A Simple One Pan Salmon & Rice Dinner
This easy oven-baked salmon with rice is an absolute show stopper, yet simple enough for a weekday dinner at home. It takes just 30 minutes to prep and cook, and yields a beautiful one pot dish with tender rice that’s flavored with any fresh herbs you have needing to be used up. Plus the salmon is flaky and melt-in-your-mouth!
You could pair this easy salmon dinner with practically any roasted vegetable for a complete meal.
Be sure to read through the tips below to ensure fully cooked rice. If you skip steps, you may end up with undercooked rice or overcooked salmon, and nobody wants that!
For more restaurant-worthy seafood dinners, try my slow-baked salmon with herb butter, easy, homemade tandoori-spiced salmon bowls, or quick and easy roasted salmon next.
Two Quick Ingredient Notes
I’ve tested this recipe with a variety of different herbs (simply using whatever I have that’s lying around), and it’s always great. Don’t go out and buy more, just use what you’ve already got. A sprinkle of Aleppo pepper is also fantastic!
But more importantly: do not use brown rice or wild rice for this recipe, as they take much longer to cook. They’re great in soups (like my winter go-to: wild rice, chicken, and kale soup!), but have a much different cook time than the salmon.
Chef-Tested Tips 👩🏻🍳
Follow these steps to ensure even cooking:
- Be sure to use hot water when mixing the rice together (so it takes less time to come up to temperature in the oven).
- If using a large piece of salmon, you can cut it into individual portions before placing it on top of the rice. During testing, when using a piece of fish larger than 2+ lbs, the rice underneath did not fully cook. To avoid this, cut into smaller pieces.
- Cover tightly with foil! If you place the dish uncovered into the oven, the rice will remain crunchy. Cover it tightly with aluminum foil.
Troubleshooting Undercooked Rice
If your piece of fish was too large and the rice hasn’t finished cooking, you can always remove the salmon from the dish, then return the rice to the oven. Be sure to cover with foil (yes, again).
Another possibility is that the salmon filet you used was thin (did you buy wild salmon?) and cooked more quickly than the rice.
If you want to make and cook the rice ahead of time, assemble it in the pan with hot water, cover and bake it. When ready, cook the fish separately. This was developed as a one-pot meal, but can easily be split apart to accommodate making in advance.
Next time, I intend to try it with a garlicky herb butter on top!
Serving Suggestions
All you need are some roasted vegetables or a side salad to complete this easy salmon dinner. Here are a few of my personal favorites:
- Quick and easy roasted vegetables: the easiest oven-roasted broccoli, crisp-tender roasted broccolini, and Sicilian cauliflower with capers
- Salads with 15 minutes or less of prep: thinly sliced kale salad with crisp apple, arugula and Parmesan salad, or my house salad with balsamic vinegar and goat cheese.
Be sure to check more of my easy salmon rice bowls!
Other Fish To Try
Fresh cod or a thick piece of trout would be delicious here! Just be sure if you’re using something else that it’s not too thin or the fish will cook well before the rice is tender.
I just love a one pan dinner! If you love a baked rice dish as much as me, definitely give this one pot lemon chicken and rice a try next!
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30-Minute Oven Baked Salmon with Herbed Rice
Video
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Rice
- 3 Tbsp = extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups Basmati rice rinsed
- ½ cup fresh dill, finely chopped
- ½ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
- ½ cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
- 1 medium lemon, zested, about 2 tsp lemon zest, plus ½ lemon juiced
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 3 cups hot water
For the Salmon
- 2-2½ lbs salmon fillet, skin on or off
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, grated
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- ⅓ cup sliced almonds preferably toasted for more flavor
- Flaky sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Lemon wedges, for serving
Instructions
- Prepare the herb rice. Preheat an oven to 400°F (205°C). Drizzle 3 Tbsp olive oil in a 9×13 baking dish. Add 2 cups Basmati rice, ½ cup chopped dill, ½ cup chopped parsley, ½ cup chopped cilantro, 2 tsp lemon zest, ½ lemon juiced, 1 tsp Kosher salt. Pour 3 cups of hot water on top, then stir well.
- Add the salmon. Pat the salmon filet dry on all sides with a paper towel, then place on top of the rice.
- Make the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together ⅓ cup olive oil, ¼ cup chopped parsley, 4 cloves grated garlic, 1 Tbsp honey, and 1 tsp Kosher salt. Pour this on top of the salmon. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
- Bake the salmon and rice. Transfer to the oven and bake for 20-24 minutes, or until the rice is tender and fluffy and the salmon is cooked through Scatter ⅓ cup sliced almonds on top, then sprinkle with a generous pinch of flaky sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Serve immediately with lemon wedges!
Notes
- Make ahead: Best assembled fresh. If needed, cook the rice ahead (bake with hot water), then cook the salmon separately and serve together.
- Storage: Refrigerate leftovers, tightly covered, for up to 3 days (seafood is best enjoyed sooner).
- Freezing: Can be frozen for up to 2 months, but texture is best fresh.
- Tip: If using a large salmon fillet, cut it into portions before placing over the rice to ensure even cooking.
This recipe was the perfect find for our busy family. It came together quickly and was a huge hit! This is definitely going into our rotation.
That’s amazing to hear, Annett! It’s so quick and easy to pull together. Thanks for the feedback! xo, Ari
I need to RAVE about this salmon recipe!! Ariel hit this one pan dinner out of the park. Our family made it recently and we could not believe the flavor and how perfectly the rice and salmon both cooked. It’s now a family go to and favorite. Easily a fancy dish to entertain with yet simple enough to be a weekday meal for my busy family. Thank you again and again Ariel! I cannot wait to try more recipes!
