Sweet-and-smoky chipotle salmon topped with fresh orange salsa and creamy aji verde! An easy, delicious, restaurant-level salmon dinner.
Chipotle Salmon with Orange Salsa and Aji Verde
Featured comment
This new salmon dish rocked our world tonight at supper. It’s easy enough to make for weeknights but it really tastes like a special occasion!
Lori
My Husband Claims This Is The Best Salmon He’s Ever Had.
As soon as I slathered that chipotle brown sugar rub on the salmon, I knew that we were going to love it.
As if that buttery, flaky, smoky-sweet salmon wasn’t enough – add a little juicy, colorful salady salsa on top, and a garlicky aji verde on the bottom of the bowl for the green sauce lover in the family (ME), and we had a total showstopper meal that immediately earned a place in the “best salmon recipes” category for our family.
One of my daughters liked the salmon and green sauce (a win!), one of my daughters went back for seconds on the complete bowl, and both Bjork and I commented throughout the whole meal about how much we loved the flavors and textures.
(I realize this picture doesn’t look like much but I was just standing there eating that juicy orange salsa out of the bowl while waiting for the salmon to bake. For this batch, I had run the cabbage through the food processor, making it tender and extra shreddy. It’s SO yummy.)
The ingredient list looks a little long, but there’s a lot of overlapping ingredients. And it’s very straightforward:
- Bake the salmon.
- Blend the sauce.
- Toss the salsa (or salad? it’s kind of both).
Pile it all into the bowl, and feel like you’re in a restaurant. Hope you guys love this one. It’s just a vibrant bowl of freshness that I’ve been needing lately.
All my favorite salmon recipes are right here, if you want more ideas to love salmon!
Here’s What The Ingredients Look Like:
You cannot miss with these flavors.
In a nutshell: salmon, spices, and cilantro, lime, garlic, jalapeno, oranges.
Happy colors, happy flavors.
Let’s Make This:
1
Make Your Salsa.
It’s shown here with oranges in the bowl – but wait to add those until just before serving so they don’t turn pink. 🙂
2
Blend Your Aji Verde.
I just adore this sauce so much.
3
Bake Your Salmon.
Spice rub + oil, then bake for 10 minutes.
4
Plate It Up Kinda Fancy.
Rice and sauce on the bottom of the dish, then chunks of salmon + the salsa on top.
If You Love This, You’ll Love These
We do have a bit of a “type” in our family when it comes to favorite recipes – the spicy sweet combo just seems like what we are loving these days. Others we love right now:
- these sweet potatoes with the chipotle sauce (our hyper-fixation over the last few months)
- the bbq salmon with mango salsa
- this air fryer salmon or air fryer chicken
- these gochujang noodles
- the bang bang salmon
How To Make This Salmon (Video)
Chipotle Salmon with Orange Salsa and Aji Verde
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Sweet-and-smoky chipotle salmon topped with fresh orange salsa and creamy aji verde! An easy, delicious, restaurant-level salmon dinner.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Chipotle Salmon
- 1 1/2 pounds salmon filet (I have used both skinless and skin-on; either works)
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning (I use Siete)
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder, depending on spice preference
- spritz of avocado oil
Orange Salsa
- 3 large navel oranges, cut into chunks (peeled with a knife, pith removed)
- a small wedge of purple cabbage, finely shredded or pulsed in a food processor (about 2 cups)
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- a small wedge of red onion, minced (about 1/4 cup)
- 1–2 tablespoons olive oil or avocado oil
- juice of 2 limes (2–3 tablespoons)
- half of a jalapeño (ribs and seeds removed)
- 1 tablespoon sugar + 1/2 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
Aji Verde
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1 cup cilantro leaves and stems
- half of a jalapeño pepper (ribs and seeds removed)
- 1 clove garlic
- juice of 1 lime
- a pinch of salt, to taste
Other
- Rice for serving
Instructions
- Make Orange Salsa: Toss all ingredients together except oranges; massage with your hands to soften the cabbage a bit. (You’ll add the oranges until right before serving, so they don’t turn pink.)
- Make Aji Verde: Blend the aji verde sauce until smooth.
- Prep Salmon: Preheat oven to 450 degrees; place a rack near the top. Pat salmon dry with paper towels. Place on a sheet pan lined with foil (I just leave the filets in one whole piece). Mix seasoning for salmon; coat salmon filets with seasoning. Spritz with a light coating avocado oil.
- Bake Salmon: Bake for 5 minutes near the top of the oven. Then broil another 4-6 minutes until cooked to your liking (I like it to be medium, about 135 degrees).
- Serve: Add oranges to the slaw mixture. Put rice and aji verde side by side on the bottom of a plate or shallow bowl. Then flake a few chunks of salmon on top, and finish with a scoop of the salsa. Chef’s kiss!
Notes
If your salmon has skin, place it skin side down on the baking sheet.
