Our all-time favorite Fish Tacos recipe! These are loaded with fresh ingredients and perfectly seasoned plump fish. Don’t skip the best fish taco sauce – a garlic lime crema that you will want it on all your tacos!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
This is our go-to recipe for family get togethers and company because it comes together quickly and it always gets rave reviews. These fish tacos are so flavorful and satisfying but you will feel good and light at the end of the meal.
This recipe is party sized and can be scaled down to feed a smaller crowd. It was developed by my brother-in-law, Slavik and it has been adopted by pretty much everyone in our family. I have had so many requests to publish the recipe so here it is! It’s an easy, excellent fish tacos recipe. Thank you Slavik for sharing your awesome fish tacos with us. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to ever get tired of this recipe. P.S. They just happen to be gluten free fish tacos!
Seriously though, be generous with that fish taco sauce! The sauce recipe was adapted from Kaylee on All Recipes. We simply doubled it because there never seems to be enough of the sauce ;).
Ingredients for Fish Tacos:
We used tilapia but you are welcome to use any white fish. Salmon or shrimp would be amazing as well!
Fish Taco Toppings:
*Cotija cheese is a Mexican cheese that crumbles when you grate it; similar to feta but much milder in flavor and not nearly as salty. It is inexpensive and found in the refrigerated cheese section of the grocery store.
Ingredients for Best Fish Taco Sauce:
For the fish taco sauce, all you need is sour cream, mayo, lime juice, garlic powder and sriracha. The sriracha gives it a little kick of spice so you can add more or less based on your preference. This taco sauce is essentially a lime crema – the perfect blend of tanginess and heat (print the recipe below).
How to Make Fish Tacos:
1. Line a large baking sheet with parchment or silicone liner. In a small dish, stir together seasonings: 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper and evenly sprinkle the seasoning mix over both sides of tilapia.
2. Lightly drizzle fish with olive oil and top each piece with a dot of butter. Baked at 375˚F for 20-25 min. If you want it to get a little browned around the edges, you can broil for 3-5 minutes at the end if desired.
3. Combine all the Taco sauce ingredients: 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup Mayo, 2 Tbsp lime juice (from 1 medium lime), 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp Sriracha sauce, or to taste in a medium bowl or a large measuring cup and whisk together until well blended. It’s really fun and feels like dining out to serve the sauce in a squeeze bottle like this one.
4. To serve the tacos, toast quickly toast the corn tortillas on a large dry skillet or griddle over medium/high heat.
5. To assemble: start with the fish then add remaining ingredients finishing off with a generous sprinkle of cotija cheese and finally that awesome taco sauce! Serve with a fresh lime wedge to squeeze extra lime juice over tacos.
Mmmm so much sauce! I’m so crazy about this taco sauce. Seriously the best!
⬇ Print-Friendly Fish Tacos Recipe:
Fish Tacos Recipe with Best Fish Taco Sauce!
Ingredients
Fish Taco Ingredients:
Fish Taco Toppings:
- 1/2 small purple cabbage
- 2 medium avocado, sliced
- 2 roma tomatoes, diced (optional)
- 1/2 diced red onion
- 1/2 bunch Cilantro, longer stems removed
- 4 oz 1 cup Cotija cheese, grated
- 1 lime cut into 8 wedges to serve
Fish Taco Sauce Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup Mayo
- 2 Tbsp lime juice, from 1 medium lime
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp Sriracha sauce, or to taste
Instructions
- Line large baking sheet with parchment or silicone liner. In a small dish, combine seasonings: 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper and evenly sprinkle seasoning mix over both sides of tilapia.
- Lightly drizzle fish with olive oil and dot each piece with butter. Bake at 375 for 20-25 min. To brown edges, broil for 3-5 minutes at the end if desired.
- Combine all Taco sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk until well blended.
- To serve the tacos, toast quickly toast the corn tortillas on a large dry skillet or griddle over medium/high heat.
- To assemble: start with pieces of fish then add remaining ingredients finishing with a generous sprinkle of cotija cheese and finally that awesome taco sauce! Serve with a fresh lime wedge to squeeze over tacos.
Nutrition Per Serving
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Love Tacos? Don’t miss our most popular taco recipes here (the beef bulgogi and shrimp tacos are completely swoon worthy!)
I’m so tempted to make these again for dinner tonight. I will never stop loving this recipe! I hope you all love it as much as we do.
Sauce is SOLID
I hate tilapia, but this works for: shrimp, swordfish, halibut, whitefish, Pike, trout, whatever. You can: broil, fry, sear, roast, grill your fish. Even a possible is to ROAST a WHOLE larger fish and then have guests dig in and build their own tacos.
Use what is FRESH and even more ideal, LOCAL
Thank you so much for this awesome review! I’m so happy you enjoyed it! I have to agree this sauce goes well with so many dishes!
These were very good. We used cod. Just a tip, double the spices for the fish, we ran out before the fish was completely covered both sides.
I’m so happy you enjoyed this, Jacob!
