Welcome back to the Egg Burner! If you have been following along, you will know that so far we have tried making Teriyaki Chicken and Butter Garlic Shrimp with Rice. This time, I wanted to try a dish with a new protein: fish. For me, fish is something I only like to eat if I get a craving for it. Long story short, I was craving some good fish and decided to go for fish tacos!
Before I continue, I have a confession to make: one could say that I “compromised” a little on the ingredients in this recipe. Instead of making my own coleslaw like the recipe does, I just grabbed some from the deli section at Walmart. Does this indicate that I am lazy? Yes. But was it a lot cheaper than buying ingredients to make my own? Also yes. So, depending on how you look at it, it was clever and frugal of me to buy pre-made coleslaw. At least, that’s what I told myself.
I also decided not to get cilantro to garnish the tacos with. This is solely because I still have a bunch of parsley left over from when I made butter garlic shrimp. I knew the cilantro would end up sitting unused in my fridge just like the parsley, so I decided to spare myself the guilt from further herb neglect.
If you want to make your own coleslaw and beautifully garnish your tacos with cilantro, then by all means do so. You can check out the full fish taco recipe here, but I will include my shortened list of ingredients below.
Let’s get cooking!
Fish Tacos
Total Time: 20 minutes (Active Time: 20 minutes)
The equipment needed is as follows:
- Pan
- Spatula
- Teaspoon measuring spoons
- Bowl
The ingredients needed are listed below:
- Tilapia Fillets ($5.60 at Walmart)
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, ground ($2.15 at Aldi. Fun fact: I used chili pepper as a substitute because I already had some at home)
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder ($1.05 at Aldi)
- ½ teaspoon cumin ($1.05 at Aldi)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- Corn tortillas ($1.83 at Walmart)
- Coleslaw ($1.94 at Walmart)
- 1 lime ($0.44 at Walmart)
To begin, combine all the spices in a bowl and season the fillets, front and back. (Let it be known that I did mix the spices together, but I had to include this picture. It was too satisfying not to.)
After the fillets are seasoned, place them in the pan and cook them for around eight minutes at medium-high heat, flipping them halfway through.
After the fillets are fully cooked, take them off of the heat.
Then, separate them into bite-sized pieces. This part was extremely satisfying to me, as the fillets cut so easily and smelled absolutely delicious.
Once the fillets are cooked and cut, toast corn tortillas to heat them up and give them some crispiness.
This was where things went south for me. When I was cooking the fish, some of the seasoning was left in the pan. When I warmed up the tortillas in this same pan, the leftover seasoning burned to a crisp and started smoking. The smoke ended up setting off the smoke alarm! I can’t say that is the first time that has ever happened, but it was an embarrassingly funny moment nonetheless.
I am not sure if this happened because I warmed the tortillas on too high of heat or because my pan is super old. In any case, in order to avoid this same event from occuring I would recommend warming the tortillas on low heat, in a separate pan or not heating them all together.
After the tortillas are warmed (and you escape death), set them on a plate and spoon coleslaw on them.
Then, place the bite-sized fish on top of the coleslaw. Finally, squeeze some lime juice on top to add some zest.
Violla! There you have it: fish tacos!
Overall, I loved this dish. I would definitely make this again, as it was quick, easy and tasted great. While at one point I wanted to give up, in the end it made me stronger. And by that, I mean I got an arm workout from waving a towel into the smoky air in my kitchen. But hey—a tasty meal is a tasty meal, no matter how you get there.
I hope you try this out for yourself. Be safe out there!
