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This canned salmon salad is shockingly good! Inspired by the smoked salmon dip from J. Alexander’s, but without actually needing any smoked salmon, this recipe is easy to make, budget-friendly, and does NOT taste canned! You can serve it as a sandwich, on leafy greens, or as a dip with crackers or toasts.
🐟 What Makes This Recipe So Good
- Canned salmon salad is a ridiculously easy recipe to throw together in no time. Really! There’s zero cooking, and barely even any prep. Just mix up the salmon, make a quick dressing, then stir it all together. Voila! If you like tuna salad, you’ll love this.
- Don’t tell anyone it’s made with canned salmon and I guarantee, they’d never guess it on their own. It doesn’t taste canned at all! The liquid smoke, maple syrup, lemon juice, and salt help to mimic the flavors of cured and smoked salmon. It’s a great little hack to elevate the canned fish easily and cost-effectively.
- If you’ve ever eaten at J. Alexander’s, this canned salmon salad will definitely remind you of their smoked salmon dip! Of course, they use in-house-smoked salmon, not canned, but other than that. Their dip has more of a creamy, paste-like consistency than our salad version. If you want something more along those lines, make the salad as instructed below, then pulse everything in the food processor a few times.
👩🏼🍳 Chef’s Tips
- You can buy canned salmon two different ways – boneless & skinless, or “traditional style”, which includes bones and skin. The “traditional style” usually has more flavor and is much richer than the boneless alternative. If you’re not used to seeing those little bits, though, they can be kind of off-putting. You’re welcome to pick them out of the salmon if you want, but! They’re safe to eat and essentially disappear once the salmon’s mixed with everything else.
- The dressing for this particular canned salmon salad is similar to my creamy dill sauce that I use on air fryer salmon and salmon patties. Just like with tuna salad or ham salad, though, you can absolutely change or omit ingredients based on your tastes and needs. Capers, scallions, hot sauce, red pepper flakes, red onion, celery, avocado… SO many delicious flavors go with salmon!
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Canned Salmon Salad
Canned salmon, fresh dill, creamy mayo, and other ingredients give this salmon salad its rich, smoky, sweet, slightly citrusy flavors. Inspired by the smoked salmon dip from J. Alexander's, but with no smoked salmon required!
servings
Equipment
- medium mixing bowl
- Silicone spatula or large wooden spoon
- small mixing bowl
Ingredients
For the Salmon
- 2 14.75-ounce cans salmon drained well, flaked; see Notes
- 1 ½ teaspoons liquid smoke
- 4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon salt more or less to taste
For the Creamy Dill Dressing
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup chopped fresh dill or 2 teaspoons dried dill
- ¼ cup minced shallot
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper more or less to taste
Serving Suggestions (All Optional)
- crostini
- buttery crackers
- lettuce cups
Instructions
- Add 2 14.75-ounce cans salmon, 1 ½ teaspoons liquid smoke, 4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, and 1 teaspoon salt to medium mixing bowl. Stir gently until ingredients are well combined, then set bowl aside to let salmon "cure".
- Add ⅓ cup mayonnaise, ¼ cup chopped fresh dill, ¼ cup minced shallot, 1 clove garlic, 1 tablespoon dijon mustard, and ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper to small bowl. Stir well until ingredients are fully incorporated into creamy mixture.
- Transfer dill dressing into bowl of salmon. Gently fold dressing into salmon, stirring until all ingredients are well blended.
- Serve salmon salad immediately, or cover bowl with lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Canned Salmon: If you’re using “traditional style” canned salmon, you may notice the salmon contains bones and skin. You can remove them if you want, or you can leave them in. They’re safe to eat and typically not noticeable once the salmon’s mixed with everything else in the recipe.
- Leftovers: Refrigerate leftover salmon salad in an airtight container up to 3 days. I do not recommend freezing this recipe.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Serving Size: 1servingCalories: 230calProtein: 25gFat: 12gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.05gCholesterol: 91mgSodium: 773mgPotassium: 405mgTotal Carbs: 5gFiber: 0.4gSugar: 4gNet Carbs: 5gVitamin A: 190IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 310mgIron: 1mg
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
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Follow up —- the display problem of not showing the recipe itself does seem to be limited to this particular recipe. I checked five other recipes on the site and they all displayed properly. As I noted in my previous comment, this is my first visit to this site so there are no cache issues. If you can, I suggest you visit this page from a browser under anonymous browsing or use of browser different than what you normally use to post from. I think you’ll see the same issue as your other viewers.
You may want to re-create this recipe page. I have five cans of special packed salmon so definitely looking for a good recipe.
You were right, and thank you for being so thorough — that detail is exactly what helped us track it down. There was some corrupted code in the post itself that was wiping the recipe card out of the page. It’s fixed now, so it should load fine for you.
Sorry, but everyone is correct. There is a problem with the recipe not showing. This is my very first visit to this page. It’s not a cashing issue or something like that. For the record I’m browsing this from Safari using my iPad.
I don’t have any Web blockers or any other unusual technology. I’m just using the basic web browser was directed here directly from Google.
You’re gonna wanna talk to your provider and what’s happening here. I’m gonna browse a few other recipe pages to see if this is the exception. But yes, all the people in the comments are making a valid point.
You’re right, and I’m sorry for the runaround. It wasn’t your browser or a caching thing at all — there was broken code in the page that was deleting the recipe card. It’s fixed now and the recipe should show up.
The ingredients/instruction are not showing.
Hi! Thanks for letting me know — I just loaded this one live and the ingredients and instructions are showing up fine, so I think you’re seeing a cached page or an ad blocker is hiding the recipe card. A hard refresh (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+R) or pausing your ad blocker for the site should bring it right back. Hope you love the salmon salad!
The recipe is still not there. Bummer as I was looking forward to trying this! Hope your able to fix it soon!
Oh no, sorry Melissa! Good news: the recipe is definitely there — I just checked it live. When it disappears like that it’s usually an ad blocker or a cached version of the page. Try a hard refresh (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+R) and pause any ad blocker for 40aprons.com, and the card should pop right up. It’s worth the extra 30 seconds, I promise — this one’s a favorite!
Unable to see the recipe. I hope you get it fixed.
Hi Diana! I just double-checked and the recipe card is loading fine on my end, so this is most likely an ad blocker or a cached page. A hard refresh (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+R) or pausing your ad blocker for 40aprons.com should make it show up. Let me know if it’s still giving you trouble!
It looks like the recipe has disappeared from the page! May you please restore it?
Oh no! The recipe should definitely be there — I just double-checked and it’s showing up on my end. Sometimes ad blockers or slow connections can prevent the recipe card from loading. Try refreshing the page or opening it in a private/incognito window and let me know if that fixes it!
Would love to make this but the recipe cannot be found on the page. 🙁
Oh no, Karen, I’m so sorry about that! This is a known issue we’re actively working on — the recipe card isn’t displaying for some users right now. In the meantime, hang tight and I’ll get this fixed ASAP. Thank you for letting me know!
You are right – this is suprising awesome! I’m always looking for a way to make canned salmon taste good and this is it. Thanks!
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Barb!
Can I eat this while pregnant?
We aren’t medically trained and aren’t able to make any medical recommendations. Definitely check with your medical professional as they’ll be familiar with your specific pregnancy and needs!
Delicious
Thanks so much for leaving a review, Virginia! So glad you loved the recipe!