15-Minute Salmon Piccata

It tastes as good as a restaurant’s.

By
Sheela Prakash
Sheela Prakash
Sheela Prakash
Food and wine writer, recipe developer, and the author of Mediterranean Every Day. Her work can be found in numerous online and print publications.
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Updated June 13, 2025
Sheela Prakash
overhead view of platter of Salmon Piccata fillets

Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

Why Make This

• This easy Salmon Piccata features pan-seared salmon topped with a simple white wine, lemon, butter, and caper sauce.
• First sear the salmon, then set it aside while you stir up the sauce. Add the salmon back to the pan and simmer 1-2 minutes.

I am always looking for ways to reinvent my salmon game. I have a handful of fallback preparations—like this quick Mediterranean rub for baked fillets—but week in and week out I find myself staring into my pantry, scratching my head while the salmon I brought home from the store waits patiently for me to make a decision. 

Two pantry ingredients I always have on hand to save the day? Lemons and capers. The combination is the little black dress of savory cooking, especially when applied to seafood. It’s effortlessly fancy and yet so stinking simple. And it’s the core of this easy salmon piccata recipe. 

This salmon piccata is indeed saucy, but not overly so. I love serving it over farro, orzo, or garlicky sautéed spinach, which catches extra sauce drippings but doesn’t steal any away from the fish itself.

Salmon Piccata wild rice, and lemon wedges on a plate

Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

What Is Salmon Piccata?

You may already be familiar with chicken piccata, the classic Italian-American restaurant dish of pan-fried chicken cutlets served in a buttery lemon-caper sauce. This recipe swaps the poultry with fish and removes a couple of fussy steps, such as dredging the protein in flour. 

The result is a lighter, brighter, and extra-speedy dinner that's fit for busy weeknights and impromptu weekend gatherings alike. 

Simple Substitutions 

There are plenty of ways to play around with this recipe, depending on your preferences or what you have on hand:

  • Prefer skinless salmon? Sear both sides of the fillets and place them in the sauce skinned-side down.
  • If you’d like to skip the white wine, swap in low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth. Just note the latter might darken the sauce a bit, though it will still be delicious.
  • While swapping out the capers won’t make this a true piccata, if you don’t have them handy, you can easily use pitted and chopped olives instead (Castelvetranos would especially be nice).
close up of Salmon Piccata with a bite ready on a fork and wild rice on the side

Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

Easy Salmon Recipes

Salmon Piccata

Prep Time 3 mins
Cook Time 12 mins
Total Time 15 mins
Servings 4 servings
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Ingredients

  • 4 (6-ounce) skin-on salmon fillets

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

  • 2 garlic cloves, minced

  • 1/2 cup dry white wine

  • 1 small lemon, zested and juiced

  • 2 tablespoons capers

  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

  • Chopped fresh parsley, to garnish (optional)

Method

  1. Season the salmon:

    Pat the salmon fillets dry with paper towels, then season on both sides with the salt and several grinds of black pepper.

  2. Sear the salmon:

    Melt 2 tablespoons of the unsalted butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet or well-seasoned cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the salmon skin-side up and sear until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Flip and continue to cook until the skin is lightly crisp, about 3 minutes more. 

    Transfer the salmon skin-side down to a plate. It may not be cooked through, and that’s okay—it will finish cooking in the sauce.

    overhead view of salmon fillets, skin-down in a skillet, golden brown on top - Salmon Piccata

    Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe
  3. Make the sauce:

    Add the garlic to the pan and sautè until fragrant, less than 1 minute. Pour in the white wine and simmer, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, until just slightly reduced, about 1 minute. 

    Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the lemon zest and juice, capers, Dijon, and remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Stir to combine and melt the butter. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

    garlic added to butter mixture in skillet for Salmon Piccata

    Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe
    capers added to sauce in pan for Salmon Piccata

    Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe
  4. Finish cooking the salmon:

    Return the salmon skin-side down to the pan. Simmer until just cooked through and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the salmon registers 120°F to 130°F (for medium-rare), 1 to 2 minutes. If you like your salmon medium-well or well-done, cook for a few minutes longer. Garnish with the parsley, if desired.

    This salmon piccata is best enjoyed fresh, so if you’re only serving a party of two, simply reduce the recipe by half.

    Did you love the recipe? Leave us some stars below! 

    salmon fillets skin-side-down added to pan with sauce for Salmon Piccata

    Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
447 Calories
28g Fat
20g Carbs
31g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories 447
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 28g 36%
Saturated Fat 10g 52%
Cholesterol 111mg 37%
Sodium 551mg 24%
Total Carbohydrate 20g 7%
Dietary Fiber 5g 19%
Total Sugars 7g
Protein 31g
Vitamin C 103mg 517%
Calcium 79mg 6%
Iron 2mg 10%
Potassium 801mg 17%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.