The perfect fish taco, just like you get in San Diego, but without needing to buy a plane ticket.
Our oldest son moved to San Diego in January. The first thing we did was figure out when we could down and visit.
I love San Diego! I think if I had to pick a city other than Portland to live in it would be San Diego. The weather is awesome, I love the feel and pace of the city, beautiful scenery and they have amazing fish tacos!
We spent a long weekend down in San Diego a month or so ago and I think in the four days we were there we ate fish tacos five times! We just couldn’t get enough of them. The other great part – they are pretty inexpensive. You can find taco shops on just about every corner and thanks to Logan we found some good ones. Our youngest daughter was with us and she has spent her whole life so far thinking she doesn’t like fish. After our trip to San Diego she realized she was wrong! She decided she was going to give the fish tacos a try, just to see. Well, she was in love and ate fish tacos five times too!
So now that we’ve been back in Portland for a while we’ve started having fish taco withdrawals and cravings.
How to Make Baja Fish Tacos
Start with whatever kind of fish you like. The tacos we had in San Diego were a light, white fishlike cod, halibut or tilapia. Traditionally they are breaded in a beer batter. Since we don’t drink beer, I used carbonated soda water and it worked great.
Cut the fish into two inch pieces.
Dipped each piece into a batter made from flour, cornstarch, and soda water until they are lightly coated.
Next, fry them in a pan of hot oil. You want the oil to be around 375 degrees. Fry them until they are cooked through. I used my cast iron skillet. If you aren’t a fan for fried fish, you can grill the fish too. The real secret is the white sauce that goes on top. And that will be just as delicious on a grilled fish taco as on my fried Baja fish tacos.
Instead of putting the fried fish on a paper towel to drain and cool I use a cookie cooling rack and put the paper towel on the counter under the rack.
The sauce is a combination of plain Greek yogurt, mayo, lime juice, minced capers, oregano, cumin, dill weed and cayenne pepper.
The sauce is better if it is mixed up ahead and allowed to sit in the refrigerator for at least a few hours or overnight. The flavor improves as it sits.
A San Diego style taco must also have a garnish of chopped cabbage. Love the extra little crunch it gives. Wrap it all up in a corn tortilla and close your eyes and you might just think you are in San Diego!
For other taco recipes try these:
Baked Tacos – Flatbread Tacos – Crock Pot Salsa Chicken Tacos
Fish Taco Recipe
Baja Fish Tacos
Ingredients
- 1 lb. fish cod, halibut or tilapia, cut into 1-2inch chunks
- 1 C flour
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1 C soda water or beer used soda water
White Sauce
- 1/2 C plain Greek yogurt
- 1/2 C mayo
- juice of one lime
- 1 tsp minced capers don't leave this out
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp dill weed dried
- 1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
- 1 quart oil for frying
- corn tortillas
- cabbage finely shredded
Instructions
White sauce
- In a bowl combine yogurt and mayo. Add in lime juice and seasonings. Allow to sit in refrigerator a few hours or overnight.
Fish
- Mix together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, egg and soda water to make batter. A few lumps is o.k.
- Heat oil in deep frying pan to 375 degrees. I used my cast iron skillet.
- Dip fish into batter and fry until crisp and golden brown and cooked through.
- Place on a cooling rack to drain and cool.
- To serve place fish in a corn tortilla. Garnish with sauce and shredded cabbage.
Nutrition
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Love SanDiego! Love fish tacos! But I am not a fan of capers. You mention not to leave this ingredient out. Is there something else I could use in the sauce?
For quick tacos, I use the tortilla-crusted tilapia from Costco==13 minutes in the oven while I prepare the other ingredients & dinner’s done. I will be trying your crema sauce cause it sounds yummy. Thanks for sharing your recipes!!
The one thing that I see most home cooks do wrong when making a dredge, is they put the salt in the flour. Being a Exec. Chef & Food and Beverage Manager at an Officers Club for the Air Force, never add salt to flour. Salt is more dense and heavier than the flour and will only sink to the bottom of the dredge. Always salt your protein before you dredge. And always use the Dredge-Drench-Dredge technique. This will a give you a great coating.
Hope these little tip helps.
Great tip – thanks so much for sharing!
YUM!
I need these.
So good to see you today. I want to ask you some Qs too – about planning time for your biz with young kids. I know you’ve been there 😉 Let’s get together soon.
xo
Shannon
Yes – I’ll text you and lets get a time on the calender!
I made these tonight and they were fantastic!! I used tilapia filets that were frozen from Costco. The breading was so light and cripsy–just perfect! I’m normally not great at deep-frying things but these turned out perfect! Thanks for the recipe.
Heidi, So glad you loved them! That Tilapia from Costco is the best!
only ate these in restsurants.now, can do so at home. thanks.
i mean fish tacos.
So what exactly makes these “San Diego” fish tacos?
These tacos are like the ones we ate while in San Diego so that is why I called them that. You can get them all over San Diego.
I’ve been saying I want to try fish tacos for years…and I still have not done it. It’s not something that you see around here, but it sure looks good to me! My dad and son went fishing recently. The fish I put in the freezer from that trip will be turned into these tacos!
Just made this and it came out great! My son who doesn’t normally like fish loved it! Thanks for posting Leigh Anne!
Mary, So glad! Love it that your son loved it too.
We love fish tacos at our house and make them just the same. I make an interesting sauce. Here it is, if you would like to try it:
Tomatillo Dressing
1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch mix
1½ c mayonnaise
½ c milk
½ c salsa verde
2 tomatillos, remove husk, diced
½ bunch of fresh cilantro leaves
1 clove garlic
juice and zest of 1-2 limes limes – depending on their size
½-1 jalapeno – depending on size – seeded, leave seeds if you like it hotter
Mix all ingredients together in the blender. Refrigerate for at least an hour. That’s it!
These look perfect. I love the crunch of the cabbage, also! I think I would like the addition of capers to the sauce, I will have to try it.
What kind of oil? I don’t ever use shortening or vegetable or canola oil, so is there a healthy high-heat oil I could use for this? Did you bake the fish first? It does not look raw.
I used canola oil. It was not baked first.
This looks so good – I love the addition of capers to the sauce. I will definitely be trying it out!
The capers add some nice flavor.
I haven’t had fish tacos in a long time – might need to change that soon! 🙂 Pinned this!
Jamie – definitely need to change that!
These look so delicious!! I always eat fish tacos at a restaurant called Rockfish. They are super delicious and sound a lot like this recipe. Super delicious!!
Looks like a great recipe–I have a package of halibut in the freezer, I’ll make it for dinner soon. it was great meeting Leigh Ann! We love the Wilkes families! Such amazing people.
Ooohhhh these look great. I just spent a week at the beach eating fish tacos. Good timing! 🙂
Life is good at the beach and even better with fish tacos!
I love fish tacos, but have the hardest time making a version my family likes. I can’t wait to try these! Thanks for the delicious recipe. Pinning.
Kristin, I hope you’ll try them and let me know what your family thinks!
Looks delicious. Do you have a favorite brand of corn tortillas ? And…do you heat them up a bit first ?
Denise, I like the Don Pancho brand. I do warm them up in the microwave between two paper towels first. Enjoy!
These look so incredibly good! We do the same every time we are down in SD.
Thanks Matt! Can’t wait to go back to SD!
You might want to change your ‘1/2 tsp dried till week’, to 1/2 tsp. dried dill weed. LOL!
Thanks Cassandra – got it changed. Appreciate you letting me know.