How to Make Baja Fish Tacos

Crispy, spicy, and fresh, this Baja Fish Tacos recipe is a taco dream come true. The flavors stay balanced with a homemade Pico de Gallo and Creamy White Dill Sauce for your your fresh fish tacos. So dang delicious, you won’t know what hit you! 

this RECIPE

If you love fish tacos just as much as I do, you probably know that, sadly, most restaurants just don’t know how to make good fish tacos. Such a shame. To fix this problem, I decided to share a Baja Fish Tacos recipe with you.  But, first, let me tell you how my love for fish tacos started...

It was in Baja California where my love for fish tacos began. When I was young, my parents owned a home in Ensenada (which is located on the coast of Baja California about 30 minutes south of the San Diego-Mexico border). To say we visited often would be a complete understatement. Pretty much every long weekend, most summers or days that ended with “y” were all good enough reasons for my parents to pack up the car and go.

One of my favorite memories during these trips was making baja fresh fish tacos with fresh rock cod and sea bass. There was no question what we would make when we brought home the fresh fish. What great memories. When Dustin and I moved to San Diego a few years ago, I kept seeing restaurants boast about their fish tacos.

This brought back my good memories and renewed my cravings. I searched and searched, but I couldn’t find anyone who could make good fish tacos. Crazy, right? What really frustrated me was that people around town would say, “[enter restaurant’s name] has the best fish tacos,” but, no sir, they did not. Was it possible I let my memories of blissful summers and beloved Baja fish tacos get the better of me? Were they actually that good or had I made them better in my head over time? I hate when I do that!

I realized I had to take matters into my own hands: I needed to make the baja style fish taco recipe myself. Given that bringing a 15-month old on a fishing boat — no matter how cute he is — is never a good choice, store-bought “fresh” rock cod would have to suffice. I made fresh pico de gallo salsa with just enough heat to remember it on your lips. My favorite. I made a creamy white dill sauce that buckles the knees it’s so good. I thinly sliced the cabbage and cut the lime wedges. Such simple ingredients for such a truly delicious meal.

The verdict for this healthy baja fish taco recipe? The baja fresh fish tacos were fantastic. Just like I remembered. Well, except for the fresh, homemade corn tortillas like in Baja. Some things are better left for the memories anyways.

I really recommend you try these tacos with the fresh pico de gallo, homemade corn tortillas and creamy white dill sauce. The combination is so, so very yummy. I prefer a cornmeal and flour mixture spiced with some cayenne pepper, garlic powder and black pepper for coating the fish, as opposed to a beer batter, because I find the fish gets lost in a beer batter. But, that’s just me.

Here’s to good — and tasty — memories!

3 Homemade Healthy Taco Recipes

Is Taco Tuesday a family tradition in your home? Step up your tacos game with these baja fresh fish tacos. But don’t stop here. There are numerous healthy and delicious tacos recipes you should try for a healthy Tuesday night feast. If you want to keep the seafood theme going, you can try spicy shrimp tacos. Or maybe some oh-so-delicious chicken tacos. And, if you’re not a fan of seafood or chicken, you can always go for some tasty beef tacos.

Chicken Tacos

Flavorful, delicious, and easy to make, these Chicken Tacos are perfect for Taco Tuesday. However, you can make them any day. They are ready in less than 25 minutes so they make a great weeknight dinner. Also, why wait for Tuesdays, right? And a message for all of you clean-eaters out there - you can replace the tortillas with lettuce wraps to make these tacos healthier.

Spicy Shrimp Tacos

If you want to simplify your dinner prepping and make your life better, these Spicy Shrimp Tacos will do the trick! They are made with fresh pico de gallo, creamy avocado cilantro lime crema, and, of course, delicious spicy shrimp.

Crockpot Shredded Beef Tacos

You know what’s the best thing about these Crockpot Shredded Beef Tacos? Besides the taste, of course! If you are in a hurry in the morning, you can add all the ingredients to a Ziploc bag the night before and empty the bag into the crockpot before you leave for work. You will arrive home to some delicious shredded beef. And, in less than 5 minutes, you will have some delicious beef tacos to put on the dinner table.

Best Fish To Use In Baja Fish Tacos

I like to use fresh rock cod or sea bass fillet when making baja fish tacos. Since baja fish tacos are lightly fried until crispy, it is important to use a firm and flaky white fish in the recipe. That makes cod and bass fillet the perfect option for this baja style fish taco recipe. Not to mention cod is also cost-effective.

Another fish option for making these fish tacos is halibut. It is more expensive than cod or sea bass fillet, but it will keep its shape once it’s fried especially if you want to use the spiced cornmeal and flour mixture I like to use.

