PB&J Salmon and Noodles

Don’t freak out! This meal is not nearly as odd as it sounds, I promise! We’re going to make a sweet and spicy glaze for some salmon, a spicy peanut sauce for some ramen, and throw it all together in a bowl for a flavor bomb of a meal. It’s sooooooo good. You’re gonna love it!

Let’s start with the salmon. We need some salmon filets with the skin removed that we’ll cut into bite sized chunks. I’ve really come to love nugget sized salmon for one main reason…the surface area of caramelization. In my opinion, the edges of the salmon are always the best bite. No matter how you season or flavor the salmon, the end pieces always get just a little extra caramelized making for the absolute best mouthful. So by chopping your salmon into chunks before cooking it, we’re adding so many more edges to the salmon which means so many more perfect bites. It also cooks super fast this way too, so you can’t beat that.

To season our salmon, we’re going to make a very simple glaze of chili garlic sauce, avocado oil, and a secret sweetening ingredient…strawberry preserves. The strawberry preserves add just the right amount of sweetness to balance out the spicy chili sauce without the strawberry becoming a predominant flavor. So, we’ll mix the glaze until combined, toss in our salmon cubes, season the salmon with a pinch of salt, and toss it all together until that salmon is coated. We’ll let the salmon sit in the glaze for a few minutes while the air fryer preheats. Then, to the air fryer it goes for about 5 minutes to cook to perfection.

While the salmon cooks, we can work on our peanut noodles. For the sauce, we need some peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, and a little more chili garlic sauce. We’ll take one of those cheapo $.25 ramen packs, ditch the seasoning packet, and cook the ramen according to package directions. But before dropping the noodles into the boiling water, we’ll take out some of that boiling water and add it to our peanut butter mixture to help turn it into a nice creamy sauce. Once the noodles are finished cooking, we’ll throw the ramen into our sauce, toss them well to coat, and we’re pretty much done.

To serve, we’ll layer those super saucy noodles into a bowl, top them with our divinely cooked salmon pieces, and finish the whole bowl with a sprinkle of sesame seeds. I like to serve this meal with some roasted broccoli on the side, but that’s more because I’m going through a broccoli phase and less about this particular dish. You serve it with whatever veggie you like!

This bowl of food is BURSTING with flavor. You guys know I can be a little bit of a spice weenie, and there’s just enough heat in this bowl to make me sweat without being miserable. The nuttiness from the noodles and the fattiness from the fish help to balance out that spicy chili garlic sauce in the best possible way. This is why this bowl of food is probably one of the dishes I make for myself most often. It did start out as a “Cooking for One” recipe, after all!

Alright, everyone! I know people tend to think of pb&j as a sweet flavor profile, but I REALLY hope you trust me and give this savory application a try. I know you’ll love it as much as I do!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy. And, let’s eat!