Slow Roasted Salmon with Butter, Garlic, Capers, and Lemon

Slow Roasted Salmon that’s cooked with butter, capers, garlic, and lemon is an easy dinner that will impress guests or please the family! This salmon recipe that’s slowly roasted at low heat uses a large piece of fresh salmon to serve six people, and you have plenty of time to make side dishes while the salmon cooks in the oven!

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Slow Roasted Salmon with Butter, Garlic, Capers, and Lemon is my Friday Favorites pick for this week, and this recipe has turned into my go-to dish to make for dinner guests, and this salmon is absolutely perfect to make for any kind of special occasion. I’m calling the method for this salmon recipe “slow roasted” because the salmon cooks in the oven at a low temperature for 30 minutes, first wrapped loosely inside foil and then unwrapped to finish cooking. And that slower cooking method was such a great way to cook salmon.

Before it’s wrapped in foil, the salmon is seasoned with my favorite Szeged Fish Rub, then drizzled with melted butter that’s combined with minced garlic and capers, and it’s finished with fresh-squeezed lemon juice. W0w! And the slow cooking time for the salmon makes this a meal where you have plenty of time to make side dishes while the salmon is slowly cooking.

And I’m so happy I tried this recipe! For years I saw large pieces of fresh salmon from Costco but never tried cooking a large fillet of salmon, partly because there were already so many salmon recipes on the blog. But when my niece (and fantastic cooking assistant) Kara raved about a salmon recipe she spotted in a very old Instagram post, we decided we had to try making a version of it. Hope you will like it as much as I have!

What ingredients do you need?

(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe with ingredient amounts.)

• large fresh salmon fillet
• Szeged Fish Rub (affiliate link)
• butter
• minced fresh garlic or Minced Garlic (affiliate link) will work if you prefer it
• Capers (affiliate link)
• fresh-squeezed lemon juice, I used my fresh-frozen lemon juice
• fresh chopped parsley, optional
• salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste

How low in carbs is the Slow Roasted Salmon?

This delicious salmon recipe has only 3 net carbs per serving and 34 grams of protein!

Can you use skin-on salmon for the Slow Roasted Salmon recipe?

We used a two pound fillet of skinless salmon for this recipe. But if you prefer salmon sold with the skin on, that will still be great.

Can you make this roasted salmon recipe with smaller pieces of salmon?

You could definitely make this recipe with a smaller salmon fillet, or even with individual pieces of salmon, just adjusting the amount of butter, garlic, capers, and lemon. I do think smaller pieces might cook a bit more quickly so I would start checking after about 24 minutes cooking time.

Is fresh garlic a must for this Slow Roasted Salmon?

We used fresh garlic cloves that we minced with my favorite garlic press (affiliate link), but if you don’t mind having a slightly milder garlic flavor I think minced garlic from a jar will work for this recipe.

Does this Salmon keep in the fridge?

There is absolutely no doubt the slow roasted salmon will be most flavorful when it’s freshly made. But I did reheat some leftover salmon quickly in the microwave (or use a hot pan on the stove) and it was still quite tasty, especially with more lemon squeezed over the salmon. I ate my leftover salmon the next day, and I don’t think it will stay good much longer than that.

How to Make Slow Roasted Salmon:

(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

1. We used a two pound skinless salmon fillet.
2. Rub the salmon with Szeged Fish Rub (affiliate link) and let it come to room temperature.
3. We used a garlic press (affiliate link) to mince the garlic, but minced garlic in a jar will work too. (Thanks to my sister Val who gave me that garlic press you see in the photos; I absolutely love it.)
4. Measure out 2 tablespoons of capers.
5. Melt butter over low heat.
6. Add minced garlic to melted butter and cook 1-2 minutes on low.
7. Add capers and stir to combine. Turn off heat.
8. Tear off foil and put on a sheet pan. Put salmon on the foil, pour over butter mixture and spread over salmon, then squeeze on lemon juice.
9. Wrap foil loosely up over the salmon and pinch edges together.
10. Put sheet pan in the oven and bake 15 minutes.
11. Remove sheet pan from oven and open the foil, moving it away from the salmon.
12. Put salmon back into oven and bake 15 minutes longer.
13. Chop fresh parsley and cut some pieces of lemon while the salmon bakes.
14. After 30 minutes, remove salmon from the oven, sprinkle with parsley, season with salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste, and serve with lemon if desired.

