Traeger Smoked Salmon

ByNicole Johnson
70 Comments
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This recipe for Traeger Smoked Salmon is so simple, but it transforms your catch into something so delicious you're going to wonder why you haven't been smoking your own salmon your whole life.

Traeger Smoked Salmon

Traeger Smoked Salmon Recipe

This easy Traeger Smoked Salmon recipe is something you can make over and over again, and is one of our most popular salmon recipes on the whole site.

Living in the Pacific Northwest, we eat a lot of salmon. That's a good thing since we also CATCH a lot of salmon.

Fresh salmon is something so special that it really needs to be treated with the respect it deserves, and this smoked salmon recipe does just that.

A simple brine of water, brown sugar, and salt, and then some smoke on your pellet grill (or whatever smoker you've got) perfectly complements the salmon, and our maple glaze adds a touch of sweetness that the bold salmon needs to balance everything out.

This is a great smoker starter recipe for anyone who loves salmon. I have easy directions to follow, to help give you that final product you will love and keep making repeatedly. I keep this tried and true recipe on hand and make it a handful of times throughout the year.

More Easy Traeger Recipes here!

Smoked Salmon Scramble

Recipe Ingredients

Here's the run-down of what you need to make this recipe. Make sure to get the full list along with the amounts in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

  • Fresh Salmon
  • Brown Sugar
  • Kosher Salt
  • Salmon
  • Maple Syrup

Get more Salmon Recipes here!

Traeger Smoked Salmon

How To Make This Recipe

This is just the overview so you can see what you're actually getting into here. When you are cooking, you'll want to use the full recipe at the bottom of the page.

My pellet grill has come in handy when smoking salmon because you can maintain a specific temperature. For the process of smoked salmon, you want to cook on low heat for a long period of time with all the smoke.

Our Traeger has a temperature gauge right on the front and WIFI too, so I can see what temp it is from anywhere I am.

The temperature control has helped ensure I don't cook things too hot and ruin the salmon. If your salmon gets too hot, you will not like the results.

  1. Brine - Combine the brine ingredients and whisk until they are well mixed. Add the salmon, skin-side-up, and put everything in the fridge. Bring for 10-12 hours. Remove from the brine, rinse off, pat dry with paper towels, and let the salmon sit on wire racks in the fridge for several hours. We're letting the pellicle form. This is an important part of smoked salmon. Prep some wire racks with a spray of cooking spray and place the salmon skin-side-down on the racks.
  2. Preheat - Fire up the smoker and let it preheat to 180°F.
  3. Smoke - Put the racks into the smoker and let them smoke for 30 minutes.
  4. Glaze - Brush your salmon with real maple syrup every 30 minutes while the fish smokes. It should take around 3-4 hours, but the time really depends on how thick your filets are. When the fish flakes easily, it is done.
  5. Enjoy - Remove from the grill and let cool. Serve with crackers and cheese. Store in the fridge.

Make these bacon-wrapped shrimp too!

Recipe Tips

Real maple syrup or bust

Real maple syrup is a must for this recipe. Please don't waste your time on the imitation. The real stuff is going to help give you the sweet to your smoky, and fake maple syrup will not do. You will ruin your salmon, so make sure you spend the money and buy real maple syrup to slather onto those gorgeous filets.

Don't let it get too hot

180°F is about the max you want to go on temperatures for even hot smoked salmon. Monitor your temps carefully and adjust as necessary. You don't want that white stuff coming out of the top of the filet. That means things got too hot.

That "white stuff" is also known as albumin.

Albumin is a protein that is naturally present in fish, including salmon. When salmon is cooked, especially at higher temperatures, the albumin within the fish's muscle fibers coagulates and appears as the white substance that often oozes out. It's essentially a protein that solidifies during the cooking process and can be more noticeable in certain cooking methods like baking or grilling. While it might not look very appealing, it's a natural occurrence and doesn't affect the taste or safety of the salmon.

So, if things get too toasty and you do notice some of that, all is not lost. The texture and flavor is just BETTER if you control the temperature better to prevent that.

Try our Traeger Grilled Teriyaki Salmon!

Recipe FAQ

How do you eat smoked salmon?

There are tons of ways you can eat smoked salmon!