I am going to make this tonight! Quick question though, you have the nutrition info posted, but it doesn’t say what the serving size is?
Hi Kerry, The serving size is towards the top left on each print-friendly recipe card. This recipe makes 24 tacos and the nutrition label is for each taco. I thought that would be the simplest way for someone to calculate if they were to eat 1, 2 or 5 tacos 🙂
Are the baking instructions for frozen or thawed tilapia?
Hi MB, we use thawed.
Thank you Natasha for posting your recipe. I’ve prepared your recipe several times and family just love it! Especially your sauce, I’ve used the sauce not only for the fish tacos, but on sandwiches, steaks just to name a few. Thanks again!
You’re welcome Robert! I’m so happy you enjoyed that!
We just made these delicious fish tacos today and they definately turned out as 5 out of 5. Wow!!
We’re in Spain right now, so we needed to make some adjustments; we used a Spanish hot sauce for the fish sauce, and Grana Padano cheese, instead of the Mexican ingredients (couldn’t find them here). Other than that, we followed the recipe to the letter (using white flaky fish) and wow!! we will definitely be making these again. So fresh, but still with some sting. Amazing, thank you for the recipe.
That’s so great Cecile. Thank you so much for sharing this review with me!
Looked for a fish taco recipe and yours looked so good. Love the sauce, although I had to lessen the sriracha as we are not “heat” people. Thanks so much for posting it.
Thank you for the great review Gina!
We made these tonight. They tasted amazing!
That’s so great! Thank you for the great review!
Fish tacos were great! We used black drum we caught yesterday out of Port Aransas, TX. Thanks a lot for the recipe! Rob
Hi Rob! That sounds amazing! I can imagine that tasting even better with fresh caught fish!
This is my go to recipe for fish tacos. Have made the sauce many times.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that! Thank you for the great review!
Love this recipe! The fish seasoning AND the taco sauce are amazing! Any ideas of what else I could use the sauce with? I always have extras and hate throwing it out cuz it’s so good! (I know I could just make smaller batch, but it’s delicious and I’m wondering what else it could work for ;)) Thanks!
I think it would be great along with other fish dishes, or fritters! It can also be used as a dipping sauce!
Make slaw with the purple cabbage. Add the sauce, green onion and cilantro. Delish!
After searching the web for a good, quick and easily prepared fish taco if found this. I tried your recipe last week on the Boss, aka The Wife, said she it was great-which I couldn’t agree with more. She also asked me to make it for my daughters because they love fish tacos when they’re here on Aug 1, 2018-which I am. The only difference is that I use halibut. Thanks again, Natasha.
I’m so happy you all enjoyed these Ron! Thank you for sharing your great review with us!
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe- I made it last night and it was a hit! Definitely planning on adding this to my repertoire of go-to recipes. Only thing we changed is trying the tacos with the corn (esquites) inside them, which I’d intended as a side. It worked well, and I was able to use the fish taco sauce on the corn as well.
Hi Ro! That’s so great! Thank you for sharing that with us! I’m so happy you liked this recipe!
I love them so much I made it 5 times already! I was wondering if the sauce could be frozen? We are going on vacation for 2 weeks and it’s so good I don’t want it to spoil!!
Hi Marie, I haven’t tried that so I honestly don’t know. You might try freezing a portion of it to see if it separates or gets weird. Sorry I can’t be more helpful with your question.
These are so amazing! I looked all over the internet to find a good fish taco recipe and this will NOT disappoint!!! Everyone in the family loved it. Thank you!
You’re so welcome! I’m so happy you all enjoyed that!
Hi,
This was a fab summer recipe which we enjoyed yesterday, even had some of the salad filling left over for lunch the next day with the taco sauce. Can I share a link to this recipe on my new blog?
Thanks
Hi Heidi, here is our policy on sharing recipes. I’m so glad you enjoyed these fish tacos!!
DELISH Yum!
Thank you so much for following our blog! I’m so happy you enjoyed that!
Made this last night for dinner and it was an absolute hit! I had some fresh shrimp on hand and decided to season it with the taco mix and roast it in the oven with the fish for about 8 minutes. It was sooooo good! My fiance and I loved eating it and that taco sauce is SUPER AMAZING! I had to make a double batch because my fiance is a big “sauce and dip” kind of guy. I also worked a ways away so time is of the essence when I am done with work so the timing of this recipe was seriously less than 25 minutes. While the fish/shrimp were cooking, I was able to make the taco sauce and dice up the avocodo. I also mixed in the corn and the avocado and onion so it was like a salad on top of the shredded cabbage (also got a bag of cole slaw to cut time too). My fiance said these tacos are better than any restaurant tacos he has ever had and I absolutely agree. Nothing like making fresh and abundant tacos at home and seriously for less than 25 bucks too!
Thank you so much for this amazing review, Kimberly! We are so happy you discovered our blog! 🙂
Great tacos. Second time having them this week!!!!
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
I just realized I referred to you as Sarah. Perhaps was confused reading the comment trail! haha. Sorry Natasha!!
Oh that’s okay. Thank you for clarifying!