Salmon and Artichoke Piccata: Make this Decadent and Delicious Dinner

While picatta sauce is generally reserved for chicken or veal, salmon naturally gravitates to lemon and butter, so matching it with a piccata sauce is an obvious choice in my eyes. Salmon and artichoke piccata is another one of my recipes that feels fancy, but is quite easy to make and doesn’t use a lot of ingredients. Yet, the tangy, velvety sauce is a perfect companion to the slightly crispy salmon.

And if you are wondering what piccata sauce is, it is a lemon butter pan sauce that has mysterious roots. Although the origins of the sauce appear Italian, immigrants likely created it in the United States, where it was originally used on thinly sliced, pan-fried veal. For a brief time, veal cost less than chicken, but once that changed, chicken became the preferred protein for this dish. Cooks would pound the chicken thin, dredge it in flour, fry it gently, and then top it with a sauce made from lemon juice, garlic, shallots, capers, and butter for a perfectly flavored finish.

If that doesn’t sound like a sauce made for salmon, I don’t know what does. In my salmon and artichoke piccata version, I am not using a heavy breading on the salmon to keep it simple. Also, I am replacing the capers with artichokes for less salt and more vegetable action for a delicious and nutritious dish. Serve this with a side of mashed potatoes and you have yourself a perfect date night meal!

Serves 4

Suggested Wine Pairing:

Sauvignon blanc would be a perfectly balanced choice for this dish.

Ingredients:

4 – 4 to 6 ounce salmon fillets

2 tablespoons oil

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

1 shallot, finely diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tablespoons of butter

1 cup of canned, jared, or frozen artichokes, drained and chopped

1/3 cup of chicken broth

1/3 cup of parsley

Instructions:

1. Pat dry your salmon fillets and season them with salt and pepper. In a preheated skillet over medium high heat, add oil and allow it to heat up for about 1 minute. Add the salmon to the pan skin side up. Cook for 4 minutes before flipping and repeating the process with the skin side down. Remove from the pan. The salmon should be cooked about medium.
2. In the same pan, reduce the heat to low and add the shallot. Saute for about 2 minutes before adding garlic, lemon zest, juice, chicken broth, and artichokes. Simmer for another 2 minutes.
3. Whisk in butter and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the parsley and spoon over the salmon.