Flake it and make a salmon salad, top some salmon on a cream cheese bagel, eat it plain, create a smoked salmon platter, and more. The beauty of smoked salmon is it is so versatile, and you can use it in a ton of ways from slicing and eating it plain to a handful of ways and more. Try our Smoked Salmon Dip too!

What should you serve with smoked salmon?

You can serve this simply with crackers and cream cheese, in a Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict that you will die for, or even on top of a pile of Alfredo instead of the chicken or shrimp.

Skin on or off?

We find better success when we smoke with the skin on. It helps to keep the fish from falling apart, so keep the skin on the bottom of your filet and smoke away!

How do you store smoked salmon?

After you are finished smoking your fish, you want to let it rest for around an hour on a cooling rack. Once it is completely cool, wrap it up in plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Your smoked salmon will keep for around 8-10 days.
If you have a vacuum system you can vacuum seal your fish for around 3 weeks in the fridge, or you can toss it in the freezer and it will last for up to a year.

More Smoked Salmon Recipes here!

More Great Fish Recipes

We catch more than just salmon around these parts. From Halibut and Lingcod to Rockfish, Walleye, Black Cod (aff), and more, we have fish recipes for almost anything you can pull up with a line.

Oh yeah. You came to the right place! I've got this Traeger Grilled Salmon that you'll love, and more awesome options in the works.

We also have a fantastic Grilled Walleye recipe with a Lemon Cream Sauce that's one of the best pieces of fish I've ever had in my whole life.

Want more? Check out these recipes below!

Grilled Fish Recipes

Grilled Seafood Recipes

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Traeger Smoked Salmon
Yield: 8 servings

Traeger Smoked Salmon

Traeger Smoked Salmon

Easy and delicious Traeger Smoked Salmon recipe. Homemade taste, fresh flavor, delicious real maple glaze.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Brine Time 12 hours
Smoke Time 4 hours
Total Time 16 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

Brine

  • 4 cups water
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ⅓ cup kosher salt

Salmon

  • Large skin-on salmon filet
  • REAL maple syrup

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Instructions

  1. Combine brine ingredients until the sugar is dissolved, and place into a large ziplock baggie or large covered container. Place your clean salmon into the brine, and refrigerate for 10-12 hours.
  2. Once the fish is brined, remove from the liquid, rinse quickly, and pat dry with paper towels.
  3. Place the salmon on a wire rack that's been lightly sprayed with cooking spray and place it in the fridge for several hours to allow the pellicle to form.
  4. Preheat your smoker to 180°F.
  5. Place the rack of salmon on the smoker and close the lid.
  6. Every 30 minutes, baste the salmon with pure maple syrup, generously.
  7. It takes around 3-4 hours on average, but the length of time depends on how thick your fillets are. You want to pull the salmon when it flakes easily.
  8. Store in the fridge in an airtight container.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

12

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 101Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 12mgSodium: 1682mgCarbohydrates: 16gFiber: 0gSugar: 16gProtein: 4g

Nutrition data provided here is only an estimate.

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© Or Whatever You Do
Cuisine: American / Category: Traeger Recipes

More Fish

Nicole Johnson, a self-taught expert in grilling and outdoor cooking, launched Or Whatever You Do in 2010. Her blog, renowned for its comprehensive and creative outdoor cooking recipes, has garnered a vast audience of millions. Nicole's hands-on experience and passion for grilling shine through her work. Her husband, Jeremiah Johnson, also plays a pivotal role in recipe development, adding his culinary flair to the mix. Together, they form a dynamic duo, offering a rich and varied outdoor cooking experience to their followers.

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70 Comments

  1. This was my first attempt at smoking salmon have to say it was the best I have ever tasted and my wife took some to work for other people to enjoy now I am being ask to make them some .Very easy recipe I basted mine with pure maple syrup about every half hour to 45 minutes and when I pulled them out they were almost too pretty to eat looking forward to more of the recipes to try HATS OFF GREAT

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much, Corky! I'm so glad you liked it! I'm going to be smoking up a bunch myself this week to bring to my coworkers!

  2. I am going to try this on my Louisiana Grills pellet grill in a few days! Unfortunately, mine doesn’t have a “smoke” setting. Do you have any idea what temperature “smoke” is?

    Reply

    1. Hey Tasha! We smoke it at 150-160° for 3 - 3.5 hours. I'm sure this will be amazing on a Louisiana!

  3. Place the salmon skin side down directly on the grill grate and smoke for 3-4 hours or until the internal temperature of the fish registers 150 degrees F.

