Crispy Bang Bang Salmon Bites

Succulent, crisp-edged, bite-sized pieces of salmon in a sticky, spicy, sweet sauce; this easy crispy bang bang salmon bites recipe is a go to for busy nights. It’s also beautiful and indulgent-tasting enough to make when you need to impress!

Crispy Bang Bang Salmon Bites

I’m a sucker for a good fish recipe, and this one? This one is gold, folks.

It is a unicorn recipe: seemingly mythical because of it’s perfection. It is done from start to finish in under a half an hour, it’s memorably delicious, it’s beautiful, it makes everyone in my family happy, and it’s pretty budget friendly. That’s not just a win/win. It’s a win/win/win/win/win.

Air fryer salmon bites use -naturally- an air fryer. If you don’t already have one, I recommend this model. I have an older version of it and it’s a kitchen work horse I wouldn’t want to be without.

Did you know you can also make Air Fryer Whole Chicken? No joke! And Air Fryer Roasted Garlic, Shishito Peppers Air Fryer, and Fried Green Tomatoes in Air Fryer are all staples in our recipe rotation, too.

What is Bang Bang Sauce

The recipe I’m sharing today is a variation on the American Chinese menu staples bang bang chicken and bang bang shrimp. They’re often breaded and deep-fried, but what they always are is served with bang bang sauce. The Americanized version of bang bang sauce is a creamy, spicy, tangy, mayonnaise based sauce serves both as a marinade and a finishing touch to the recipe.

Traditional bang bang chicken is a Sichuan street food prepared by poaching or steaming chicken and tenderizing it and pounding it to shreds with sticks. It is served a sauce of sesame paste, Sichuan peppercorns, black vinegar, and chili oil and is served with matchstick cucumbers. Some variations on it also have ginger, garlic, peanuts and soy sauce.

I’m not sure how we made the leap from a vinegar based sauce to a mayonnaise based one in the process, but that’s okay. It’s tasty enough that it doesn’t necessarily need to be explained.

Air Fryer Bang Bang Salmon

To make these insanely addictive air fryer salmon bites, you’ll need to gather up the following list of ingredients:

• mayonnaise
• Thai sweet chili sauce
• honey
• Sriracha
• rice vinegar
• salmon fillets
• olive oil
• granulated garlic
• smoked paprika
• kosher salt
• nonstick cooking spray or cooking oil

Garden variety, regular mayonnaise -whatever you have in the house- will do the trick here, but Japanese kewpie mayonnaise is stellar in it. What you don’t want to do is use Miracle Whip. We’ll save the debate on Miracle Whip’s existence for another day, but just don’t use it here, please.

The Thai sweet chili sauce I like best is Mae Ploy brand, but you can use whatever you like best or can find most easily. It’s really the most important flavour component of the bang bang sauce, so don’t skip it!

You can use fresh or frozen (and thawed) salmon fillets. And while it is definitely easiest to start with convenient boneless, skinless salmon, you can buy the skin-on fillets so long as you’re willing to do the work of removing the skin yourself.

And let’s chat about paprika for a moment, shall we? I prefer to use smoked paprika because it brings a little extra smokey oomph to the crispy salmon bites air fryer style, but if you have regular paprika and that’s the only thing standing in your way, go for it! It will still be delicious.

Bang Bang Salmon Bites

In a small bowl, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients. Set this aside while you work on the fish.

Preheat your air fryer to 400ºF.

Cut the salmon fillets into 1-inch cubes. Add to a mixing bowl.

Add the olive oil, granulated garlic, smoked paprika, salt, and black pepper to the salmon and gently stir to evenly coat the salmon with everything. Add half of the bang bang sauce and stir gently again to coat the salmon evenly.

Lightly spray the basket of your air fryer with cooking spray or oil. Add salmon cubes to the air fryer, taking care not to overcrowd the basket. You need to leave space between all of the pieces to let air circulate to cook it evenly, so you will almost certainly need to do this in two or three batches, depending on the size of your air fryer.

Cook for 8 minutes. As long as you haven’t overcrowded the air fryer, you do not need to turn the fish at all during cooking.

Serve drizzled with remaining Bang Bang Sauce. These salmon bites are excellent by themselves, but also great with rice, greens, or Asian pasta salad.