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This oven baked salmon is drizzled generously in a simple and delicious lemon cream sauce (classically known as lemon beurre blanc). The sauce will become your secret weapon for seafood recipes. It’s great with salmon, scallops, crab cakes and all kinds of fish. It is easy to make and brings so much amazing flavor.
We enjoyed salmon with lemon beurre blanc at our favorite fancy restaurant while celebrating the sale of our house. I knew at first bite that I had to recreate the recipe. For the $25.00 menu price of 1 serving, I could buy a whole salmon filet and feed the entire family!
Traditional beurre blanc recipes can be finicky if they aren’t done right but we found that using heavy cream makes it much more forgiving. It keeps the sauce from separating and allows for gentle reheating if you have leftovers.
As with any cream or butter based sauce, we recommend reheating over low heat, stirring frequently, just until hot and ready.
Notes: 2 lb of salmon serves 4 to 6 and 3 lb of salmon serves 6 to 8, depending on how you portion.
For Oven Roasted Salmon with Lemon Cream Sauce:
2 to 3 lb salmon fillet
salt and black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil for drizzling salmon
1 Tbsp parsley, finely chopped, to garnish
Ingredients for Sauce (Lemon Beurre Blanc)
1 small onion or 2 medium shallots, super finely diced (about 1/4 cup diced)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 medium or 1 large lemons)
1/4 cup dry white wine (such as chardonnay or pino grigio)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup (8 Tbsp) cold unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces
How to Make Oven Baked Salmon with Lemon Cream Sauce:
1. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Arrange salmon skin-side-down, season with salt and pepper and drizzle the tops with oil. Bake uncovered at 425 for 10-15 min (depending on thickness of salmon) or until salmon is cooked through. My thick wild caught salmon took about 14 minutes.
2. In a small sauce pan, combine 1/4 cup finely diced onion, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup wine and simmer over medium heat until reduced to a thick mixture (7-8 min).
3. Whisk in 1/2 cup cream and as soon as it comes to a simmer, reduce to low heat and slowly whisk in the 8 Tbsp butter, one tablespoon at a time (whisking constantly). Add 1/4 tsp salt or to taste and remove from heat. Cover with a lid to keep warm until ready to serve.
Plate salmon and drizzle generously with the lemon sauce, garnish with freshly chopped parsley then serve your hungry dinner guests 🙂
This oven baked salmon pairs really well with fluffy white rice and asparagus. Now that’s one classy dinner!
Oven Baked Salmon with Lemon Cream Sauce

Ingredients
For Oven Baked Salmon with Lemon Cream Sauce:
- 2 to 3 lb salmon fillet
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 Tbsp olive oil for drizzling salmon
- 1 Tbsp parsley, finely chopped, to garnish
For the Lemon Cream Sauce:
- 1 small onion or 2 medium shallots, super finely diced (about 1/4 cup diced)
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, from 2 medium or 1 large lemons
- 1/4 cup dry white wine, such as chardonnay or pino grigio
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup 8 Tbsp cold unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces
Instructions
- Line baking sheet with foil or parchment. Arrange salmon skin-side-down, season with salt and pepper and drizzle the tops with oil. Bake uncovered at 425 for 10-15 min (depending on thickness of salmon) or until salmon is cooked through. My thick wild caught salmon took 14 min.
- In a small sauce pan, combine 1/4 cup finely diced onion, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup wine and simmer over medium heat until reduced to a thick mixture (7-8 min).
- Whisk in 1/2 cup cream and as soon as it comes to a simmer, reduce to low heat and slowly whisk in the 8 Tbsp butter, one tablespoon at a time (whisking constantly). Add 1/4 tsp salt or to taste and remove from heat. Cover with a lid to keep warm until ready to serve.
- Plate salmon and drizzle generously with the lemon sauce, garnish with freshly chopped parsley then serve.
Notes
A 2 lb salmon serves 4 to 6 and a 3 lb salmon serves 6 to 8
Filed Under
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Do you have a go-to recipe for dinner guests? Let me know in a comment below!
Love the lemon cream sauce! Goes well with other kinds of fish.
I’m glad you love the sauce just as much as I do! Thanks for sharing Norelle!
This sounds so good. Would love to try it tonight, but I don’t have heavy cream. Can you use half and half instead?
Hi Laney, I can’t say for sure since I haven’t tried that substitution. I’m not sure if it would develop properly into the same light and creamy consistency.
Great! Perfect for my low carb diet plus my 7-year-old son liked it too!
Awesome! I’m glad to hear that Treva! Thanks for sharing!
Tried this tonight. It was fabulous! Perfect special touch for the salmon. Hubby went for seconds on the sauce!
