Our sour cream baked salmon recipe is quick and so delicious. You’ll spread a simple sour cream and mustard sauce over salmon fillets and bake until cooked through. We love this easy salmon recipe so much!
Our family eats a lot of salmon, so we have a long list of delicious salmon recipes. This sour cream and mustard crusted salmon is ridiculously simple to put together.
Since you bake the salmon with the sour cream sauce, it becomes super moist and flavorful. For another easy recipe, see our brown sugar baked salmon or lemon dill baked salmon.
Key Ingredients
- Salmon: Any salmon fillet will work for this recipe. However, I especially love those with a higher fat content, like sockeye, king, and coho. When baked, these types of salmon stay soft and moist.
- Sour Cream Sauce: This quick three-ingredient sauce makes our salmon so delicious. You’ll stir sour cream (full fat is best) with whole-grain mustard and grated parmesan cheese. Dijon mustard is a good substitute for whole-grain mustard. A thick yogurt works as a substitute for sour crem.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Sour Cream Baked Salmon
We really love this salmon recipe! It’s flavorful and takes less than 30 minutes to prep, which makes it perfect for busy nights. We’ve even served this for a dinner party with rave reviews from friends. Let’s quickly walk through our tips for making it:
Tip 1: Make the sour cream topping. By spreading the top of our fillets with sour cream and mustard, we not only add flavor and a built-in sauce but also create an insulating layer for the salmon, preventing it from overcooking in the oven. Kind of genius, right?
The sauce is simple. Stir together sour cream, mustard, and finely grated Parmesan. We use our microplane grater to finely grate the cheese (probably one of my most-used kitchen gadgets).
Tip 2: Bake the salmon. I love baking salmon fillets. It’s hands-off and, in this recipe, helps keep the fish tender and moist. Place them on a lined baking sheet (or in a baking dish), then generously spread the sour cream sauce over the top.
Tip 3: Use an internal temperature. We cook salmon to an internal temperature of 125°F. At this temperature, the fish will flake, but with an ever-so-slightly darker pink in the middle. Overcooked salmon turns out dense and loses all that soft, moist texture, so if you don’t have a thermometer, we highly recommend getting one.
Serving Suggestions
We usually keep it easy with a side of veggies. In our photos, you see green beans — try our roasted green beans or these sautéed green beans. Other sides we love for this are garlic butter zucchini, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, and sautéed cabbage (which is so quick!).
More Salmon Recipes
Easy Sour Cream Baked Salmon
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
In this simple salmon recipe, we top our salmon with a creamy sauce made with sour cream, mustard, and Parmesan cheese. As it bakes in the oven, it acts as an insulator, keeping our salmon moist and tender. This one works for weeknights, but is also impressive enough for a special occasion. Serve with your favorite vegetables on the side.
You Will Need
1 ½ pounds center-cut salmon, cut into 4 filets, about 6 ounces each
½ cup sour cream (113 grams / 4 ounces)
1 ½ teaspoons whole-grain mustard
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, finely grated (about ⅓ cup)
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Fine sea salt
Directions
1Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a rimmed baking sheet or large baking dish with parchment paper.
2In a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, mustard, Parmesan, and black pepper. Season with salt to taste.
3Place the salmon on the baking sheet, then spread two tablespoons of the sour cream mixture over each filet.
4Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until barely done in the center at the thickest part of the salmon. The center should be firm, but with a small amount of uncooked salmon in the very center. Depending on how thick your salmon is, it may need a few minutes longer. (We cook salmon to an internal temperature of 125°F (52°C)).
5Remove from the oven, cover lightly with aluminum foil, and rest for 5 minutes.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- White stuff on cooked salmon: The white stuff around cooked salmon is called albumin. It’s perfectly fine to eat, but since it isn’t the prettiest thing to look at, I quickly scrape it away and spoon a bit of the cooking liquid from the bottom of the dish on top.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
I always, always, always use this recipe. It’s great, cook time is on point. Everyone love this salmon, and my mother in law even called it restaurant quality! I have modified it a bit for flavor and used some of grandpa’s salmon tricks. I add a clove of minced garlic, a dash of soy sauce, and onion powder to the topping.And for the salmon, I soak it in milk for 20 min before cooking (grandmas secret) this helps take any fishness out of the salmon and makes it light and fluffy! Just rinse with cold water, pat dry, continue with the recipe and enjoy.
Yum! Those sound delicious. Love the personal touches 🙂
WOW!! I tried this recipe today and it was absolutely wonderful and by far the best salmon I have ever tasted. Your recipe was so easy to follow and I did so to a ‘T’ only adding a touch of lemon juice. Only cooking for one, I used just two fillets and kept one to have cold with your equally delicious cucumber feta salad. I have now tried a few of your recipes which never fail to impress. I can never wait to get cooking ! Thank you xx
This is an easy and quick recipe, and makes a delicious salmon.
This was delicious. My daughter bought enough salmon for four people. I cooked it all the first night and we had half of it the second night. It heated up beautifully in the oven. I made one addition to the topping. I added a spoonful of lemon zest which I keep n the freezer in measured amounts in parchment paper.
