The month of May can be as hectic as the holiday season with end-of-the-school-year events, graduations and Mother’s Day. Though I am not a trendy person, a catchphrase or term that’s cropped up in recent years describes it perfectly: “May-cember”—aka May meets December.
To help ease the busyness of May-cember, I decided to focus on making mealtime and entertaining even easier by revisiting one of my favorite sheet pan recipes. You can throw together these oven-roasted salmon filets with tender roasted new potatoes, drizzled with a savory lemon butter sauce, any night of the week, but they’re also nice enough to serve company or treat Mom with for Mother’s Day.
This sheet-pan meal takes under 30 minutes to make and requires cooks to dirty only a few dishes. It’s a main course and side dish all roasted together, making it great for a gathering, even when you’re in a time crunch. And an added bonus? Cleanup is a cinch.
|
|
|
Oven-roasted salmon and new potatoes in lemon-butter shallot sauce
Serves 6
2 pounds of new potatoes
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
5 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon fresh black pepper
6 (4-to-6-ounce) boneless, skinless salmon fillets
½ teaspoon blackened seafood seasoning
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
4 tablespoons butter
¼ cup chopped shallots
¼ cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
¼ cup capers
¼ teaspoon dried dill weed
¼ teaspoon sea salt
|
|
|
- Cut the new potatoes into halves or quarters, depending on the size.
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, add 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and drop in the new potatoes to blanch for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain them well and set them aside.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a large baking sheet with nonstick aluminum foil.
- Place the blanched new potatoes into a mixing bowl and toss them with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, ¼ teaspoon of fresh black pepper and the remaining kosher salt. Place the potatoes on the lined baking sheet in a single layer and put them into the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Rinse the salmon fillets and pat them dry. In a small dish, combine the remaining olive oil, blackened seasoning, garlic and lemon zest together. Spread a little onto each of the salmon fillets.
- Once the potatoes have been roasting for 10 to 12 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and place the seasoned salmon fillets on the pan with the potatoes. Put the pan back into the oven and continue roasting for another 12 to 15 minutes.
- In a heavy sauce pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat while the salmon and potatoes continue to roast.
- Add the chopped shallots to the sauce pot and sauté them for 2 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and pour in the wine. Place the pot back onto the stovetop and reduce the heat to medium. Bring it up to a simmer.
- Pour in the lemon juice, capers, dill weed, sea salt and remaining black pepper. Stir until everything is well combined. Keep the sauce over a low heat until the salmon and potatoes are ready.
- Once the salmon is cooked through and flaky, and the potatoes are golden and crisp on the outside and tender in the middle, remove the pan from the oven. Pour the lemon-butter shallot sauce with capers and dill over the salmon and potatoes, and serve.
This article was originally published in the May 2025 issue of 225 Magazine.