Healthy Air Fryer Salmon

Healthy Air Fried Salmon Recipe

Healthy cooking can be simple and quick. Our air fryer salmon recipe is a perfect example of how to eat healthy without sacrificing flavor. We’re obsessed with this air fried salmon because it truly is so quick. You’ll have dinner on the table in a few minutes and the salmon is perfectly cooked. Best of all, there’s very little oil to cook salmon in the air fryer! Seriously, we’re always surprised at how little oil you need to make a fantastic healthy salmon dinner.

Video: Healthy Air Fryer Salmon Recipe

Why Air Fry Salmon Instead of Baking It?

We’ve baked and roasted salmon so many times that we had believed it’s the best method out there. But with air fried salmon, the cooking time is much quicker! The salmon comes out wonderfully moist. The small air fryer cooking baskets makes for a quicker cooking time when compared to a conventional oven. If using a regular oven, you have to wait for it to pre-heat. For air frying, there’s no pre-heating required. And best of all, cleaning is so much easier if you use easy to clean silicone mats or perforated parchment paper. We give recommendations further below.

How to Air Fry Salmon (Tips)

• We use fresh salmon fillets. Our timing is based on fresh fillets.
• Use a very light layer of oil such as olive oil, avocado oil or grape seed oil. You don’t need much at all.
• Our recipe uses simple oil, salt and pepper. But if you want to use other seasonings, that’s great! Lemon pepper, garlic powder, onion powder or even steak seasoning is fantastic. Steak seasoning has so much flavor it’s not just for steak!
• If you’re air frying salmon fillets that are over 6oz, you have to add about another 1-2 minutes of cooking time. Also, if it’s like an 8oz thick fillet, you definitely will need the extra 1-2 minutes.
• All healthy air fried salmon recipe details are in the recipe box below.

What About Frozen Salmon?

Sure, you can use frozen salmon if it’s thawed. We suggest thawing the salmon in the fridge overnight, then squeezing out all the excess water. Pat the salmon with a paper towel and soak up as much moisture as possible. Then proceed with the air fryer salmon recipe. Make sure it’s fully thawed through the center, so when it’s air fried, it will cook all the way through. If your salmon fillet is still slightly frozen in the middle, it will still be raw after air frying.

What are the Best Air Fryers?

Here’s our extensive write up on Air Fryer World’s Best Air Fryer Guide. There’s so many on the market now. You just need to research and find the ones that fits your needs, capacity and style. We group the basket style air fryers into 2 main size groups: 3-4 qt. range & the 5-6 qt. range.  There’s oven style and basket style. With so many to choose from, we highlight the ones that are most popular for small to medium sized families. Here’s our favorites:

Good Mid-Sized Air Fryers

“That’s a stylish Air Fryer” was said as we unboxed the Cosori. Beyond being stylish, it has cooked great. The basket is not as tall and wider than most in its size group, which is perfect. You’ll have a lot better results in an air fryer with single layered, spread out foods, then with ones piled high and thick.
The non-stick basket style (non-wire base) & smoothness of the basket tray is also great for clean up.

Has a great ceramic coated basket, one of the longest lasting we’ve used. Super powerful fan that will often cook recipes even faster than other air fryers. We initially returned our first one because we thought we wouldn’t like the basket style. After reconsidering, we bought another and are super glad we did. We love it’s basket and just a platform insert. One less bulky thing to wash. This is a great air fryer.

Simple functional panel. Solid basket design that is less likely to come unscrewed or break like other designs frequently do after a few months of repeated use. Great price for the size. They have several color options for the design-minded user.  

Good Larger Air Fryers

This is quickly becoming one of our favorite larger basket style air fryers. Great basket size, good controls, cooks nice. Clean up is great. It has become one of our kitchen favorites.

Most of us are familiar with the Instant Pot Brand of pressure cookers. They now make air fryers and it has become a regular in our kitchen. The Vortex plus 9-in-1 is beyond the conventional air fryer. The “plus” boasts features beyond the hot circulating air: Broil, Bake, Dehydrate, Rotisserie, Roast and Re-heat. 

12 Cooking modes. Connects to your smartphone & has Alexa or Google Assistant integration for voice control. 32 quarts. Large enough it actually has a rotisserie too. 

More Easy Recipes:

• Here’s All our –> Best Air Fryer Recipes 
• Oven baked salmon recipe
• Baked honey garlic salmon 
• Foil pack garlic butter salmon 
• Hearty salmon and corn chowder 
• Air Fryer fish fillets 
• Chicken and Broccoli “Stir Fry” in Air Fryer
• This recipe was originally published in 2019 and updated in 2025.