Best Air Fryer Fish Tacos

How to make the best air fryer fish tacos with cod, halibut, or your favorite fillet. Perfectly tender yet crispy on the outside in every bite, air fryer tacos are the bomb!

Air Fryer Fish Tacos with Slaw

Our white sauce for fish tacos is the perfect way to top them all of course, or use tartar sauce if you prefer. Flour or corn tortillas are perfect, choose smaller sizes so you can pick them up easily. Cole slaw is a must too.

You can make a batch up pretty quick using bagged slaw mixture with a simple bottled dressing, buy in a container already made or homemade. I think the insides really need some crispy crunchiness inside but that is up to you.

Healthy Air Fryer Fish Tacos

These are way easier than you may think to make. Of course you can fill with any items you feel would make a good combo but simple is best for us.

How long do you air fry frozen fish fillets?

We have directions for air fryer fish and chips you can follow for that. Just leave off the french fries since you wouldn’t need those for this. I mean we have made air fryer fish sticks too but I wouldn’t use that style for these.

Can you cook fish in an air fryer?

Yes!! Not only can you cook it fresh and/or breaded, you can also cook frozen fish in air fryer and frozen salmon perfectly. You’d never know it was rock hard just minutes beforehand.

One tip you should really remember is that the basket really needs a spray of non stick spray or olive oil. If not I have made this mistake and it wasn’t good. It sticks pretty good and all that nice breading will peel right off.

Baja Style Fish Tacos Air Fryer

For best results, cut piece of fish into large bite size pieces. Make sure they’re the same size so they cook evenly. Roll in your lightly seasoned bread crumb mixture until coated. Spray inside of air fryer basket with non stick cooking spray and lay coated pieces inside without overlapping.

1. Now spray the tops with olive oil and the close drawer.
2. We share How Long to Cook Cod or other white fish below
   • Air fry at 375 degrees F. – fish cook for 6-8 minutes depending on how large your pieces are.
   • Break one piece apart to see “doneness”.
   • Lay on paper towel and cover if making multiple batches.
3. When perfect add into small tortillas with sliced red onion
4. Squeeze on some tartar sauce or white fish sauce with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of fresh cilantro too.

You can see the coloring on ours here.

Air Fryer Fish Tacos Tilapia

Whether you use swordfish or cook frozen tilapia you’re going to want to add all the YUM inside to coat it and give it some crunch.

Then it is time to load these babies up!! I like to set all kinds of different things out on the island and make a fish taco bar of sorts. Having a get together for Cinco de Mayo or want to mix up the holiday buffet? Try this!

What goes good with fish tacos?

1. White sauce is a basic vinegar and mayo mixture.
2. Sour cream can be store bought with no effort on your part.
3. Pico de gallo salsa is out of control especially if you grow tomatoes in your garden.
4. Hot sauce of any kind can add heat if you like that.

If you wanted to offer other items to serve on the side we have options like making pressure cooker refried beans or Mexican rice. That will make it a really hearty meal and you won’t have to make as much protein because the sides will start filling people up too.

I mean we could eat these probably twice a week. Especially if you mix up the toppings and side dishes you offer everyone.

I will say that Wahoo’s is our favorite restaurant. I tried to mimic what they offer right at home during 2020 when everything was totally shut down. We messed with it over and over and this was the best for all 5 of us.

Great for those who are seeing low carb keto options that taste great. You can just shake a little of the crispy outer texture if you prefer or really roll it in there so it’s nicely coated well.

If you’d like a thicker breading on the outside, more like at a restaurant you’ll want to add egg. We did this when making air fryer fish nuggets. These can work just as well for this recipe too. You can see how it is a bit crispier and bite sized.

What is Baja sauce made of?

If you want to add another kick make this! Sour cream, mayo, lime juice, fresh cilantro, Old Bay, and ancho chili pepper are mixed together. Adjust as needed but basically start with equal parts of the first 2 ingredients.

From there you can add Tobasco or Sriracha to add some heat to this too. I am sure you could buy it ready made, you can with tartar sauce too, but it’s pretty darn easy to make it yourself too much cheaper.

Is leftover fried fish good?

When it comes to deep fried like at Long John Silvers, it really doesn’t save well. If you use more of a dry coating like this one it doesn’t get a weird and slimy. Use your Ninja Foodi or other brand to re-crisp for about 2 minutes.