    Reply

  4. What have you found to be your preferred flavor of Traeger pellets for this smoke salmon recipe? Do you leave the setting on smoke throughout the entire time or move off of smoke after a certain amount of time (if so, how long on smoke) and put on another setting? Thanks. Dan

    Reply

    1. Hey Dan!
      We leave it on smoke the whole time. Don't let it get or stay above 180° for ideal results! As far as pellets, we use a lot of Hickory around here, but have definitely ventured into Cherry, and Maple works well too, especially with the maple syrup.

    2. @Dan Schwandt, smoke setting is for starting up the grill. 4 min tops then select 180 .y⁷

    3. The smoke setting is also for...smoking. On the grills that have it. You can turn it up to the preferred temp if you'd like, but the smoke setting also works on most models.

  5. This recipe looks amazing! I’m so excited to try it.What would be something good to serve with this?

    Reply

  8. Absolutely loved this! Made a few tweaks, as I literally never follow a recipe 100%, but this was so yummy I will actually make it again! Thank you!

    Reply

    1. Yay! I'm so glad that you liked it. I'm the SAME WAY with recipes. It is like I am physically incapable of following one EXACTLY as written. 😀

    1. That's awesome! We have had the same experience as well. Thanks for stopping by to let us know!

  11. We have this on an upright pellet smoker right now. I am waiting on the internal temp to get a little higher and we will call it good. We are going to chill it a couple of hours and crumble it over a pasta salad. Thanks for the simple recipe.

    Reply

  12. Like a little salmon flavor with your salt? Why too salty! Otherwise it seems like a good recipe. The fish cooked nicely and the maple flavor was nice. Next time I will skip the marinade and make a brown sugar rub with a little salt in it and let it sit for an hour or so.

    Reply

    1. Don't alter the brine recipe! Usually, this is a site ripe for the alterations, but this particular recipe has so much salt for a reason. It is meant to partially cure the salmon prior to smoking, allowing it to last longer before spoiling. Make sure that you rinse the filets well before setting it in the fridge to dry. It sounds like there was a lot of salt left on the surface which impacted the flavor.

  13. So which is it....place out at room temp to dry out or the fridge? The recipe says room temp, but your response on May 14, 2019 to Neal W says fridge. Looking forwarding to trying but need more information.

    Reply

    1. Either is fine. It depends on what you are comfortable with. I usually stick it in the fridge, uncovered, but if your house is cool you're probably fine to leave it at room temp for a couple hours.

    1. That would most likely be too long. The max you'll want it in the brine is 24 hours. If you take it out of the brine after 24 hours and then put it in the fridge for the rest of the time, that should be okay, but we haven't tested it like that so your results may vary!

  15. So I'm trying this on a new Traeger Pro Series 34. II have battled for the last 2 hours trying to keep the grill under 200 not 180 on Smoke setting. Even if I set the dial (new controller style) on 180 I'm jumping up to 200.. So frustrated,. I bought a Traeger tailgater at the same time. It has the older controller with adjustable P settings, but it is running 30 degrees hotter than it should be. I love to try new recipes and lkov to learn s=to smoke things but having a hard time,

    Reply

    1. Very strange! What kind of pellets are you using? I've found that can make a big difference in what temp the grill runs at. How is your smoke stack adjusted? I think making that let more air through can lead to higher temps/less smoke as well.

    2. @Jeff, you can roll smoke at 180 for this recipe. You just might not need it to cook as long. It might only take 2-3 hours. As long as I’m under 190 when I smoke salmon, I feel like I’m still ok. When I go over 190 it will dry out pretty fast.

    4. @Jeff, put a pan filled with ice cubes in your smoker. It’ll decrease your temperature by 15-20 degrees. I used the method in my Pro 22 Traeger and it worked great.

  16. This is a simple recipe so simple you forgot to tell us what kind of wood you used and for how long you left it in the smoker

    Reply

    1. What type of wood really doesn't matter. Any of the options Traeger has out would be fine. How long depends on how thick your fillets are. You'll want to smoke them about 3-4 hours though. It should flake easily, like the photos.

  17. Thanks for the recipe and I intend to make this come the holiday season, but my immediate problem is that my husband bought a skinless whole fillet side. Can you advise me as to how to smoke it?

