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:
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The chipotle marinated fish;
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“Pink Taco Sauce” – 2 ingredient, mildly spicy sour cream or yogurt sauce, goes very well with the fish;
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Quick pickled cabbage; and
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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:
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really lean fish – like swordfish, tuna and kingfish
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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!
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20 minute fish marinade – no longer, because otherwise the lime juice in the marinade will “cook” the fish;
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cook it, flake it;
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quick taco sauce – sour cream and sriracha. I call it my Pink Taco Sauce;
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pickle the cabbage – 20 minutes to become floppy (same as the fish marinating time, nice and convenient!);
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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.
What a good side to serve with the fish tacos? Fish is marinating can wait to eat it smells yummie.
Absolutely loved this recipe. I don’t eat a lot of fish as I hate prepping it but we love Mexican. Everyone loved this recipe. It will be a staple in our house for sure
Tonight will be the second time I am using this recipe to make fish tacos.
We loved it the first time I made it although I had to use less chipotle because of my 4 year old son.
Thank you for the recipe Nagi ❤️
Wow! So flavorful! Super easy recipe. Thanks for another winning recipe Nagi! 🙂
Made this for dinner tonight, we just used a generic coleslaw mix but followed the rest of the recipe. It was easily one of the best things I’ve eaten. This recipe is easy to follow and delicious
Thank you so much for these healthy recipes! Here’s hoping they all make their way into another book.
Fantastic recipe. I used ling which turned out great but took quite a bit longer to cook. My guests loved it. Very tasty, simple and healthy dinner!
So delicious, made chicken tacos for the family and fish tacos for my pescatarian daughter but everyone wanted the fish tacos!
The pickled red cabbage was super easy and added a good crunchy texture.
Fish was marinated well with the dressing, used sea bream but would be good, as recommended with chunkier fish.
Sour cream and Sriracha, great!
Flavour packed meal that takes hardly any time to whip up. A family favourite in my house. I have made it with chipotle and also with the chipotle substitute listed in the notes. Amazing both ways. I add a grated carrot in with the cabbage too!
Happy to report that Woolworths now has introduced a chipotle seasoning in their own brand of spices.
The Woolworths one is not quite the same. This recipe calls for chipotle powder which is 100% chipotle. The Woolworths chipotle seasoning is a mix of spices and only has 14% chipotle.
This is a great dish for getting a healthy, delicious and cost effective meal on the table fairly quickly if you do a little pre-planning. I made the flatbreads ahead of time. The marinade was made up ready to have the fish fillets popped in for 20mins. The longer the cabbage sits for, the better. I know fish is expensive, but it goes a long way and there are cheaper alternatives that will work. I added carrot and rocket to my cabbage because that’s what I had in the fridge. Added some avocado on the bread, again, I had some in the fridge. YUM. Thank you for another family favourite.
I buy my corn and flour tortillas online from
Chili mojo.
Also has Chipotle, hot sauces, etc. A great source for Mexican food ingredients
Hi Nagi, I am planning on making this recipe (looking delicious!). I just would like your recommendation on what brand of tortilla’s I should buy? Thank you for your time and love all your recipes!
HI Grace,
Im not Nagi but I use Old El Paso street market corn tortillas, or if you can get La Tortilleria online or in Melbourne they are the best.
This was absolutely amazing! Spicier than expected but still delicious!! Wondering what other recipes I can use the chipotle powder in and can wait to try them, or get a little creative myself!! These really should be served with a margarita or a gimlet!!
Just about to try this – looks like a fantastic recipe. You mention that Chipotle powder is hard to find in Australia – are you familiar with Herbies (online shop)? They have the most wonderful herbs and spices including Chipotle powder.
In NZ you can get this, plus dried chillies, tortillas, etc from Tio Pablo. The also have the BEST Azteca hot chocolate 😉
*ONLINE from Tio Pablo.
Sorry to jump on your post, but thank you for the information.
Really enjoyed this. It was tasty, quick to make and had a great amount of kick to it. Used ling and it was so tender and delicious. Though next time I’ll use a non stick pan!
I’m going to take this recipe to our outback adventure …frozen ling can be ordered from the distant supermarket
Hi Nagi, we cooked these and they were delicious. We have used this recipe over and over again. Next day we heated them up as per your instructions in your cookbook “Dinner” for our grandchildren and they devoured them. Crisp and still as tasty as the night before. Yum yum yum
These are incredible. I find that now when I go out for tacos I’m disappointed, because they’re never as good!
LOVED the flavor of the fish. I used snapper and it was fantastic. I would definitely make this again.