This One-Pan Creamy Chipotle Salmon is an easy-to-make meal packed with chipotle peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and a creamy sauce with a little kick!

Overhead closeup view of chipotle salmon in skillet with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and creamy sauce with recipe title at top.

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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
🗒 Ingredients
🥘 How to make one-pan creamy chipotle salmon
🍚 What to serve with chipotle salmon
🎉 More easy salmon recipes
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

Does anyone else feel like they never get enough sleep? Like ever? My body would love 8 hours enough, but I generally get closer to 5; maybe 6 if I'm lucky.

And while I'm pretty good at getting through the day on little sleep without being overly tired or dragging, I'm definitely not as productive as I could be when I'm lacking sleep.

Which means a) I end up working a lot later into the evening (and continue the cycle of going to bed too late) and b) I need something easy for dinner or else we run the risk of ordering takeout. Enter this One-Pan Chipotle Salmon.

Any meal that's a one-pan meal is automatically going to get my vote when I'm overtired. Cooking is hard enough; washing dishes is downright torture. Are you with me??

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

You'll love this recipe because it's easy, healthy, and packed full of flavor.

It's the kind of dinner you make when you're ridiculously tired and *this* close to ordering takeout. But you're also really trying to eat healthy and you know you really should just get in the kitchen and cook.

And you'll be so thankful you did after seeing how easy this salmon is to make and how absolutely delicious it is. Plus? It's all made in one pan and barely creates any dirty dishes. Which is always a major win, especially when you're super tired.

If you're looking for another easy fish dinner that's not salmon, try this sablefish recipe!

🗒 Ingredients

You don't need too many ingredients for this chipotle salmon, which is another one of my favorite things about it. Here's everything required:

Salmon
Salt and pepper
Unsalted butter
Chopped sun-dried tomatoes, plus oil
Finely chopped chipotle peppers
Diced onion
Minced garlic
Low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
Heavy cream
Adobo sauce (from chipotle peppers)
Baby spinach

🥘 How to make one-pan creamy chipotle salmon

One-pan salmon means I can make it, eat it, and clean it up in no time at all. This dinner is easy and so, so good!

To start, lightly season salmon filets on each side with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add salmon to the pan, skin-side-up and cook for about 4 minutes. Flip and cook for another 4 minutes skin-side-down. Remove salmon from pan and set aside on a plate.

Add sun-dried tomatoes, oil, chipotle peppers, and onion to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes, until garlic is fragrant and onions are translucent.

Chipotle peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and onions cooking in skillet.

Add broth to pan and bring to a simmer, scraping up the browned bit from the bottom of the pan with a spatula. Once simmering, slowly pour the cream into the pan, followed by the adobo sauce. Stir.

Add spinach to pan and cook for about 30 seconds, until spinach is wilted.

Add salmon back to pan to heat through, spooning sauce over the salmon.

Salmon cooking with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes and sauce in skillet.

🍚 What to serve with chipotle salmon

When you're ready to plate your chipotle salmon, you should plate it with something else delicious! Of course, you don't need any sides with this dish, but I certainly recommend them.

The sauce is absolutely incredible when mixed with rice or something similar.

Here's what I like best:

Brown rice
Quinoa
Cauliflower rice
Farro
Broccoli
Green beans

Just MAKE SURE to spoon some extra chipotle sauce over the salmon before enjoying. That's key!

Head-on closeup of a small piece of salmon topped with creamy chipotle sauce served on a plate over brown rice.

It's so easy to eat unhealthily when you're tired, so having some easy go-to healthy-ish meals that are also super satisfying is important.

Salmon fits the bill of being healthy. Chipotle salmon takes care of being satisfying.

There is some cream in this dish, but in my opinion, it's so worth it. If you want to cut some calories/fat, you can totally use half and half instead.

Overhead view of skillet with chipotle salmon in creamy sauce with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes.

I used both chipotle peppers and sun-dried tomatoes in this dish because I wanted to jazz it up a bit. It wasn't until I looked at my photos that I realized chipotles and sun-dried tomatoes look incredibly similar and one might think this dish is loaded with chipotle peppers.

But don't worry; this meal is only mildly spicy; the kind of spice that packs in a ton of flavor, with the addition of a little sweetness from the tomatoes.

Overhead closeup view of chipotle salmon in skillet with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and creamy sauce.

Since I was only cooking for Chris and myself, we had plenty of leftovers for the next day. I don't always love salmon leftovers, but this was a major exception.

Sometimes I see "cooking for 2" recipes that I want to try, but then I realize I'd be so sad without leftovers. Dinner leftovers at lunch are the best!

And since I now work from home, I can happily heat up my leftover chipotle salmon in the microwave without worrying about offending my co-workers.

My dog is the opposite of offended by my heating up leftover salmon. Except when I don't share with her... And while I'm usually happy to give her salmon, something tells me the chipotle peppers wouldn't be the best idea for her.

But for me? They are indeed the very best idea.

🎉 More easy salmon recipes

I love having an arsenal of easy salmon recipes ready to go since they help me get a healthy meal on the table on a weeknight. I mostly grill, sauté, or bake it, but I also can't wait to try salmon on the smoker!

Here are a few more of my favorites:

Everything Bagel Salmon
Cajun Salmon Pasta
Creamy Grapefruit Salmon
Salmon BLT Salad
Salmon Fettuccini with Sour Cream Caesar Sauce
Winter Salmon Tacos with Butternut Squash Salsa
Chili Lime Salmon Over Coconut Rice
Chipotle-Rubbed Grilled Salmon Tacos
Blackened Salmon (from Primavera Kitchen)
Tomato Coconut Salmon Curry (from Simple Fresh n Yum)

Piece of salmon with creamy chipotle sauce over a bed of rice on a plate with skillet in background.

OK, now excuse me while I attempt to go to bed at a semi-normal time so I can dream of more delicious one-pan recipes that will make your life easier!

Do you have a favorite one-pan meal or a meal that's healthy and leaves you with few dirty dishes?

📖 Recipe