I love cold smoked salmon on a bagel. However, this is something very different, its a braided hot smoked salmon with bark!? By braiding the salmon, it increased its surface area exposed to the smoke. The initial low-temperature smoking produced a bark with the seasoning that kept the internal salmon meat moist during the cook.
Tap/Click above to watch the recipe or scroll below to see the steps: Video – CampChef.com
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Step 1: Starting with a whole strip of salmon, the process starts with making three equally spaced slices most of the way along the salmon, but stoping a few inches from the end.
Step 2: The result of those cuts into the salmon strip is four equal strands which can then be braided.
Step 3: Braiding the salmon involves going under and over the various strands until you get something that looks like…
Step 4: A braided salmon not only has a great appearance for presentation, but it also increases its surface area exposure for the smoking process.
Step 6: To get the best bark possible, lift up the braided salmon slightly and apply the seasoning over the top as it will work its way in between the braids.
Step 7: The braided and seasoned salmon was then placed on a baking tray and placed in the pellet smoker for its initial smoking phase.
Step 8: The pellet smoker used for this recipe was the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro with its Smoke Box loaded with some chunks of Cherry wood, and the salmon was smoked at a low temp (120 degrees) for around 30 minutes.
Step 9: To go along with the smoked salmon, some avocado corn salsa was prepared, and the corn was placed in the pellet smoker as well.
Step 10: After 30 minutes of low-temperature smoking the pellet grill was turned up to 225 degrees with a probe inserted into the salmon to cook it to an internal temperature of 145 degrees. As soon as the corn turned golden, they were ready to take off.
Step 11: The corn was then cut off the cobs ready to be mixed with the other ingredients for the salsa.
Step 12: Next, some green peppers were sliced and diced.
Step 13: Followed by the slicing and dicing of a whole red onion.
Step 14: Next, a whole avocado was added. First, cut in half, remove the stone, sliced while in the skin to produce chunks, and then a spoon was used to scoop them out of the avocado skin and into the bowl.
Step 15: With the smoked corn, sliced and diced green peppers/red onion, and avocado chunks in a bowl, squeeze in a whole lime. The lime not only adds to the flavor, but it will also stop the avocado from turning brown.
Step 16: The final ingredients for the salsa are some chopped coriander and a good liberal sprinkle of kosher salt to bring all the flavors together.
Step 17: Stir all the ingredients together, making sure to get the avocado well coated in the lime juice and the salsa is ready to go.
Step 18: This is what the salmon looked like when it hit an internal temperature of 145 degrees.
Step 19: At an internal temperature of 145 degrees, the salmon was removed from the pellet smoker and placed on the cutting board.
Step 20: This is honestly the first time I’ve seen a bark like this on a cooked salmon.
Step 21: The meat probe made sure that the center of the braided salmon hit the perfect 145 degrees, and it remained moist due to the initial low-temperature smoking creating the bark, which helped to lock in the moisture.
Step 22: Serve with some of the corn avocado salsa and that’s it! A braided smoke salmon with a crispy outer bark. Fantastic!
Hi, I’m Chris Scott. I started PelHeat.com back in 2007 and I have a background in pellet manufacturing. PelHeat.com is an educational resource on BBQ pellets, pellet grills & smokers. Check out our Pellet Grill & Smoker Database.
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