How To Make Baja Sauce

The dill sauce for fish tacos I recommend for this healthy Baja fish taco recipe is a DELICIOUS sauce. If you've never tried it before, it's totally the best creamy addition to this Baja Fish Tacos recipe. To make the Creamy White Dill Sauce, or Baja Sauce, for these tacos, combine all the ingredientsI've listed below in the recipe - it's SO EASY.

Then, just refrigerate while you prep and cook the fish to allow the flavors to meld together.  When ready to plate, drizzle this Baja sauce over the tacos and ENJOY!

Baja sauce for fish tacos is a delicious, creamy, and spicy sauce for fish tacos and you can adjust the spicy factor by removing the seeds from the jalapeno to make it less spicy or use a seeded jalapeno for extra spiciness. You can add more or less milk depending on how thin you'd like it.

You can store the Baja sauce for fish tacos in the fridge for several days, which basically means that you can have more than one Baja fish tacos nights per week. Isn’t this amazing?

Can I Re-heat Leftover Baja Fish Tacos?

Ah, leftovers! Don’t you love it when you make something delicious and you have leftovers? I sure do! And the good news is that you can easily reheat leftover Baja fish tacos in the oven.  Woot!  You can either reheat in the oven at 400 degrees F for about 8-10 minutes or until heated through OR microwave on high for about 1:30 minutes.  The oven will keep the fish as crispy as possible, but obviously takes longer so the choice is yours.

All you have to do after re-heating the fish is warm up the tortillas and assemble your Baja fish tacos with fresh pico de gallo, and the dill sauce for your fish tacos.

How To Make Baja Fish Tacos

Lacey Baier

Crispy, spicy, and fresh, these Baja Fish Tacos are a taco dream come true. The flavors stay balanced with a homemade Pico de Gallo and Creamy White Dill Sauce for your your fresh fish tacos. So dang delicious, you won’t know what hit you!

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 35 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course 30 Minute Meal, Clean Eating, Easy Dinner, fish, Healthy Eating

Cuisine Easy

Servings 4

Calories 387 kcal

*This post may contain affiliate links for products I use often and highly recommend.

Ingredients

  

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FOR THE CREAMY WHITE DILL SAUCE:

• ▢ 1 cup plain full fat greek yogurt
• ▢ ¼ cup unsweetened almond milk (or milk of choice)
• ▢ 2 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• ▢ 1 teaspoon jalapeno pepper, minced
• ▢ ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ▢ ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ▢ ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ▢ ½ teaspoon cumin
• ▢ ½ teaspoon dried dill weed
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder

FOR THE TACOS:

• ▢ 1 lb fresh rock cod or sea bass fillet, cut into strips of 2-3 oz. portions
• ▢ ½ cup almond meal
• ▢ 2 tablespoon coarse cornmeal
• ▢ ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• ▢ ⅓ cup chickpea flour
• ▢ 2 eggs, beaten
• ▢ 2 tablespoon olive oil
• ▢ ½ head cabbage, thinly sliced
• ▢ 10-12 homemade corn tortillas
• ▢ Fresh Pico De Gallo (see my recipe)

Instructions

 

• Follow my directions for how to make fresh pico de gallo and allow to refrigerate while making the tacos.

FOR THE CREAMY WHITE DILL SAUCE:

• Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Season with additional salt, lime, pepper and/or cumin to taste.
• Refrigerate while you prepare the fish.

FOR THE FISH:

• In a flat dish, combine almond meal, cornmeal, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and garlic powder. 
• In a second dish, combine eggs, and beat.
• In third bowl, add the chickpea flour.
• Heat oil on high heat in a skillet until hot and then turn to medium high heat.
• Dip fish into chickpea flour, then egg bowl, and then dust lightly with flour-cornmeal mixture.
• Fry until golden brown on all sides, approximately 4-6 minutes. Remove promptly and drain on a plate covered with paper towels.
• To serve, place a few pieces of fried fish on corn tortilla (you can use single or doubled tortillas, depending on your preference). Drizzle fish with desired about of Creamy White Dill Sauce and Fresh Pico de Gallo.
• Top with sliced cabbage and a squeeze of fresh lime.

Video

Nutrition

Serving: 1 tacoCalories: 387 kcalCarbohydrates: 36 gProtein: 29 gFat: 17 gSaturated Fat: 3 gCholesterol: 175 mgSodium: 766 mgPotassium: 612 mgFiber: 7 gSugar: 3 gVitamin A: 360 IUCalcium: 190 mgIron: 3.6 mg

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This post contains affiliate links for products I use often and highly recommend.