Side Dishes to make a low-carb meal with Slow Roasted Salmon:

• Stir-Fried Spinach with Garlic and Parmesan
• Air Fryer Artichoke Hearts
• Pan-Fried Asparagus with Gorgonzola and Pine Nuts
• Pan-Fried Broccoli with Pine Nuts and Parmesan
• Instant Pot Asparagus

Want more low-carb fish and seafood recipes?

I’ll be adding this new salmon recipe to my collection of Amazing Low-Carb Fish Dinners!

Print

Yield: 6 servings

Slow Roasted Salmon with Butter, Garlic, Capers, and Lemon

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

If you buy those large fresh salmon fillets from Costco, this Slow Roasted Salmon recipe is the perfect way to cook it. And this salmon that's flavored with butter, garlic, capers, and lemon is absolutely amazing.

Ingredients

• 2 lb. fresh salmon fillet
• 2 tsp. Szeged Fish Rub (see notes)
• 4 T butter
• 2 T minced fresh garlic (see notes)
• 2 T capers
• 2 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional but good)
• salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
• cut lemon pieces to squeeze on at the table (optional but good)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325F/162C.
2. We used a two pound skinless salmon fillet from Costco for this recipe.
3. Rub the salmon on both sides with Szeged Fish Rub (affiliate link) and let it come to room temperature.
4. While fish is coming to room temperature, use a garlic press (affiliate link) to mince 1-2 T of minced garlic, depending on how much you like garlic.
5. You will also need to measure out 2 tablespoons of capers. (You can rinse the capers if you want the flavor to be less strong, but I love capers so I never bother with that.)
6. Melt the butter in a small non-stick frying pan over low heat.
7. Add the minced garlic to the melted butter and cook 1-2 minutes on low.
8. Add capers and stir to combine. Turn off heat.
9. Tear off a large piece of foil and put it on a sheet pan. Put the salmon in the center of the foil, pour over butter mixture and spread it evenly over the salmon, then squeeze on the lemon juice.
10. Wrap the foil loosely up over the salmon and pinch the edges together. 
11. Put the sheet pan in the oven and bake 15 minutes.
12. Remove sheet pan from oven and open the foil, moving it away from the salmon.
13. Put sheet pan back into the oven and bake 15 minutes longer. (If your salmon piece is smaller I would start to check it a bit sooner.
14. Chop fresh parsley and cut some pieces of lemon while the salmon continues to bake.
15. After 30 minutes total cooking time, remove the salmon from the oven, sprinkle with parsley, season with salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste, and serve with cut pieces of lemon if desired.
16. We g-e-n-t-l-y moved the cooked piece of salmon on to a plate to take photographs, but if you're just serving it to the family you could definitely serve it directly from the foil!

Notes

I love Szeged Fish Rub but if you have a good seasoning rub for fish, there are other good ones that will work.

You might want a bit less garlic if you're not a big garlic fan. Minced garlic from a jar can be used, although the flavor will be better with freshly-chopped garlic.

Kara and I looked around the web but we weren't able to find the original source for this recipe.

Nutrition Information

Yield

6

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 393Total Fat 27gSaturated Fat 9gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 16gCholesterol 117mgSodium 320mgCarbohydrates 3gFiber 1gSugar 1gProtein 34g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.

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© All images and text ©Kalyn Denny for Kalyn's Kitchen.

Category: Oven Dinners

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Slow Roasted Salmon is a perfect dish for any low-carb or Keto diet. Salmon cooked in butter would be high in fat for the original South Beach Diet but you could probably make a pretty good-tasting result using less butter if you’re trying to closely follow South Beach.

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Oven Dinners to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This salmon that’s slowly roasted at a low temperature was first posted in 2022, and it’s definitely been a hit on the blog. The recipe was last updated with more information in 2025.