Perfect Grilled Smoked Sockeye Salmon with Brown Sugar Butter Glaze

1. Prepare the Salmon

Start by cleaning your sockeye salmon and carefully checking for any small pin bones. Remove any bones you find.

Keep the skin on.

Season the salmon generously with your favorite seafood or fish rub. I went with a garlic-citrus style rub, but use whatever seafood seasoning you enjoy.

Let the seasoned salmon sit on the cutting board for about 10 minutes while you fire up the grill.

2. Make the Brown Sugar Butter Glaze

Add the brown sugar, unsalted butter, soy sauce, freshly cracked black pepper, and kosher salt to a small pot.

Set it aside for now.

3. Fire Up the Z Grills

Fire up your Z Grills and set the temperature to 200°F.

For this cook, I'm using cherry pellets. My thought process here is that any of the fruit woods will give the salmon a nice, subtle smoke without overpowering it. Cherry or apple would both be perfect choices.

Once the grill reaches 200°F, make sure you have a clean, well-lubricated cooking surface.

4. Smoke the Salmon

Place the salmon skin-side down on the middle shelf.

Close the lid and let it cook for 45 minutes.

We're bringing the salmon up nice and slow because sockeye is a lean salmon. If you cook it too hot, you can dry it out. This low-and-slow method gives you tender, flaky salmon with that beautiful subtle smoke flavor.

5. Warm the Glaze

At the 45-minute mark, give the salmon a quick look to make sure everything is cooking properly.

Place your pot of brown sugar butter glaze on the bottom shelf of the Z Grills.

Close the lid and continue cooking. Let the salmon and glaze go for another 30 minutes.

At this point, the glaze should be nice and melted. Remove the glaze from the grill and give it a good stir.

6. Glaze the Salmon

Now it's time to baste.

Get plenty of that brown sugar butter glaze onto the salmon. Coat the entire top of the fish generously.

Close the lid and continue cooking.

7. Check the Temperature

At about the 1½-hour mark, you should be getting close to done.

Glaze the salmon one more time and check the internal temperature by probing the thickest part of the fish.

You're looking for approximately 135°F.

That's the sweet spot for this salmon. We've brought it up nice and slow, so by the time you hit that temperature, you should have beautifully tender, flaky salmon without drying it out.

8. Remove the Salmon

Now comes the important part—be careful when removing the salmon.

Because we're cooking the salmon slowly and keeping the surface properly lubricated, you should have very little sticking.

For a full-size salmon like this, I recommend using two spatulas or a double-tong technique to carefully support the fish as you transfer it from the grill to your cutting board.

Once it's on the board, take any remaining brown sugar butter glaze and give the salmon one final generous coating.

9. Rest and Serve

Let the salmon rest for just a couple of minutes.

Then it's time to divvy it up and enjoy.

You should have beautifully flaky sockeye salmon with a subtle kiss of cherry smoke and a sweet, buttery, savory brown sugar glaze.