In the ingredient photo above, you’ll see cotija cheese which I do often add to my aji verde – however, for the final version, I felt like the sauce was more harmonious for this dish without the cotija, which is why it’s not in the final written ingredient list.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: salmon recipe, sheet pan salmon, orange salsa, aji verde
My Favorite Salmon Recipes
Filed Under: All Recipes Dairy-Free Dinner Fish and Seafood Gluten-Free Healthy Recipes Salmon Sheet Pan
January 26, 2026
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
My cousin’s wife made this dish and it was absolutely delicious! And this is coming from someone who doesn’t like cilantro or onions lol I asked her to send me the recipe so I can try to make it for my friends and family when I return home.
This is an amazing recipe! I used greek yogurt instead of mayo and skipped the rice. I served this in homemade tortillas and it is my new favorite taco!
This recipe was amazing! I subbed mangos for the oranges and added a bit of honey to the slaw. Will be making this again, I rarely remake dishes… it was that good!
I’ve made this twice in two weeks now. My whole family loves it. It’s so fast and delicious! Served with cilantro lime rice. I’ve used mangoes instead of the oranges since they’re in season, but I’ll have to try oranges in the winter. Thanks for another winner!
I have to say this was one of the best recipes and dinners my family has had, and I cook a ton! Great flavors and textures especially when taking a bite of all of it together. Fantastic!!
I did add avocado to the aji verde because I wanted thicker and I’m obsessed with avocado but other than that followed it to a T.
Really tasty! Everything pairs really nicely together. It got the “please make again” stamp from my husband and my 4 year old even liked the slaw and the sauce (salmon is another story, he had it with chicken sausage, haha).
The best salmon dish I have ever made!! Seriously phenomenal. I don’t usually leave comments on recipes but I just have to because wow!!!!
Thank you for your note!
A top shelf meal…flavors so fresh. Every bite leaves you wanting more. I failed to see the star ratings below and wanted to make sure everyone knew it was “5 Stars!”
Pinch of Yum is my all time go to for outstanding dishes that have a surprise and freshness to each bit.
This was absolutely delicious! All the flavors came together so well. Big hit with the family. Only minimal changes were swapping honey for the sugar. And I added avocado to the slaw mix instead of oranges. Some of my family is weirded out by fruit in savory dishes
We ate this on the patio tonight and I felt like we were eating fine dining. The combination of everything is so, so good!
Thank you so much for it, it is such a good recipe! We genuinely make it every time we have salmon in
This was absolutely incredible!! My husband said it was restaurant quality (which is the HIGHEST level of praise). I’ve made it 3x already and will be serving it when we have guests over next week.
This recipe is phenomenal! It is restaurant quality but simple to make. The flavors go so well together. Thank for another amazing recipe!
Delicious! I made this exactly as written and it was fabulous! I made a separate batch of meat using the same rub on chicken thighs- 450 degrees, 20 minutes. I sent the chicken home with my son along with the leftover slaw, rice and aji verde. Should be almost as good as leftovers since I don’t think salmon is as good the next day. I’ll make this meal for company. It was really excellent!!
So yummy!!! Better than/just as good as a fancy restaurant meal!
This was excellent, fresh and vibrant and very simple to prepare. I prepared the salsa and sauce early in the day and then it took less than 10 minutes to put on the table. I prepared the salmon in an air fryer!
Which type of rice should I use? Basmati?
We like jasmine with this one!
Obsessed!! This is so good. We made it with salmon last night and subbed in tofu and tempeh tonight with the same seasoning as the salmon to finish up the sides! It will be added to the rotation. Thank you!
We made this for Easter and it was a huge hit– we left out the chipotle powder and used green onion instead of red onion for spice/flavor preferences, but everything else we did exactly as written. I’d probably halve the aji verde next time, but if you are heavy-handed with sauce, make it all! We will be making this one again for sure.
So glad you enjoyed it!
This is a great recipe. The aji verde is delicious over the salmon. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Flavours were a delicious combination. We didn’t feel like rice, so used all the ingredients and made it into a burger.
I wanted to make a special dinner for Good Friday. We love all the recipes we have ever tried from Lindsay so I decided to make the Chipotle Salmon with Orange Salsa and Aji verde. It was to die for!!! Restaurant quality meal served in the comfort of my home! This is hands down one of my most favorite recipes I have ever made. Thank you Lindsay!!
This recipe was so good! The oranges in the slaw are so fun. I did use a bagged cabbage mix Instead of getting a head of purple cabbage and it was still yummy. I want to eat the green sauce on everything!
This was so good! The flavor is unreal and the combination of everything together is spot on. The sauce is a must, and honestly you can hardly taste the cilantro. It’s just creamy lime goodness! I can always count on pinch of Pinch of Yum recipes! They always hit!
Made this last night and had the leftovers today, both were delicious!! I enjoyed the orange but would love to try pineapple or mango next time.