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.
This is our go to every Tuesday… Taco Tuesday .. it’s a hit!!!
My 13 year old son made these for dinner. Absolutely delicious. Very simple and full of flavour
Made these tonight for the family with frozen basa. So delicious and refreshing! Everyone loved it and will definitely make again.
Thank you!
Made these today for lunch with freshly caught flathead. Absolutely delicious.
Even my husband who originally turned up his nose when I said I was making these, loved them. Substituted the lime juice and zest for lemon.
We had these for dinner tonight, what a winner! Yummy!
OMG these were amazing and so easy.
Definitely will be making them again.
This recipe is probably my favourite out of basically any food. Its so easy and most of the ingredients can be stored forever. I make the sauce out of kewpie and siracha instead but keep everything else the same.
This is just such a simple and DELICIOUS taco twist. I pickled beetroot (didn’t have cabbage) and used tortillas. Thank you its so gooooooood!
I made these tacos tonight, and they were delicious! My husband was not sure how he was going to like fish tacos, but he loved them and went up for more!
Fabulous recipe. Simple, quick and very tasty
This was absolutely delicious! My husband and I used cod, and the combination of spices with the slaw and sauce were out of this world! This will go in a regular rotation from now on.
Absolutely delish! Made it with Mahi Mahi (sometimes called Dorado). Highly recommend!
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!