Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon

I am trying to use up the items that we have in our freezer and we always have a bag of frozen salmon in there, so when I ran across this recipe on Sunny Side Up in San Diego, I thought it would be the perfect thing to make since I had everything to make this in my house already.  I call that super smart meal planning. :)

I haven't ever made salmon.  My husband usually takes on the task of making it, so I decided it was my turn to take it on (with him on standby of course...haha).

Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon
adapted from Sunny Side Up in San Diego
Ingredients
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp Teriyaki sauce
1 tsp fresh orange zest
3 ounces pineapple juice
3 ounces orange juice (from the orange)
1/2 tsp kosher salt, divided
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
1/4 tsp black pepper
Directions

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2) In a small sauce pan, over high heat, combine the brown sugar, teriyaki sauce, orange zest, pineapple juice, orange juice and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool and thicken a bit.

3) Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Salt and pepper both sides of the salmon and set in the skillet. Cook for 3 minutes without moving. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. Carefully remove the salmon from the pan and place with the cooked side up in the baking dish.

4) Bake for 4 minutes (*I found at high altitude this is more like 6 minutes). Remove from the oven and generously brush glaze over the tops of the salmon. Return to oven and cook until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees (about 4 minutes).

We served our salmon over quinoa (which I had never made before either). 

The "glaze" turned out to be more of a sauce for my salmon since it didn't reduce like it  was supposed to.  I wonder if it is because I didn't follow the ingredients in the recipe (even though I substituted measurements).   Also at 145, which our meat thermometer claims should be the internal temperature of fish, our salmon seemed just slightly overdone.  I would take it out at 140 and let it rest.

The fish tasted great though, it turned out better than I thought it would.  I'm not a huge fan of teriyaki sauce, but the orange juice and pineapple juice made it not as dominant of a flavor.  I think we'll definitely make this again, but maybe make a few more tweaks.