For Top-Tier Salmon, Look To A Common Party Appetizer

For many fans of spicy foods, a serving of Buffalo wings with a side of celery means a party. For seafood lovers who also enjoy that extra spicy kick, a mash-up of Buffalo wing sauce and baked or fried salmon is picante fish done right. Fortunately, with a few adjustments to the cooking times, it's a fairly simple swap, and with options to make the dish either on the stovetop or in the oven, the recipe is flexible enough to work with a couple of different preparation methods.

First things first; you'll want to make the Buffalo wing sauce. You can use the same recipe you use for the wings. Most of the adjustments will come with the cooking times, not the recipe itself. On a basic level, the sauce consists of kosher salt, butter, garlic powder, honey, cayenne pepper, and the hot sauce of your preference. Many home gourmands use Frank's RedHot as their hot sauce of choice for the dish.

However, since some recipes for the sauce also call for some sort of vinegar, white or apple cider, you might try to simplify things even further by using Sriracha in your salmon recipe rather than another kind of hot sauce, given that it already has some vinegar in it. Which type of sauce you use will be based on personal preference and the possible supplies you have on hand.

Once you've made the glaze, whether with Sriracha or your favorite kind of buffalo wing sauce, you're ready to move onto cooking the salmon. If you're going to prepare the salmon on the stovetop, it will take between two and five minutes to cook on each side, compared to the 30 minutes it takes to make wings. Once you've cooked both sides of the salmon, pour glaze in the pan and on the salmon. Continue to spoon glaze on top until the salmon is done cooking and the sauce is hot.

If you're baking it in the oven, set the temperature at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Treat a piece of foil with some cooking spray and place a piece of salmon in the foil. Heat up the Buffalo sauce on the stove or in the microwave and then pour over the fish. Fold the fish into the foil and slide the baking sheet or dish that holds the salmon in the oven. It'll need to cook for about 20 minutes.

Many Buffalo wing recipes make enough sauce to cover one or two pieces of fish with some leftover. However, it's also possible to scale the recipes up or down, depending on how many you're cooking for. As for the sauce, it'll stay chef's-kiss yummy in the fridge for up to a week if you don't finish all of it in a single sitting.