Air Fryer Vietnamese Tamarind Salmon

My air fryer Vietnamese tamarind salmon makes an easy and wonderful dinner full of flavor and textures.

Since cooking salmon in the air fryer, I haven’t gone back to pan frying or the oven. We have a few salmon dishes that go into regular rotation and I’m excited to share Vu’s favorite salmon recipe, air fryer Vietnamese tamarind salmon. Tamarind is one of my favorite ingredients for marinade and sauces especially with seafood. The salmon is marinated in a tamarind fish sauce mixture, cooked in the air fryer, then topped with a sticky tamarind glaze, fried shallots, peanuts, scallion, and cilantro for an easy weeknight dinner. We love it so much that Vu requests for it every two weeks!

Ingredient Notes

• Salmon: for this recipe I used a 1.25-pound piece of salmon fillet. Look for salmon with vibrant color and no darkening around the edges. Avoid salmon that smell fishy or off-putting. When picking out salmon, make sure that the thickest part of the fish is no larger than an inch to ensure optimal cooking.
• Tamarind: tamarind paste is made from sour, dark, sticky tamarind pods. Blocks of tamarind are regular shelf items at Indian and Asian grocery stores or online. You can also make your own tamarind paste using this NYT recipe. For this recipe, you need to make tamarind water from the paste.  
• Fish sauce: use a quality fish sauce. Some of my favorite brands are Three Crabs, Flying Lion Premium Fish Sauce, and Red Boat Fish Sauce.
• Fried shallots: for the fried shallots, I buy the dried shallots from the Vietnamese grocery store and fry them with a little bit of oil until they become crisp and fragrant. I've included a picture of the product we typically buy below.

There are many dried shallot brands available but this is one of our favorites.

How Long to Marinate the Fish For

For the tamarind salmon, marinate it for at least 4 hours but overnight is even better. Leave the salmon skin up in the marinade (opposite of the salmon pictured).

TIPS FOR AIR FRYING

• Depending on what air fryer you own, you’ll need to follow the instructions and preheat it. Preheating the air fryer will help crisp up the edge of your fish.
• Make sure the salmon fillets are similar in size. The time needed to cook salmon depends on the thickness and size of the salmon. Using the same size ensures that the salmon will cook evenly. I kept my salmon in one piece but feel free to divide up for your salmon into smaller pieces.
• Use salmon with skin on which adds a protective layer and prevents it from drying out during the cooking process.
• Spray the air fryer basket to prevent food from getting stuck to it. For cooking salmon and other fish, I add a piece of foil right underneath the piece of fish. Depending on what kind of material your air frying basket is made of, the skin might get stuck to the bottom and makes it harder to clean. With the foil, I can easily lift the fish out of the basket.
• Don’t overcrowd the basket. Overcrowding the basket can result in undercooking some of the food and burning the other half. The food needs room on all sides to have the circulating air cook it. If you’re scaling up the recipe, divide your batch to ensure the fish cook evenly.
• Cook the salmon for another 2 minutes in the air fryer if the middle part is still not cooked through.

The tamarind salmon was so tender and succulent after air frying for 10 minutes. Once cooked I drizzled a sticky tamarind glaze on top and garnished the salmon with fried shallots, roasted peanuts, scallion, and cilantro. The tangy sweet glaze offset the richness of the salmon while the toppings brought all the flavors and textures in contrast to the tender fish. Every bite is like an umami flavor bomb that will have you coming back for more. Serve it with Jasmine rice and your favorite veggies for a complete meal.

For more tamarind recipes: Vietnamese tamarind crabs, Vietnamese tamarind prawns, Vietnamese tamarind razor clams.