Seafood Stuffed Salmon

4.50 from 8 votes

Flaky, moist and delicious salmon is stuffed with a crab and shrimp stuffing that's so good! You can make this restaurant-quality dish at home and for less money, too!

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Total Time50

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bbq shrimp, easy seafood recipe, imitation crab, salmon, seafood, seafood dressing, seafood stuffed salmon, seafood stuffing, stuffed salmon

Servings: servings

Calories: 546kcal

Equipment

Ingredients

1/2 cup cooked rice
1/2 cup stuffing mix chicken flavor
1/4 cup butter divided
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
1 clove garlic minced
1 tablespoon cream cheese
4 ounces baby shrimp
2 ounces imitation crab meat
1 teaspoon dill chopped
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1 teaspoon parsley chopped
2 tablespoons seafood broth or chicken broth/stock
salt and pepper to taste
24 ounces salmon filets 4-6 filets depending on how big you want them

Instructions

To make the stuffing:

Saute the diced celery, onion, red bell pepper, and garlic in 2 tbsp of butter until the veggies are tender.
Stir in the cream cheese until it has melted.
Add the sauted vegetable mixture to a medium-sized bowl and add in the rice, stuffing mix, imitation crab, shrimp, Old Bay, dill, and parsley. Mix well.
Add the seafood broth (or chicken stock) and mix until the stuffing cubes have just started to soften. Mix well. If your mixture is still hard and really dry, add 1 tbsp of broth at a time until the mixture starts to soften.

To make the salmon

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 325-F.
Lay the salmon on a cutting board and make a slit in the middle of the fillet, lengthwise. Don't cut all the way through the salmon - leave about 1/2-inch of uncut salmon at each end.
Put the salmon fillets on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet and pull the salmon apart a bit, opening the slit into a hole. Repeat for the remaining fillets.
Sprinkle the fillets with salt and pepper.
Put about 1/4 cup of seafood stuffing into the middle of each fillet, pressing it down lightly to stick and to touch the baking sheet. Top the stuffing with a small knob of butter, about 1/2 tablespoon.
Bake at 325-F for about 30 minutes or until cooked through.

Notes

Chef Jenn's Tips

Overcooked salmon makes me want to cry. It's so sad to see an expensive and glorious piece of fish overcooked! The FDA says salmon needs to be cooked to 145-F but if you've kept it properly refrigerated, 125-F will result in a moister, flaky fillet.
Low heat is what salmon likes best! Ever cook salmon and see the white stuff come out of it? Those are the proteins that you've cooked out of the salmon. Your heat was too high and you possibly also left it in too long and now it is overcooked.
Don't overstuff the salmon! Too much stuffing and your salmon will overcook before the stuffing does. A scant 1/4 cup of stuffing per fillet is plenty.
Let the stuffing and salmon come to room temperature before baking so it'll bake more evenly.
You may need to cook your salmon a bit more or a bit less depending on how cold it was when it went into the oven, how thick the fillets, are, and how much stuffing you used. Use a digital meat thermometer to get an accurate temperature. I aim for 125-F but you can cook it up to 145-F.

Nutrition