This was just so easy! I used country Dijon mustard and dry grated parmesan. Cooked about 12 servings in 14 minutes. Will freeze when they cool down a bit. I’ve done this one before – to heat it after freezing, add a bit of water to the container before putting it in the microwave covered – I use high but you can play around a bit if you are afraid it will dry out, but covered with a couple tablespoons of water per serving works great for me. It’s so convenient if I get a lot of salmon to pre-cook and freeze.
This recipe was so delicious. My kids loved it!
I was hesitant but the recipe had the advantage of calling for stuff I had on hand. And am I glad it did because this is outstanding and going in the regular rotation. What I thought would be too much topping was perfect. I did cook for 12 minutes which was a little over but the topping kept it moist. Three days later my husband is still talking about it.
I DO NOT like salmon. I force myself to eat it because it is so good for me. Hands down this was the best salmon I ever eaten whether restaurant or prepared at home. I live alone so I reduced the quantity of the sauce. I used the sauce more liberally than recipes show….waste not, want not! I will use this recipes many more often and serve it to guests. Thank you, thank you!
When I don’t have the energy to cook, this is my go-to recipe instead of takeaways. So easy and so tasty. Absolutely love it!
I made the recipe and added the crushed pork rinds it was fast and delicious. My husband said it was flaky and really good. He is not a fan of fish and he ate the whole filet thank you!
I made this exactly as the recipes states but added one thing: I like a little crunch but don’t eat grains, so I crushed some chicarrones (pork rinds) on top and baked it that way. AMAZING!!! Thanks for a great (and easy) recipe! My fish were thick so they took about 15 min.
This topping is delicious and the salmon turned out perfectly cooked at 12 min. I’m going to use this topping for baked chicken and pork chops. Great easy recipes like this make the Keto diet a breeze!
I made your salmon recipe for dinner with a few changes. I put lemon zest on the salmon, then salt and pepper, made the paste and added dill weed. (. I like dill with salmon.) Apply the paste, sprinkle panco on top. Makes a nice crust. Cooked for 20 Minutes. Wonderful dinner.
I added bread crumbs and dill plus just a bit of lemon zest. Perfect
I made this over the weekend and OH MY GOSH! This was so good! My husband rated it a “wow”. It was super easy to cook and would be a great dinner to have with guests, or just with your family (quick and easy)
Very tasty!! And easy!
I made the salmon this evening. Instead of sour cream, I used plain yogurt. It was moist and delicious. I will make this a go to recipe. It was so easy.
Do you mean freshly grated parmesan or dry grated parmesan? Thanks!
Hi Elle, You can use either, although we do prefer grating parmesan ourselves.
Thank you!
Absolutely wonderful!! Loved this and my husband, who is not big on fish, loved it as well.
Made this tonight…followed recipe but added some horseradish and parsley flakes…served with sticky rice and sugar snap peas….simply fabulous
LOVED this recipe! Easy to make and delicious! Thank you for sharing! 5 stars!
This recipe was awesome! Husband approved (by a husband that isn’t crazy about salmon). I had too much of the sour cream mixture so I put the rest in the mashed potatoes and that was delicious too. Thanks for sharing it!
Does this recipe reheat well? I always try to make enough to take to lunch the next day.
You could certainly reheat the salmon, just be aware that the salmon will be less moist/tender than when eaten straight away.
I just made this for a dinner party and received very good feedback. I did bake it on parchment paper, and I did add a nice squirt of lemon at the end. Also, once I coated the salmon, I added extra mustard in a long line down the salmon (I did full 1/2 salmon and cut it after baking). The only thing is that I have half of the sour cream mixture leftover. I think if I used any more it would have been overwhelming and too thick/rich. So next time I’ll cut the sour cream mixture in half (except the mustard) – it’s still plenty and will lighten the recipe up quite a bit.
I loved this. First time, I made it exactly as recipe . It seemed to need something. Second time, I squeezed some fresh lemon over the sour cream mixture. Perfect. Terrific recipe.
Very well written, thorough, and easy to understand. Sounds great! l’m going to try it!
Made turkey meatballs, turned out very well.
Enjoy your site
I make salmon most every night and was looking for a new recipe… Tried this and my husband commented multiple times about how good it was! Delicious recipe the way it is. I added more mustard seeds to make it look prettier and he didn’t seem to mind. Thank you! Adding it to my rotation
Excellent recipe, made many times from this site. It doesn’t need any changes but its flexible so I can if I want to
Excellent recipe, made many times from this site. There’s no need to change it, but its flexible so you can when you like. Thanks for sharing
Is there something I can substitute for the mustard? I don’t usually have that on hand.
I used regular yellow mustard and it turned out well.
Horseradish could work or any of your favorite dry spices blends … curry would be nice.
Had this last night – delicious! While it calls for whole fat sour cream, I had reduced fat on hand and it seemed to work fine. I’m sure non-fat would not work as well.
Great because it is so easy – nothing to chop! And because it is absolutely to die for. Would be terrific for a dinner party – it’s that good.
Great recipe! So easy, and was delicious.
So glad you enjoyed it.
It will probably be just as good and better for you if Greek Yogurt is substituted for the sour cream. Great recipe.
I’m gonna need to lie down.