Instant Pot Frozen Salmon

It has never been easier to cook using your pressure cooker! In less than 15 minutes total you too can have flaky fish for dinner with some lemon butter on top. One of our favorite healthy Instant Pot recipes that my husband makes almost weekly.

We offer these tips when cooking Frozen Salmon in Oven too. Just because it is straight out of your freezer doesn’t mean dinner is ruined, it isn’t. I can cooked all sorts of things rock hard to fork tender all the time and nobody knows the difference. 😉

Here we will share you specifically how to cook frozen salmon if all you have a bag of frozen fish on hand. NO need to defrost, you can cook right out of the freezer following our tips and tricks below.

Ingredient Notes

You will want a few serving sized pieces of frozen salmon fillets. I like them cut sockeye salmon into the same size vs. a whole filet because it needs to fit on the trivet.

You will need some water or some sort of liquid of your choice to steam them, broth works too for more flavor. I like to add a few slices of fresh lemons or a splash of lemon juice on top with butter too.

You can use our dry rub for salmon if you want to add a lot more flavor. Do so before cooking or when done you could use it as a seasoning.

Can you add vegetables?

You can add veggies! You’d need to choose those that too take about the same cook time. The best choices would be quartered potatoes and/or peeled and cut up carrots (cut into thirds) so everything comes out tender at the same time. Just set them around the filets overlapping the least amount possible.

How Long to Cook Frozen Salmon in Instant Pot

You only need a 5 minute cook time to get this done to flaky and tender. Remember to quick release the steam at the end or it will get too done. Placed on a trivet the hot steam is able to rotate around the whole filet to defrost, and then cook perfectly.

Should you cook frozen salmon skin side up or down?

If you purchased filets with the skin on (which is preferred to keep as moist as possible) you should pressure cook with the skin on the bottom. This way when it cooks the Omega 3 oils will get trapped by the skin so it soaks in to keep it tender.

Can you make this as a Ninja Foodi recipe too?? Of course you can!! Any brand will do. the only difference with this multi function machine and others is that you need to use the lid that is not attached to pressure cook. However, then you can also follow our air fryer frozen salmon instructions if you’d rather.

Want to make defrosted Instant Pot fish tonight?? We have instructions for that too. They’re very similar directions and quite frankly comes out almost identical to this one.

Tips

Choose fillets that are similar in size so they cook evenly, middle pieces will be thicker than the ends, cook them together accordingly. Do not overlap your pieces when you cook them together, you want the steam to hit all sides or the piece underneath will be underdone.

When pressure cooker fish recipes you will want to season the tops as well as the water underneath, many times I will add a bit of salt and pepper once it is done too

How do you know when frozen salmon is done?

It is the same as Instant Pot Salmon, defrosted. The color should be pink and it may have some white bubbles on the top which is protein. In the middle it should no longer look opaque, but not gray either (signaling it cooked too long) with clear juices. It should flake easily apart with the side of a fork.

Other fish recipes you’ll love

You can cook salmon in the air fryer too! We love it that way with this dry rub we share here, it’s a great cooking method to use.

If you love Instant Pot tilapia the timing is pretty much the same as you’ll find below. There are a few tips I’ll share to get it perfect. The baked salmon with dry rub in the oven is here!

What side dishes go with salmon?

We personally love a mixture of steamed vegetables served with this. A side of Instant Pot white rice is always a winner too. For a great semi homemade garlic pull apart bread, follow our recipe here.

Is frozen salmon still good for you?

Yes!! Frozen salmon is good and keeps it’s great taste for up to four months in your freezer. As long as it’s properly frozen inside freezer bags with the air sucked out it will still have great flavor when cooked. Of course you can thaw fillets overnight and make smoked salmon which is amazing. We’re here to teach you how it’s done from rock solid frozen to tender though. Canned wild salmon is also an excellent and economical choice, there’s no need to cook that though.