Smoked Salmon

If you want to learn how to make homemade lemon pepper smoked salmon, you came to the right place. 

Smoking salmon at home is easy, especially if you have a pellet grill. We smoke salmon a few times a month around here, and there isn’t much better as a snack or to bring out for your company than fresh, home-smoked salmon.

Serve it with crackers and some local cheese, briny olives, and a glass of wine, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a charcuterie board.

How to smoke salmon safely

Hot Smoked Salmon is completely safe as long as you follow good food handling practices, and ensure that you are keeping things clean, sanitary, and cooking them properly. 

Make sure your salmon hits 150° for at least 30 minutes, for instance, and when you are cleaning and prepping the fish it is very important to keep the area clean and prevent cross-contamination. 

Once the fish is smoked, it is equally important to take precautions to prevent cross-contamination after the cooking is over. 

What’s the best way to smoke lemon pepper salmon?

Around here, we use a Traeger grill. Traegers are electric-powered grills that use wood pellets to feed a firebox that burns real wood.

That’s how you get that real wood smoke taste without the actual work that goes into using actual logs. 

It starts up with the turn of a dial, is very easy to use, and you can adjust the temperature by turning that same dial, so it can maintain that low and slow heat that is needed for an excellent smoked salmon. 

Being able to monitor your temperature is key to smoking salmon. This is a hot smoked salmon recipe, so there is some actual cooking involved and not just smoke and cure. You don’t want it too high though or the end results will be more like grilled salmon than smoked salmon.

Skin on or off?

We ALWAYS leave the skin on the fish when we smoke salmon and trout. It helps keeps the fish together, and once the salmon is smoked it flakes right off of the skin. 

Removing it is WAY harder than just leaving it, and leaving it on actually makes a better final result, so my advice is to leave well enough alone, and leave that skin on the fish.

How to store smoked salmon

Allow your smoked salmon to cool completely, once it is done cooking. Once your lemon pepper salmon has cooled, you can wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge. It will last around a week in the fridge, wrapped up. 

Or, if you have a vacuum sealer, you can store your salmon in the fridge vacuum packed for up to 2 weeks. 

Can you freeze smoked salmon?

Yes!

Freezing is the ideal way to store smoked salmon if you are not going to eat it in the first couple of days.

Tightly wrap your salmon and place it in a freezer bag, or vacuum seal for the best results.

More great fish recipes to try

Looking for other ways to serve up salmon or fish to your family and friends? Here are some great recipes to whip up and give a try! 

• Crispy Panko Fish Sandwich
• Grilled Salmon with Togarashi
• Walleye with Lemon Cream Sauce
• Traeger Smoked Salmon

What else can you make with smoked salmon?

The possibilities are endless when it comes to how to eat your salmon. From flaking it and putting on top of a cracker, on top of a salad, topping a bagel with cream cheese and some of this delicious hot smoked salmon, or slice and serve with a side of vegetables and dinner rolls. 

You could easily use this in my Greek Salmon Orzo Salad as well. Typically this recipe uses grilled salmon, but flaked smoked salmon would be a perfect substitution.