Healthy Keto Smoked Salmon
If Keto is your thing, you’ve probably had to give up some of your old recipes with carbs and sugar. While keto is an excellent option for lowering your sugar intake and losing weight, it can suck to give up things that you really enjoy.
One thing I hated giving up while trying keto is hot smoked salmon. Salmon is a fantastic dinner option that’s high in omega 3s and protein, but low in carbs. While I love salmon, I find it difficult to make a good smoked salmon without using sugar—it really makes the whole thing that much better.
If you’re like me and you’ve had to give up smoked salmon on keto because of the sugar, I might have the solution for you. I’ve been playing around for a while trying to come up with something delicious that still fits the keto diet and I think I finally have it: a keto salmon brine.
Now normally with hot smoked salmon, you’re just putting a load of sugar in the brine, which of course gets absorbed into the salmon. I’ve been searching for some great artificial sweeteners that will do the trick without that awful aftertaste that so many of these sweeteners leave you with after your meal.
After trying a few different options, I finally landed on this great alternative to brown sugar, Sukrin Gold, on Amazon. It’s all natural, zero calories, diabetic-friendly, and it really looks just like regular brown sugar. You can check it out for yourself here. They’ve also created a great alternative for honey, which we are going to use in this recipe as well.
So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Here is our ingredient list:
3 quarts of room-temperature water
2 quarts of ice
½ cup salt
½ cup peppercorns
1 tbsp allspice
1 cup Sukrin Gold Brown Sugar
1 cup sugar free syrup (I’m using Cary’s brand in this recipe)
½ cup of Sukrin Gold honey alternative
Making the Brine:
To make the brine, we’re going to need three quarts of room-temperature water, which means you’ll want to use a pretty large pot.
Once you’ve got the water in your pot, you’ll want to start adding in your dry ingredients: ½ cup of salt, ½ cup of peppercorns, 1 tablespoon of allspice, 1 cup of the Sukrin Gold artificial brown sugar, 1 cup of sugar-free syrup, and ½ cup of the Sukrin honey alternative.
Once this is all together, we’re going to take it over to the stove and let it dissolve, stirring it every now and then with a whisk.
Then, we’ll add 2 ½ quarts of ice and let that melt down to a refrigerator temperature—cold, but with all of the ice melted.
Choosing Your Salmon:
If you have a favorite Salmon, you can go ahead and add it into your brine here. My favorite is Atlantic Salmon, but any salmon will do. I prefer to pick salmon without skin on it, but if you have fillets or something with skin on it, that works just fine, just make sure it’s skin side down so the skin stays crisp.
As you’re picking out your fish, I always recommend picking salmon that has a fatter white line. When you look at salmon, you’ll want one that has a nice thick orange sliver between those white lines. The fatter white lines always create a better flavor that translates when your fish is cooked. Salmon fat is very healthy for you, so there’s a good reason to why you want to pick the ones with the fatter white line as well.
Once you’ve got your salmon ready, you’ll want to cut the pieces to be in similar thickness so that they smoke and brine more evenly. The thinner pieces will absorb the brine a little quicker than the thicker pieces, so you’ll want to take those out of the brine sooner. You’ll also want to give those thicker pieces about an hour and a half of a head start over the thinner pieces so that those thinner pieces don’t get too saturated.
Let the brine sit in the fridge for up to two hours with the thicker pieces, and then add your thinner salmon pieces. Once all of your salmon is in, you can let the entire pot sit in the fridge for an additional four hours.
Quick Tip: Salmon floats! In order for it to totally absorb your brine, try putting a plate on top of the salmon. You’ll want to choose a plate that’s roughly the same size as your pot, but not too big as you don’t want it to get stuck.
Smoking the Salmon:
Once your salmon has been in the brine for enough time, go ahead and take that out of the fridge and get the salmon out of the pot. You’ll want to rinse your salmon pieces and lay them out on dry paper towels. Then, I like to let them sit out on an elevated rack (a cookie cooling rack works great here) in the open air, at room temperature, for two hours. This allows it to dehydrate a little more and it makes the salmon a little denser, which makes it perfect for smoking.
Once they’ve been sitting out for a little bit, you’ll notice a beautiful sheen on them—this means that they are ready for smoking.
When you’re ready, go ahead and take your salmon pieces out to your smoker. You’ll want to have your smoker pre-heated to 200 degrees, and then leave the salmon inside the smoker for two hours.
Once your two hours are up, I like to take the salmon out and let it sit for about two hours before I either serve it or vacuum seal it.
Quick Tip: If you’re not sure what wood to choose, I recommend Peach Wood. I find it to be the mildest of all the fruit woods, and I like a really mild smoke flavor with my salmon. If you like something stronger, I’d recommend Apple. It’s a great alternative to the peach and goes great with salmon.
It’s hard to find a great keto brine recipe and this one is definitely the best one that I’ve come up with. When you put normal brine salmon right next to the keto, you can’t even tell the difference! If you try this recipe and you really love it, be sure to leave some feedback and let us know how yours came out!