Recipes › Easy comfort dinners› Grilled salmon with lemon dill butter
Easy comfort dinners · Easy · Serves 4

Grilled salmon with lemon dill butter

Charcoal-grilled salmon with crisp skin and a lemon dill butter that melts into every fillet. A 30-minute summer dinner straight from the kettle grill.

Anna Lind Harper
by Anna Lind Harper
Tested twice · Published 2026-07-05
Four grilled salmon fillets with crisp charred skin on an oval stoneware platter outdoors, pats of lemon dill butter melting over them, with charred lemon halves and fresh dill alongside.
Prep
15 min
Cook
15 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
easy

Salmon was the fish of my childhood table, but it took me until this house, and this dented kettle grill, to realize it might be even better over charcoal. The skin crisps like it never quite does in a pan, and the smoke does half the seasoning.

The other half is a lemon dill butter you mash together in two minutes. It melts over the hot fillets and becomes the sauce. That is the whole trick.

“Crisp skin, ten minutes over the fire, and a pat of dill butter doing all the sauce work.”
Why this one earns a weeknight

What you'll love about it

  • 01The skin gets crisper over charcoal than it ever does in my pan.
  • 02The dill butter is a two-minute job that eats like a real sauce.
  • 03About 10 minutes of actual fire time, so the cook stays outside with everyone else.
  • 04It works just as well cold, flaked over tomorrow's lunch salad.
Anna in a light blue chambray shirt lifting the lid of her black kettle charcoal grill with a folded towel, smoke rising over salmon fillets and lemon halves on the grate in her leafy backyard.
Lid on, six to eight minutes, and the salmon tells you when it is ready to turn.
Ingredients

For the salmon

  • 4skin-on salmon fillets, about 6 oz each
  • 1 tbspolive oil
  • 1 tspkosher salt
  • a few grindsblack pepper

For the lemon dill butter

  • 4 tbspsalted butter, softened
  • 2 tbspfresh dill, finely chopped
  • 1lemon, zested, then halved for the grill
  • 1small garlic clove, finely grated
  • a pinchflaky salt
Method

How I make it

  1. 01
    Mash the lemon dill butter.
    In a small bowl, mash the softened butter with the dill, lemon zest, garlic if using, and a pinch of flaky salt until everything is evenly flecked. If the day is hot, park it in the fridge. The lemon itself gets halved and saved for the grill.
    Hands mashing lemon dill butter with a fork in a small speckled bowl on a marble counter, with chopped dill on a wooden board, a zested lemon, and a microplane nearby.
    Two minutes with a fork. This is the whole sauce.
  2. 02
    Build a two-zone fire.
    Light a chimney of charcoal and, once the coals are ashed over, bank them onto one half of the kettle. Set the grate on, cover, and let it heat for 5 minutes. Then clean the grate well and wipe it with an oiled paper towel. A hot, clean, oiled grate is what keeps salmon skin from sticking.
  3. 03
    Prep the salmon.
    While the grill heats, pat the fillets very dry on both sides, then rub them with the olive oil and season with the salt and pepper. Dry skin plus a little oil is the second half of the no-stick insurance.
  4. 04
    Grill skin-side down, and leave it alone.
    Lay the fillets skin-side down over the coals, add the lemon halves cut-side down next to them, and cover. Grill for 6 to 8 minutes without moving anything. The salmon is ready to turn when the skin releases with no argument from a thin spatula. Flip for 1 to 2 minutes, just to kiss the flesh, or slide the fillets to the cool side to finish gently if they are thick.
  5. 05
    Butter, lemon, rest.
    Move the fillets to a platter, set a pat of the dill butter on each one while they are hot, and let them rest for a couple of minutes while the butter melts into every crack. Squeeze the charred lemon halves over the top just before serving.
A close-up of a pat of herb-flecked lemon dill butter melting over a grilled salmon fillet, butter running down the flaky flesh toward the crisp charred skin.
A note from Anna

The number one grilled salmon fear is the skin sticking, and the fix is patience, not technique. If the skin resists when you try to turn it, it is telling you it is not ready. Give it another minute and it will let go on its own. And if you are nervous, thick fillets finish beautifully on the cool side of the grill with the lid on.

What to serve with it

Round out the table.

  • ·01
    Grilled corn with whipped feta butter
    The grill is already hot, and the two butters are friends.
  • ·02
    Cucumber tomato salad with dill
    Cold, crunchy, and it shares the dill you already bought.
Storage & reheating

Keeping the leftovers good.

Fridge: Leftover fillets keep for up to 3 days, covered.

Reheat: Gently, in a 300°F oven for about 8 minutes, or skip reheating entirely.

Make ahead: The dill butter keeps in the fridge for a week and freezes well. It is also very good on potatoes.

Freezer: Cooked salmon dries out in the freezer; I would rather you eat it cold on a salad tomorrow.

Recipe card

Grilled salmon with lemon dill butter

Charcoal-grilled salmon with crisp skin and a lemon dill butter that melts into every fillet. A 30-minute summer dinner straight from the kettle grill.

Prep
15 min
Cook
15 min
Serves
4
Total
30 min
Ingredients
  • 4 skin-on salmon fillets, about 6 oz each
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • a few grinds black pepper
  • 4 tbsp salted butter, softened
  • 2 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
  • 1 lemon, zested, then halved for the grill
  • 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
  • a pinch flaky salt
Method (short version)
  1. 01Mash the lemon dill butter.
  2. 02Build a two-zone fire.
  3. 03Prep the salmon.
  4. 04Grill skin-side down, and leave it alone.
  5. 05Butter, lemon, rest.

Nutrition information is an estimate. See full nutrition disclaimer.

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