Salmon in Cream Sauce in a Pan

Name: Salmon in Cream Sauce in a Pan
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 3 steaks (3 servings)
Ingredients: Salmon steak – 3 pcs. Cream 33% – 400 ml. Onion – 1 pc. Spring onion – to taste. Mustard – 2 tsp. Dill – 3-4 sprigs. Vegetable oil – 50 ml. Salt – to taste. Black pepper, ground – to taste. Lemon – for serving.

Published: 06.09.2026

Updated: 06.09.2026

🤤 Здорові рецепти щодня

Cooking time 45 minutes Portions 3 steaks (3 servings)

The steaks go through the pan twice here: first they are fried until golden, and only then do they go into the heated cream. Put into the sauce raw, the fish will poach — cream doesn't give the temperature at which a crust forms, and the steak comes out pale and loose.

The mustard in this recipe works in the marinade, not in the sauce. Twenty minutes under a mixture of salt, pepper and mustard and the fish takes the sharpness inside; added to the cream, the same mustard would stay on the surface of the sauce and turn harsh when heated.

The steaks stand in the cream for about ten minutes. This isn't boiling but heating through: in that time the sauce thickens and the fish finishes cooking inside without losing the crust the whole thing was done for.

The crust comes first here and the cream after. In the oven the same salmon family gets its fat from sour cream and cheese instead, in baked pink salmon with potatoes in foil, while a crust with no cream in the dish at all is fried mackerel in batter in a pan.

Caloric content: 268kcal

Ingredients

Salmon steak – 3 pcs.
Cream 33% – 400 ml.
Onion – 1 pc.
Spring onion – to taste.
Mustard – 2 tsp.
Dill – 3-4 sprigs.
Vegetable oil – 50 ml.
Salt – to taste.
Black pepper, ground – to taste.
Lemon – for serving.

Prepare the ingredients

Thaw the steaks if needed and rinse the herbs.

Dry the steaks

Rinse the steaks and blot off the excess moisture with paper towels.

Marinate with mustard

In a separate bowl mix the salt, pepper and mustard. Rub the steaks with this mixture and leave them to marinate for 20 minutes.

Put them into the pan

Heat the pan, brush it with oil and lay out the pieces of fish.

Fry until crusted

Cook over medium heat until golden on both sides and take them out.

Cut the onion

Peel the onions and cut them into cubes.

Sauté the onion

Sauté the onion in heated oil in a clean pan.

Heat the cream

Pour in the cream and heat it without letting it come to a boil.

Braise the steaks in the cream

Put the browned steaks into the heated cream and braise for 10 minutes.

Serve

Put the steaks onto a plate with the side dish, sprinkle with chopped herbs and lay lemon wedges alongside.

Notes

Blot the moisture off the steaks with paper towels. Wet fish steams in the pan and there will be no crust at all.
Cream at 33%. Less fatty cream separates when heated, especially if juices from the fish get into the sauce.
Sauté the onion in a separate pan. The pan the fish came out of holds burnt particles that would give the sauce a gray color.
The cream is heated, not boiled. Boiling curdles it.
Serve the lemon separately. Juice squeezed into the sauce curdles the cream instantly — it is squeezed over the fish on the plate.
Serve with rice. There is more sauce here than the fish needs, and it is meant for a neutral side dish.

Questions and Answers

Why are the steaks fried separately first?

Put into the sauce raw, the fish will poach: cream doesn't give the temperature at which a crust forms, and the steak comes out pale and loose.

Why is the mustard in the marinade and not in the sauce?

Twenty minutes under a mixture of salt, pepper and mustard and the fish takes the sharpness inside. Added to the cream, the same mustard would stay on the surface of the sauce and turn harsh when heated.

Why cream at 33% in particular?

Less fatty cream separates when heated, especially if juices from the fish get into the sauce. And the cream is heated, not boiled — boiling curdles it.

Can the lemon be squeezed into the sauce?

No, the juice curdles the cream instantly. The lemon is served separately and squeezed over the fish on the plate.

Recipe and step-by-step photos — kolizhanka.net.ua.