Baja-Style Fish Tacos With Crunchy Slaw And Tangy Lime Crema

Whether you're going traditional, innovative, or drawing inspiration from a certain region with your tacos, you'll have quite a few types of taco meat to choose from, ranging from classic carne asada to pineapple-infused al pastor to shredded chicken tinga. Any seafood lover knows that perhaps the best variation is beer-battered fried fish, which adds a rich and crispy dimension that instantly elevates any handheld. 

This Baja California fish tacos recipe, courtesy of developer Julianne De Witt, hits all of those crunchy fried fish notes, augmenting them with tangy and fresh elements to keep each bite interesting. "Baja fish tacos are a real treat," De Witt says. "The fish is golden and crispy on the outside and features a flavorful beer batter that fries up quickly while leaving the fish tender and flaky." A plain fried fish taco might be a bit too rich all on its own, so that's where fresh elements like cabbage and scratch-made salsa come into play to balance things out. "The crunch from the cabbage, along with the acidity of the pico de gallo and the tangy lime crema, complements the richness of the fried fish perfectly," De Witt describes. Best of all, you don't need to travel up and down the Baja coast to enjoy such a seafood delicacy — this recipe comes together in under an hour right at home, making taco Tuesday just a little more special.

You'll start this fish taco recipe by making the lime crema, which consists of mayonnaise, sour cream, lime juice, smoked paprika, garlic powder, and kosher salt. From there, you'll move onto the pico de gallo, which calls for Roma tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, minced cilantro, lime juice, and more salt. 

Staying true to Baja-style fish tacos, this recipe calls for frying the tacos in beer batter. For the batter itself, you'll need all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, garlic powder, paprika, salt, black pepper, an egg, and cold lager. Then you'll also need cod as the fish of choice, along with salt for seasoning, extra flour to dredge the fish before the batter, and canola oil for frying. Finally, to assemble the tacos, you'll need corn tortillas and shredded green cabbage (along with the already-prepared crema and pico). 

Prepare the crema by stirring together the mayonnaise, sour cream, lime juice, paprika, garlic powder, and salt until smooth.

Prepare the pico de gallo by combining the tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, lime juice, and salt.

Make the batter by adding the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, garlic powder, paprika, salt, pepper, and egg to a medium-sized bowl. Slowly pour in the beer and whisk. Do not overmix, some lumps are fine.

Pour enough canola oil into a large, heavy pot to reach about 2–3 inches deep. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until it reaches 365 F.

Season the cod with salt.

Lightly dredge the cod pieces in flour.

Working in batches, dip the fish into the batter.

Allow any excess batter to drip off before carefully lowering the fish into the hot oil, making sure the pieces are separated and not touching.

Fry for 3 to 4 minutes, turning occasionally, until the fish is golden brown on both sides.

Remove the fish with a slotted spoon and drain it on a rack-lined baking sheet. Repeat the previous steps with the remaining fish.

Heat the corn tortillas in a dry pan on both sides until warm and lightly charred.

Add some cabbage to each tortilla.

Top with 1-2 pieces of fish.

Top each taco with pico de gallo.

Drizzle some crema over the top and serve.

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The biggest goal with these Baja-style tacos is to end up with a fish that's nice and crispy-crunchy without being overly greasy or super heavy. To end up with such a perfectly-fried fish, it all starts with getting the dredge and batter coatings just right. "Lightly coating the fish in flour before dipping it into the batter helps the batter adhere evenly and creates a crispier coating," De Witt explains. And when whipping up the batter, don't go overboard with the mixing — in fact, leaving a few lumps will ensure extra crispiness in the final product. Finally, make sure you let excess batter drip off each piece of fish before transferring it to the oil, otherwise the batter might become too thick and doughy after frying.

Another big mistake that people commonly make when deep frying is having the oil at the wrong temperature. De Witt recommends a temperature of 365 F here (using a thermometer is your best bet for accurately maintaining that temp) as it will ensure the fish cooks perfectly on the inside while the batter gets nice and golden brown, not burnt. Once you remove the fish from the oil, don't make the mistake of placing the pieces right onto paper towels. Instead, place the fried fish on a wire rack above paper towels so that all the excess moisture has somewhere to go instead of pooling up under the fish. 

Beer is something of a magical ingredient when it comes to batters of all sorts. In fact, beer is considerably better than plain water in frying batter for a few reasons, including the fact that it contains carbon dioxide, a key element in ensuring your batter is ultra-crispy. De Witt opts for beer in the batter for this recipe, and specifically cold beer — and, yes, there is a science behind that choice as well.

"Once you mix in the beer, the carbonation (carbonation is what helps to make the batter crispy), starts escaping but diminishes at a much slower rate when it's cold," De Witt explains. Adding cold beer to the batter mixture (and not waiting too long to batter the fish before frying) helps ensure that cold batter will be hitting very hot oil, which is perfect for establishing a very crispy coating very quickly. "The cold beer also helps the flour from developing too much gluten, which could make the coating chewy and tough," De Witt adds. On a similar note, this is another reason you should avoid overmixing the batter: to avoid losing those beer bubbles and ending up with a tough final coating.

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