Frozen Tilapia Air Fryer Recipe

If you haven’t tried cooking air fryer frozen fish yet it’s a game changer. We will show you how to cook frozen tilapia air fryer, your Ninja Foodi or Cosori to tender and flaky.

Cooking Frozen Tilapia in Air Fryer

We do cook frozen meat quite a bit, this time we went for some rock hard white fish. This is typically much cheaper and you can find bags of them year round. That is great because if you too live in a smaller town you rely on How to Cook Frozen Tilapia a lot.

SO if you can’t cook air fryer tilapia defrosted and lightly breaded, this is a close second. You will not be able to add breadcrumbs on the outside this time but just add seasonings and WOW! It’s a healthy dinner idea that even my kids love once a week.

Ninja Foodi Frozen Tilapia

You can have any brand of this machine really. I make a lot of Cosori air fryer recipes, basket seen above. Ninja Foodi works too, you can pressure cooker fish in that pot as well if you wanted to. It’s kinda’ hard to believe that meat can be cooked from rock hard to fork tender, but it can.

I mean I would suggest that it was defrosted beforehand but that isn’t always possible, I get it. We’re a busy family with mountain bike practice, we both work, and I am not always on my game first thing in the morning. If I’m not, dinner will be an afterthought and sometimes needs to be saved with tips like this.

The biggest difference between the two comes down to seasoning. You can get some to stick if it is in this state but not nearly as well as if it were soft. Marinating doesn’t work if it is hard either, but surprisingly the cook time isn’t a whole lot different.

That is right, comparing fresh white fish to rock hard and how long each takes to cook until tender the only difference is a few minutes. Now there is a huge range when it comes to how large your fillets are. I suggest 1 lb. or so to fill your basket. Larger varieties like frozen salmon in air fryer need to be cut down.

Can you fit a whole filet of fish in air fryer?

You wouldn’t be able to cook the whole fillet since that fish is rather large. You’d either need to buy them sliced down into 2″ pieces or so, or buy it yourself and cut it down before freezing. I will do this if I find our favorites on sale. We have a deep freezer so as long as your meat is prepped beforehand you can do this more often.

With how to cook frozen meat, keep slices of fresh lemon and seasonings on hand. Salt and pepper are easily thought of but I personally prefer some garlic salt instead. You can season again when served too.

Oh another difference if your fish filets are hard is that you cannot make them breaded. Not a huge deal in our house as we like it “naked” I’d say more often but worth noting. You’d need to leave these in the fridge to loosen up in order to add a coating like we did with our air fryer catfish.

How to Cook Air Fryer Frozen Tilapia

• You always want to start off by preheating your air fryer to 375 degrees F for 5 minutes.
• For this one you’ll want to place a piece of parchment paper into bottom of air fryer basket, or spray with olive oil spray
• Place your fish on top.
• Sprinkle whatever seasonings on top you want with lemon slices on top of that.
• Air fry fish for 12 – 14 minutes or until fish is cooked thru and fork tender.
  • timing will vary depending on the size of each piece and how thick they are

How do you know when tilapia is done?

145 F is said to be the perfect internal temperature for this fish recipe so it is not dried out. Another way to tell if you don’t have

Then you can enjoy as is, with side dishes like on top of a bed of rice, and/or with a bit of lime white sauce drizzled over the top. Season again if desired with garlic powder and salt and pepper and enjoy.

FAQ

If you want to do this more often you’ll want some freezer bags on hand. When your favorite choices are on sale, buy bunches because they save for up to 3 months if packaged up properly. You do NOT want to leave it in the package if it is laying in a styrofoam tray with plastic wrap on top, it will be ruined.

Our frozen air fryer tilapia recipe will not only defrost / thaw your pieces slowly inside your machine, but also crisp the edges perfectly. You can do this with other varieties too. I have shared many of them above so they can be tried as well.