Thank you, Erin!! I’m so thrilled your family loved this. Agree, it feels fancy, but truly so simple to pull together. xo, Ari
This recipe lookd easy and delicious. Will it work with frozen salmon fillets?
Hi Shonda! Yes, just be sure to thaw the salmon completely overnight a fridge so it’s fully defrosted. You’ll also want to pat it dry with paper towels and let it drain a bit to absorb any excess moisture. Then you can proceed with the recipe as written. Enjoy! xo, Ari
Just wondering if I can cut this in half (there are only two of us). If so, will the cooking instructions be the same (other than the ingredients)? This looks wonderful, so hoping you’ll be able to let me know. Thanks!
Hi Mariam, you should be able to cut it in half, but the rice will likely still need the full cook time to be tender and fluffy. Enjoy! xo, Ari
Thanks so much! Can’t wait to try it.❤️
Yay, report back!
The fish came out fantastic but the rice was rock hard and had way too much water
Hi! I’m really sorry to hear you had this experience. Let’s try to troubleshoot what went wrong. Two things come to mind quickly: first, can you confirm that your baking dish was covered tightly? If so, what was it covered with? And second, what type of salmon did you use? A thick piece of farmed salmon? Wild-caught King salmon? A thinner piece of wild salmon? Let’s start here and I’ll try to assist. Thanks! -Ari
I am wanting to make this tonight and hoping / wondering if the rice will be cooked with a 2 lb piece of salmon on top of it. All of the pictures show a large piece of salmon, but in your comments it states to cut into smaller pieces so the rice will be cooked,. So, which is it ???
Hi Jan, I would recommend cutting it into smaller for best results. Sometimes I’ll use a whole piece of salmon if it’s on the thinner side, but since I don’t know how thick yours is, I’d say cut into portions. Enjoy! Ari
The perfect combination: easy and DELICIOUS! This is the perfect weekday dinner. Can’t beat a one pan dinner.
Yes, agree!! So easy and always a crowd pleaser. Thanks for the feedback, Paula! xo, Ari
Hi,
I’m assuming from what you shared that 6 6 oz. filets would work.
Hi Mary! Yes, absolutely. Individual fillets work great here. Let me know what you think! xo, Ari
Salmon was cooked but rice was still sitting in a pool of water.
Hi Mollie — can I help you troubleshoot? Was the dish wrapped tightly with aluminum foil? How large of a piece of salmon did you use? A bit more information would be helpful, thanks! Ari
I’ve made this recipe a few times now, and it always turns out amazing! A few things I’ve done that worked really well:
1. I used a 3 lb Atlantic salmon, so I doubled the recipe and divided the pieces between two pans so everything cooked evenly.
2. I seasoned each salmon piece individually with Dijon mustard and other seasonings for extra flavor.
3. I used jasmine rice instead of basmati (since that’s what I had on hand) and added boiling hot water.
4. I sealed everything tightly with foil and baked at 400°F for about 35–40 minutes. The rice and salmon came out perfectly cooked every time!
Definitely a reliable and delicious recipe!
Oh my gosh, this looks beyond incredible. Thanks for sharing, Fanta! 10 outta 10!
I made this last night. It WAS delicious but took a while to get from start to finish, considering the washing, parsley picking and chopping of herbs. I was amazed at how squeezing a little extra lemon over the plate added to the complexity of the overall flavor of the dish. The textures were practically divine. I have a comment about the underdone rice and am hoping for more insight: I made the recipe exactly as written (including cutting the salmon into portions) except: 1.) I had slightly over 1.5 lbs of salmon, and 2.) I left it in the oven – tightly covered with three layers of aluminum foil (probably overkill, but I felt a little paranoid) – for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, the salmon came out moist and delicious, although a few pieces were slightly more done than I would have wanted. The rice around the edges of the pan was fluffy and quite done; the rice that was underneath the fish was significantly underdone. I took the salmon out, scraped the underdone rice off the bottoms, kept the fish warm on top of the stove on plates tented with aluminum foil, added ½ c. chicken broth to the remaining underdone rice in the pan, mixed it up, covered tightly again with foil, and put it back in the oven for 20 more minutes. After 20 minutes the rice was perfect; the pan was just about to burn around the sides. 15 minutes may have sufficed. I wouldn’t want to make the fish separately from the rice, since I feel like it wouldn’t be anywhere near as good that way. My theory is that the time that elapses between adding the hot water to the rice and getting the whole dish in the oven needs to be as short a window as possible. I took a little extra time because when I got the salmon out I discovered that the fishmonger hadn’t scaled it, so I took the time to take the skin off each piece before adding it to the dish. What do you think?
Hi Bee! A couple things: First, with soft herbs like parsley and cilantro, you don’t actually have to pick them off the stem. There’s a lot of flavor in there, so to save time, feel free to simply chop it all up (or even place the herbs in a small food processor). But yes, I think you’re right on: the more time that elapses between adding the hot water and getting the dish covered and into the oven, the longer the rice will need to cook.
I’ve been thinking about retesting this because of similar comments. I think my first step will be to nestle the salmon fillets down into the rice so that there’s less rice underneath. Between that, covering the dish tightly, and getting it into the oven quickly, I think that should resolve the issue. Hope this helps and thank you so much for the feedback! It really helps me to improve each recipe.