I’m happy to hear you both enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing your great review Sue!
Just wondering if you use salted or unsalted butter? Recipe does not say but picture of ingredients shows unsalted butter. Getting ready to try it. Thanks
Hi Pam, I apologize I missed your question earlier. It is unsalted butter. Sorry I missed that and I have now clarified this in the recipe.
Just wonderful! I eat a low carb high fat diet, but my husband eats a very strict low carb low fat diet so I served his with a lemon wedge instead of the sauce. He tasted the sauce and proceeded to pour a boatload of the sauce over his salmon and vegetables. He went on and on how delicious this meal was. Thank you!
You’re welcome Dana! I’m happy to hear how much you both enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing your fantastic review!
Hi Natasha, just wanted to let you know that I love this recipe. My daughter loves it so much. It is so simple and easy to do. Thank you very much for sharing this.
Thank you
You’re welcome Tracy! I’m happy you both enjoy the recipe so much! Thanks for sharing your wonderful review!
I absolutely loved this recipe! I do however recommend being a bit conservative with the lemon juice if you don’t prefer the sauce to be quite as tart. I added 1tbsp of raw sugar to help balance the acidity of the lemon and it turned out perfect! Great dish!
I’m glad you love it Cass! Thanks for sharing your great review and tip with other readers!
Hi. I made this recipe today but I don’t know why I have some bitterness taste from lemon. Do you know how I can avoid it? Thank you very much in advance and I really enjoy your recipes!
Lemon should not have any bitterness to it unless you are using the white part of the rind. Maybe you had a bad lemon?
I only added lemon juice (no lemon skin or seeds). The juice itself before being cooked is ok, no bitterness. I checked online and it seems that there’re a few people having the same problem like me. For example point 6 in the article below mentions this issue http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/common-mistakes/article/citrus-common-mistakes . But I know that sometimes I can squeeze some juice in my boiling food and it’s ok, sometimes it’s bitter… very strange…
Simply AMAZING!!!!!
By chance would you know the calorie intake for this meal?
I’m glad you love it Michelle! Due to time constraints, I don’t typically include nutritional info, but check out this nutrition analyzer – you can plug in the ingredients from any recipe, select the serving size and it will give you nutritional info, calories, etc. I hope that is helpful to you!
This was really delicious, great lemon sauce! I’m not usually a big fan of lemon but this was special!
Jaeda, thank you for sharing such a nice review, I’m so glad you liked it 😀
This sauce was stunning! I had to use white wine vinegar, as I had no wine on hand, so it was probably more tart than your original recipe, but it was utterly delicious.
I’m happy to hear that Melissa! Thanks for sharing your wonderful review!
Made this last night! loved it!Thank so much for this amazing recipe!
You’re welcome! I’m glad to hear you enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this very informative article. I made the sauce and was very happy with it. The step-by-step pics are very helpful.
You’re welcome Trinity! Thanks for sharing your awesome review! 🙂
Omg. This lemon cream sauce is one of the best things in life I have ever eaten. I think I have made it now almost ten times. I needs to be tried on numerous things, but so far I have only done salmon. It is a sad day when there is some left over and nothing to use it on. I’ll admit I licked my plate and will be writing this easy amazing sauce in my recipe book. I hope you don’t mind. Delicious is an understatement. You underrate it. Incredible. I have also made a couple other things from you and have yet to try anything not delicious thus far. I think I rated one of your smoothies on Pinterest as one of the best so far too. You’re amazing. I truly mean that. I try lots of recipes and will rate poorly if I don’t like it or would never make it again.
WOW! Thank you for sharing such a nice and thoughtful review Whitney!! 🙂
This recipe is amazing restaurant quality! In fact I have never left a review of a recipe in my life. the only change I did was I added fresh dill to the sauce. I am from New England you cant have seafood without dill.
Oh that is so awesome and quite a compliment! Thank you so much 🙂
Made this last week, my husband asked for it again tonight…..DELICIOUS! This is now my “go to” salmon recipe!
That’s great Lizabeth!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
It is an amazing recipe. My family loved it. Thanks
Glad to hear your family enjoys it as much as mine does!
going to try this tonight … will let you know if i was a success 🙂
It is amazing! Let me know what you think!!
Would it work to serve the sauce on the side? Also, I’m having a dinner party with 8 adults. Can I double the sauce recipe?
Hi Katie, since the cream has a good amount of butter in it, it will eventually thicken as it stands. You can double the sauce recipe but I would also use a saucepan that was larger if doubling the sauce. If you are looking for a good recipe that doesn’t require an additional sauce, this is our most popular salmon recipe and it’s very easy to prepare for a party 🙂