You don’t need to deep fry to make terrific Fish Tacos. You just need a really great marinade! A seriously delicious way to serve up white fish fillets, this recipe can be cooked on the BBQ or stove. Either way, they’re healthy, fresh and bursting with serious taco goodness!
Bonus: they happen to be HEALTHY 💪🏼
Fish Tacos
A bad fish taco is worse than a bad chicken taco.
And while most people would be turned off after multiple dismal experiences, I persevered, believing there to be better.
I mean, tacos. They have always been one of my favourite foods, ever since the first time I tried them.
And I’m thankful I didn’t give up. Because it just got better and better. Went to Mexico, tasted the real deal, then used that as my benchmark to make my own.
And now I’ve got The Fish Taco recipe. Well, at least, what I think is the BEST Fish Taco recipe. 🙂
What I like to do is load the fish with flavour with a chipotle lime marinade. You just know by looking at it that it’s gonna be good, right??!
Will you LOOK AT THAT!!! Tender and juicy on the inside, deep golden brown on the outside, flavoured all the way through with just a quick 20 minute marinade!!
What to serve with Fish Tacos
Here’s what I serve with Fish Tacos:
The chipotle marinated fish;
“Pink Taco Sauce” – 2 ingredient, mildly spicy sour cream or yogurt sauce, goes very well with the fish;
Quick pickled cabbage; and
lime wedges and coriander/cilantro leaves.
What you need for Fish Tacos
Here’s what you need to make fish tacos.
Any firm white fish fillets will work fine here, especially if they are fleshy.
My favourites are snapper and barramundi. They have “meaty” flesh which I particularly enjoy in tacos.
Other common fish that are ideal include: tilapia, basa, cod, John Dory and Silver Dory, ling, bream, haddock, pollack, monkfish.
I recommend avoiding:
really lean fish – like swordfish, tuna and kingfish
very delicate fish – like dover sole and flounder
Quick Pickled Cabbage for Tacos
I serve these tacos with a quick pickled cabbage. Pickling it makes the cabbage floppy so it kind of melds together better with the fish (raw cabbage would be too pokey and crunchy for tender fish), and the slight tang is a classic pairing with seafood.
Here’s what you need for the pickled cabbage:
Don’t restrict yourself to using this pickled cabbage just for Fish Tacos! It will go with any type of tacos – chicken, old school beef tacos, shredded beef, beef barbacoa, or pork carnitas.
How to make it
I think I’ve pretty much talked through the making part, but here’s a visual anyway!
20 minute fish marinade – no longer, because otherwise the lime juice in the marinade will “cook” the fish;
cook it, flake it;
quick taco sauce – sour cream and sriracha. I call it my Pink Taco Sauce;
pickle the cabbage – 20 minutes to become floppy (same as the fish marinating time, nice and convenient!);
stuff and devour.
I typically cook Fish Tacos on the stove for midweek meals. But this is fantastic food for a barbecue with friends! It cooks so quickly so it doesn’t take you away from your guests and you can throw the tortillas onto the BBQ to warm up.
It also scales up easily, and you can lay everything out on the table and let everyone help themselves. Definitely my preferred method of entertaining!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Fish Tacos
Ingredients
Fish Marinade
- 1.2 lb / 600g firm white fish fillets (Note 1)
- Zest of 1 lime
- 3 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp chipotle powder (Note 2)
- 1 tbsp canned jalapeno , finely chopped
- 1/4 cup cilantro / coriander , finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Quick Pickled cabbage
- 4 cups red cabbage , finely shredded
- 3 green onion stems , finely sliced on the diagonal
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar, cider vinegar)
- 1/2 tsp salt
Pink Taco Sauce
- 3/4 cup sour cream (or yogurt)
- 2 – 3 tbsp sriracha , adjust to taste (Note 3)
To Cook & Serve
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 12 small tortillas (corn or flour), warmed
- lime wedges
- coriander/cilantro leaves
Instructions
- Marinade fish: Combine Fish Marinade ingredients in a ziplock bag. Set aside for 20 minutes to marinate – no longer than 1 hour.
- Pickled Cabbage: Place Pickled Cabbage ingredients in a bowl. Toss to combine and set aside for 30 minutes. Drain excess liquid, scrunch cabbage with your hands (to help soften). Set aside.
- Pink Sauce: Mix to combine.
- Cook fish: Heat oil in a skillet over high heat. Cook fish for 2 minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked.
- Remove fish onto plate then flake into large pieces.