    Reply

    1. You should still be able to smoke skinless salmon, but it might fall apart in the process. If you can get your hands on a few filets with the skin still on it'll hold itself together better during the brining and cooking process. I've never personally tried it skin-free.

    2. @Nicole Johnson, I have smoked it skin free and it turned out great. I am going to do some tomorrow with the skin on and compare.

    1. Yup! Just make sure that the entire fish is submerged in the brine though! The best results would be to filet it so you can brush the glaze on and so it absorbs the brine properly.

  19. The first time I made this I used King salmon and it was so amazing. Unfortunately the last two times I made it I used coho salmon and I’m guessing it was just to lean because it didn’t turn out very good at all. Plus Coho tends to have more bones. Any thoughts on other types of salmon that you recommend or other fishes you recommend?

    Reply

    1. @patrick,
      Sorry to hear the Coho didn’t turn out for you. I actually prefer to use it when I smoke salmon, but I usually prefer Coho no matter the cooking technique. As for the bones, was the Coho filleted the same way as the Chinook? If so, there shouldn’t be a noticeable disparity in the number of pin bones. I’ve had people process my catch at the docks before and sometimes they leave all the rib bones in along with the pin bones.
      You could definitely try Sockeye using this recipe, but it’s just so good when you grill it. I also use this recipe when I smoke large triploid rainbow trout. We have several other smoked salmon recipes up on the website too. I hope this is helpful to you and keep smokin!

    1. You shouldn't need to adjust the amounts of the brine or anything, and the cooking time will vary based on the thickness of your filet. I usually do a visual test when I think it is done to make sure it flakes off the way I expect it to.

  23. Hi Nicole. I'm going to try this recipe this weekend. My question concerns the brine. I'm going to smoke several fillets and freeze some for x-mas. So if I'm doin 6 fillets for example, do I just make 6 times the brine if it's going in the same container? Or 2 fillets at a time in a bag with the brine amount doubled? Any suggestions are most appreciated. I just got a new Traegar Pro for a wedding gift and am going crazy with it 🙂 My whole stuffed turkey for Thanksgiving was epic, lol. Cheers all....Rob

    Reply

    1. The brine really just needs to cover the fish, so how much total you need kind of depends on what kind of container you are using and just how big your fillets are. We use this recipe in a giant food storage container. This is the one we use pretty often: https://amzn.to/388liGo We've routinely done 3-4 pretty large filets in the original brine recipe successfully, so you might want to give it a shot with that. If it doesn't fully submerge all of your fish, just whip up another batch. If you want to play it safe, just double the brine for good measure. That should do just fine.

      Let me know how it goes!

    1. Whatever is in your hopper. 😉 We typically use Maple, Cherry, or the Gourmet Blend from Costco.

  26. Hi Nicole,
    I'm a little nervous about leaving the salmon out since it's basically summer here, southern CA., and it's pretty warm in our house. Could I achieve the same effect, pellicle, if I leave it in the fridge uncovered?
    Thank you,
    Noreen

    Reply

    1. We usually do, yes. It helps prevent condensation inside the bag, especially if you are vacuum sealing it.

  28. Hi Nicole,

    Will a slightly elevated rack work? I have one that I use for making jerky that sits a few inches off of the grill grate. Looking forward this in my next day off!

    Reply

  29. Hi Nicole,

    I didn't realize that I bought skinless fillers. Any recommendations for dealing with that? Concerned about it sticking to the grate...

    Reply

  30. I am making your Teriyaki version of this recipe in which you brush marinade on every 30 min. Do you brush the marinade on before placing on the smoker or do you wait the 30 minutes AFTER initial smoking? I don't want to ruin the pellicle but not sure if it makes a difference.

    Reply

    1. We always smoke it for 30 without sauce first, but I don't think you'd be ruining anything if you sauced it right away either.

    1. We typically run either the Gourmet Blend from Traeger or some kind of fruit wood like cherry or apple. But honestly - anything that's in your hopper will be just fine.

  32. What brand of Kosher salt do you use? Morton's is quite a bit saltier than Diamond Chrystal, so if using Morton's I cut the salt to 1/4 cup. 1/3 cup is good for Diamond Chrystal.

    Reply

    1. We generally use Morton and don't find it too salty. Your mileage may vary though so definitely adapt to your own tastes!