Potato Chip-crusted salmon from Cooks Illustrated

Cook's Illustrated published this quirky recipe in 2007 (paywall) and it's become part of our repertoire: super easy, tasty, unusual, and very adaptable. Cook salmon until almost done, paint with mustard, coat with crushed potato chips, then broil briefly to finish. You can throw this together in about 10 minutes with stuff you have in your kitchen. I like to think of it as fish-n-chips. :-)

Tonight, I got a giant side of salmon: Irene's making gravlax for next week, so we'll serve up a couple portions for tonight's dinner.  Instead of mustard, we've used things like Indian lime pickle (excellent, intense), and tonight we're going to use a tart and sweet tamarind paste. We served it with steamed broccoli rabe (rapini).

Crush the potato chips with some breadcrumbs to lighten up the chips. You could add flavorings too if you like: lime zest or dill seem reasonable.

 They shouldn't be as fine as powder, a little chunky -- you want some texture.

Portion the salmon and season. Don't over-season: the mustard, tamarind, or other jammy paste you add later will provide more seasoning. I put it on foil on the baking sheet to make cleanup a snap.

Toss it under the broiler for a few minutes until it's almost done. You only need to broil one side: the side of salmon's not too thick, and we're keeping the surface about 3 inches below the heat. Below, you can see just a hint of browning. The interior of the flesh should still be quite translucent. You'll finish with a bit more heat.

Choose a tasty and fish-friendly paste the texture of jam that will let you adhere your potato chip coating. Here, we're using tamarind concentrate we had lurking in the fridge. It's got a nice acid and a bit of sweetness. Mustard, intense Indian "pickle" (like a chutney, with attitude), horseradish sauce, and lots of other things will work. You probably don't want anything with too much texture, but a bet a zingy grapefruit marmalade would be good.

Paint it on in a thin but not stingy layer. It doesn't have to be too neat, but get the side surfaces so the coating will stick there too.

Dust liberally with your potato chip coating mixture. I scoop it up around the edges so every surface is covered.

Pop it back under the broiler until the potato chips just start browning, just a minute or two. Because of the fat in the potato chips, this happens very quickly. If you burn them, you should be able to scrape the charred bits off recoat, and broil again. Just try not to overcook the fish. Below, the potato chips are just turning brown.

Inside, the center of the fish is still translucent. The flesh flakes away easily, perfectly done.