- To assemble tacos, top with cabbage then fish, a dollop of sour cream and a squeeze of lime juice. Fold tortilla over and enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
- lean fish – like swordfish, tuna, kingfish (unless you can get fatty kingfish)
- very delicate fish – like dover sole and flounder
Nutrition Information:
Originally published May 2016. Updated with new photos and video, and most importantly, new Life of Dozer section added!
Life of Dozer
Helping shop for new appliances!! Need an industrial strength washing machine that can cope with all this darn FUR.
Absolutely delicious and definitely a keeper!
Wow! Following this recipe turned out much better than I anticipated! Fish was simply delicious, but really, it was the simple pickled cabbage that starred…great in combination.
Would I be able to replace the coriander with ground coriander? I forgot to buy fresh coriander. But ground coriander is the seeds, so might be a totally different flavour?
Hi Gems, it has a different flavour unfortunately! I’d just leave it out completely. N x
I love fish (and shrimp!) tacos and this recipe is great. The combo of fish, cabbage and sauce were a perfect pairing. Tacos tasted authentic to me — yum!
Made it for dinner last night. Used tilapia and the marinade turned out great. Next time going to try and add avocado in the mix and may be some mayo in the taco sauce. Thanks, your recipes are simply amazing.
I tried this recipe right before the corona 19 pandemic started. Fish taco is my fav Mexican dish and I was so glad to learn this recipe. It turned out better than the fish taco that I’ve ever tried. = ) I just made it this morning . Eating the fish tacos made me feel like that I’m dining at my fav restaurant surrounded my friends. I became so happy & grateful and wanted to thank you!! Stay healthy & safe!
We make these a couple times a month. I found that Dole makes a cole slaw kit called Fiesta Lime. It is the perfect foil for the spicy fish, and it cuts out a third of the prep time. (I do add some slivered red onion to the slaw.) It has a packet of dry seasoning and a packet of sauce–not too much, just enough for the amount of slaw in the bag. It’s a very good foil for the spicy fish.
We don’t use the taco siracha sauce because I’m not a fan of siracha and the slaw is moist enough to do the trick. And I cube the fish first, then marinate & sauté, and it’s ready to go.
Yum! Thanks, Nagi. Once I found your recipe I was done searching for the perfect fish taco ingredients.
My partner hates fish but LOVED these tacos!!! He even requested they be part of our weekly dinner rotation! I substituted the chipotle powder for chipotle seasoning that I found at Woolies and I think it worked a treat – although hopefully I’ll find the powder someday! Thank you again Nagi for another yum recipe!
Question: how does the ,tap or hover ‘ to scale work??!
Hi Joanna, click the servings with your mouse and you can scale up or down – it will automatically adjust the ingredients for you based on how many servings you want to make. N x
LOVE all the recipes so far. My daughter introduced me to your website and I am hooked!
Great recipes and easy to produce!
X
Love everything on this website. I made this again last night! A chipotle pepper in adobo sauce is a good substitute for the chipotle powder. I also added some blackened corn and guacamole. Yum yum yum
Another amazi recipe from you Nagi, our family all loved it. The red cabbage pickle gave it excellent balance.
Thank you so much for your ideas. I love trying your recipes, it makes my cooking even more rewarding and enjoyable. 🙂
My oh my! These were so easy to make and SO delicious.
Looks great. Can i use frozen fish fillets for this?
Yes definitely!! N x
Hi Nagi,
Anything I can substitute for Corianda?
After following you for years on FB and making so many delicious recipes, I finally subscribed, I have no idea what took me so long. I have Greek chicken marinading as we speak. I cannot wait to delve into the Indian inspired recipes. Big Hello from Upstate NY , USA
Wahoo!! Enjoy the chicken Lara 🙂 N x
I tried recipe for lemon butter with fish. It came out a success. Thank you
I am making this again tonight, such a firm favourite in our house. It is so simple and tasty if I could give it 10 stars I would. Thank you Nagi 🙂
Wahoo, I’m so glad you love it Jenni! N x
Made this tonight! It was delicious! I pickled some red onions as well and added those to the taco for a little extra bite. We loved it. This will definitely go into our rotation.
Nice James, love this idea! N x
We made this over the weekend with a few of your other mexican fiesta recipes, the fish came out amazing!! The cabbage was missing a little punch – need to try it again maybe with more vinegar for a stronger pickled taste. Thanks so much for helping me look like an accomplished cook whenever we have friends over!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Elodie! N x