A quick and healthy meal, these salmon rice bowls are great for lunch or dinner!
Tender chunks of salmon are tossed in a sticky honey butter sauce. Serve it over rice with your favorite vegetables and toppings.
This recipe has been sponsored by Challenge Butter.
Sweet & Savory Salmon Bowls
- We love homemade salmon bowls since they taste great without the hefty price tag of take out.
- The ingredients can be prepared ahead and cooked just before serving.
- This honey butter sauce is made with fresh Challenge butter and tastes great on shrimp, chicken, or even tofu.
- They’re really fast to make and everyone can build their own salmon bowl. Set out add-ins, toppings, and sauces for everyone to try!
- Because it’s the perfect blend of protein, carbs, and fats, it’s the ideal mid-week dinner or workday lunch!
Ingredients for Salmon Rice Bowls
Salmon – Pick up filets when they’re on sale and freeze them until needed. The honey butter sauce tastes great on shrimp, chicken, or tofu too.
Honey Butter Sauce – What really makes this dish amazing is the simple honey butter sauce. While this sauce needs just a few ingredients, it is packed with flavor.
Honey and fresh butter create the base of this sauce. Challenge butter is churned the old-fashioned way daily from happy cows. I love that it has no added hormones or additives, Challenge butter contains just cream and salt and has the best fresh flavor.
A healthy dose of garlic, a splash of soy sauce, and a bit of orange zest are added for flavor. When zesting the orange, use a zester for the fine side of a box grater making sure to remove just the orange skin and not the white pith underneath.
Rice – White or brown rice makes up the base for salmon rice bowls, but low-carb lovers can use delicious cauliflower rice.
Optional Toppings
Bulk up the nutrition and flavor of these salmon rice bowls by adding steamed veggies like broccoli, snap peas or snow peas.
Choose fresh toppings in a variety of colors. We love ready-made coleslaw mix, sliced bell peppers, fresh bean sprouts, or edamame. Add a spicy mayo if you’d like (*see recipe notes).
Top with sesame seeds, sliced green onions, avocado slices, cilantro, and a wedge of lime.
How to Make a Salmon Rice Bowl
- Melt a stick of Challenge butter in a skillet and add honey, garlic, and soy sauce (per the recipe below). Simmer until slightly thickened. Set aside.
- Season salmon chunks and cook until lightly browned. Add the sauce and heat through.
- Spoon leftover sauce over the salmon pieces and top with remaining coleslaw and optional add-ins and toppings.
- Garnish with sesame seeds, green onions, or pickled ginger before serving.
Making Meal Prep Easy!
- Prepare a batch of rice in advance and keep it in the refrigerator until ready to assemble.
- The sauce can be made in advance and kept in the refrigerator for up to a week before use.
- Prep all of the veggies up to 48 hours in advance.
Did you love this Salmon Bowl as much as we do? Leave a comment and rating below!
Honey Butter Salmon Bowls
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 salmon fillets 6 oz each, or 24 oz salmon
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt or to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
Sauce
- 1 stick salted Challenge butter
- ⅓ cup honey
- 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon orange zest or 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 3 cloves garlic minced
Bowls
- 3 cups cooked rice
- 3 cups coleslaw mix any variety
- garnishes as desired *see notes such as sesame seeds, green onions, cilantro
Instructions
- Place butter in a large skillet and melt over medium heat.
- Add honey, garlic, and soy sauce. Simmer for 3-5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in orange zest and set the sauce aside.
- Cut the salmon into bite sized chunks and season with salt & pepper.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the salmon pieces and cook for 3 minutes without stirring. Stir and cook for 1 minute more.
- Add the sauce and stir, continue cooking just until heated. Do not overcook the salmon.
Bowl Assembly
- Place ¾ cup of rice in each bowl. Divide the salmon mixture over the bowls. Spoon any sauce overtop of the salmon pieces.
- Top with crisp coleslaw mix and toppings as desired.
Video
Notes
Salmon should be slightly translucent in the center and flake easily with a fork. Optional Additions:
- Steamed veggies like broccoli, snap peas, edamame, or peppers.
- Fresh veggies like diced cucumbers, green onions, julienned bell peppers.
- Sesame seeds, chopped cilantro, lime wedges.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner, Entree, Fish, Lunch
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
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I made this last night and it was delicious – kid asked for seconds this is always a GOOD thing. I did have issues with the sauce not thickening as other have commented. I would love to see that addressed or tips for when it doesn’t. Either way it was delicious and I will definitely make this again.
Hi Wan, we retested the sauce for this recipe yesterday and did not have any issues with thickening. Did you let it simmer for the full 4 minutes? What size pan did you use? A larger pan will help thicken it more. Was your heat too low? It should be at medium heat.
This was sooo good! Made the sriracha drizzle too, and the flavors were very complimentary. Couldn’t get the honey butter sauce to thicken, but it was still delicious and we demolished it all. Will definitely be trying again
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe Luna!
would have been delicious but I followed the printed recipe instead of the recipe directions on video and page. sauce was too runny but still had a good flavor. I microwaved sauce as directed on print and added 1/4 cup of water to steam coleslaw mix after cooking salmon. I will try it again.
I’m sorry for the confusion Tammy, I have updated the recipe.
I made the salmon bowl tonight. It was AMAZING!
Thank you.
I am so glad you loved this recipe Gayle!
Is this served hot or cold?
We ate it served hot, but either would be delicious!
Can this be made with canned salmon? I got quite a few cans from the food pantry Ava have been trying to use them in something other than salmon croquettes.
Hi Tina! This can definitely be made with canned salmon. I would add it to the bowl and drizzle the sauce over it (as opposed to stirring the canned salmon in the sauce). Enjoy!