Oven Baked Salmon with Blackberry Barbecue Sauce

An elegant Oven Baked Salmon with homemade Blackberry Barbecue Sauce recipe made with frozen blackberries, paired with favorite vegetables.

Friends, we love to enjoy this elegant, flavorful Oven Baked Salmon with Blackberry Barbecue Sauce dish for any dinner or holiday party! This recipe highlights frozen Oregon blackberries with another Northwest powerhouse ingredient: Oven Baked Salmon. Pair with your favorite vegetable, bake and serve!

Oven Baked Salmon with Blackberry Barbecue Sauce

Of course we love salmon several time a week, any time of year. You may have already tried my popular BEST Pistachio Lime Baked Salmon or Garlic Honey Lime Salmon. Both recipes to not disappoint!

This recipe has an amazing blackberry sauce poured over the salmon, garnished with whole blackberries, and fresh rosemary. So good.

Oven Baked Salmon ingredients:

• Fresh salmon
• Ketchup
• Apple cider vinegar
• Brown sugar
• Garlic powder
• Lemon juice
• Worcestershire sauce
• Molasses
• Frozen blackberries, we buy Oregon brands
• Fresh rosemary 
• Fresh blackberries
• Salt and pepper to season

Oven baked salmon

This Oven Baked Salmon with Blackberry Barbecue Sauce is perfect for spring entertaining and Easter!

We love to buy salmon at Costco, but all you need is a salmon fillet and a few other ingredients, like frozen blackberries, to make the yummy sauce! Oven baked salmon is one of the easiest ways to prepare salmon!

Frozen blackberries

We love Oregon berries any time of year, because we can buy them frozen during the off season. They are so easy to cook with, and they taste just as good as fresh. Oregon is the ideal growing environment for berries: soil, air, water! I visited the fields a few years back and loved seeing firsthand that Oregon’s family farms grow exceptional, consistently high quality blackberries and raspberries.

Oregon berries are picked at the peak of ripeness, and frozen within 24 hrs of being picked, locking in maximum taste, juiciness and nutrition.

How to prepare the salmon

Today’s oven baked salmon was so easy to make, we first made a homemade barbecue sauce using frozen blackberries, and oh my … the great flavor and color is locked right in!

1. In medium sauce pan, heat frozen blackberries on low. While berries defrost, begin making the barbecue sauce.
2. Combine ketchup, garlic powder, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, pepper, lemon juice, molasses, and Worcestershire sauce.
3. Stir together, then add sauce to the defrosting blackberries, and stir until berries have softened and begin to fall apart in the sauce.
4. Wash and dry salmon fillet, then place on parchment paper (optional, or foil works, too).
5. Salt and pepper the salmon before spreading blackberry barbecue sauce on top.
6. Bake and garnish with rosemary and fresh (or defrosted frozen) blackberries!
7. Our friends said it was the best salmon they’ve ever had!

Some of the Oregon brands of berries are Stahlbush Island Farm, Willamette Fruit Co, Columbia Fruit, Townsend Farms, and Sturm’s Berry Farm.

Just look how pretty this salmon is on our springy table!

Set the table

I’ve lived in Oregon almost all my entire life. My grandparents were farmers, and my heritage is so much of who I am now. Today I’m calling out all the farmers who grow delicious fruit, specially here in Oregon. A year ago I wrote about Oregon’s frozen marionberries, and shared this Oregon Marionberry Galette (also delish and EASY for Easter). Watch the video!

We love to mingle around the table this time of year. Holidays just do that … we seem to be more intentional about bringing people together.

Today I’m sharing some fun traditions that will make your holiday table interactive, much more fun than your standard awkward and dull small talk, with these 4 conversation ideas:

4 table conversation and game ideas

Write the questions out, and fold up for diners to select at random! (Place them in a basket or hat for easy picking.)

• What’s something new in your life, since last Easter, that you are grateful for?
• Your most creative Easter memory as a kid: Go!
• If you could eat only one food on this table for an entire year, which one would it be?
• When you think about “new life” what comes to mind?

Tuck a question under each dessert plate, then go around the table. This a great way to gather people back to the table for drinks or dessert.

Make an Easter Canvas Drop Cloth Tablecloth

Cover the table with either butcher paper or a canvas drop cloth (I buy at Lowe’s or Home Depot). Place around the table crayons, pens, and markers for your guests to doodle, draw, or illustrate their favorite Easter or holiday memories. Later, it’s fun to reflect on the notes of gratitude, and enjoy the Easter drawings by guests of all ages!

Play the penny game!

Strategically place a penny under the water glass of each guest, planning a year on the penny that matches the age lifespan of the guest. For instance, you wouldn’t want to have a 20-year-old penny at the seat of a 6 year old. The hostess selects a penny for each guest and places it under the water goblet where that person will sit. Once dinner begins, each guest takes their turn looking at the date on their penny, and shares a significant Easter memory or gift for that year.

It’s fun to change it up for the holidays, liven up the party, and learn something new about your guests!

A few more recipe tips:

This Oven Baked Salmon with Blackberry Barbecue Sauce makes a gorgeous centerpiece for Easter!

You can serve your meal family style (above), or buffet style.

This salmon with roasted asparagus, fruit salad (with a hint of vanilla, so good!), rolls, Strawberry Quinoa Salad (or Mango Quinoa Salad). YUM!

And a little tip about serving salmon that I’ve learned over the years? Don’t overbake it, and it’s okay if it’s not piping hot when you serve it (room temp salmon is just as good).

Happy Easter!

More salmon recipes to try:

Roasted Lemon Salmon with Green Beans [RE] 

Grilled Lemon Dill Salmon (watch the VIDEO)

Perfect Air Fryer Salmon [Noble Pig]

Spicy Baked Salmon with Roasted Vegetables [She Wears Many Hats].

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Oven Baked Salmon with Blackberry Barbecue Sauce

Enjoy this elegant, flavorful Oven Baked Salmon with Blackberry Barbecue Sauce dish made with frozen Oregon blackberries. Pair with your favorite vegetable, bake and serve!

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 20 minutes mins

Total Time: 30 minutes mins

Yield: 6

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Ingredients

 

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• 1 ½ lb salmon fillet

Blackberry Barbecue Sauce:

• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 ½ Tbsp. light brown sugar
• ½ Tbsp. fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp. molasses
• 1 cup frozen blackberries, we buy Oregon brands
• Rosemary to garnish
• Fresh blackberries to garnish, a handful
• Salt and pepper to season

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Make the barbecue sauce:

• In medium sauce pan, heat frozen blackberries on low. While berries defrost, begin making the barbecue sauce.
• Combine ketchup, garlic powder, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, pepper, lemon juice, molasses, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir together, then add sauce to the defrosting blackberries, and stir until berries have softened and begin to fall apart in the sauce, about 10 minutes.

Prepare & bake the salmon:

• Wash and dry salmon fillet, then place on parchment paper (optional, or foil works, too). Salt and pepper the salmon before spreading blackberry barbecue sauce on top.
• Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes.
• Garnish with rosemary and fresh (or defrosted frozen) blackberries!

Notes

Reposed from March 2018

Cuisine: American

Course: Main Course

Author: Sandy / Reluctant Entertainer

Did you make this recipe?Tag @reluctantentertainer on Instagram and hashtag it #reluctantentertainer!

This post is sponsored by the Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission!