These Baja California Fish Tacos are a classic Mexican peninsula staple made with a crispy flaky cod and served with a homemade spicy chipotle aioli and homemade pico de gallo.
Baja California Fish Tacos
Did you ever make tacos growing up? We loved taco night growing up, which usually consisted of ground beef with taco seasoning, and hard shell tacos or soft shell wheat tortillas that we would load up with tomato, lettuce, cheese, and avocado. Nothing against those tacos, but these aren’t them!
Baja California Fish Tacos are a Mexican peninsula staple that can be found being eaten as a midday snack along the coast throughout southern California and the western coast of Mexico. I honestly had no idea what real authentic Baja California Fish Tacos tasted like, or even consisted of, until I traveled to Puerto Vallarta Mexico and experienced what true California Baja fish tacos were meant to taste like.
From one taco obsessed person to hopefully another, there was no going back from there.
How To Make The Best Baja California Fish Tacos
First, let’s start with the basics. If you are going to start making traditionally inspired tacos then you have to throw a few things out the window:
- 100% corn soft-shell tortillas only: No half corn/half wheat, no hard-shells, no lettuce wraps, etc. the base of a traditional baja california fish tacos starts with the shell, and that shell has to be corn. When choosing your taco shells look for 100% corn tortillas, the only other ingredients should be salt, and lime.
- Skip the cheese: Believe it or not, but most Mexican tacos actually don’t have cheese added to them. While they may top them with other sauces, or marinate certain types of meat, cheese is typically left off the taco
- Choose Fresh Ingredients: So get rid of that store-bought salsa, or guacamole, it has no place in a traditional taco…and I am going to teach you how to make everything you need from scratch.
- Highlight fresh herbs and spices: These will make up the main flavor profile of your tacos.
Choosing The Best Fish For Your Baja California Fish Tacos
Since we are going to be making a traditional Baja California fish taco it is important that you choose the right fish. For our fish tacos, I always make sure that we are choosing a sustainably sourced, wild-caught white fish that has a flaky texture once cooked.
Some great options would be hake, which is a great fish that is abundant and can easily be sustainably sourced, halibut, or haddock, but my best advice is to find a local fish market and ask them what they would recommend. Hopefully, the person at the market will be knowledgeable about sustainable fishing, and also a good enough cook to give you some recommendations. In my experience this is usually the case, but not always.
When making the fish for these Baja fish tacos it can be battered with eggs and flour and pan-fried, or it can be baked which we are going to make here with this recipe. When baking white fish, once you can begin to smell the fish and it easily flakes apart you know it is ready.
How To Make Homemade Chipotle Aioli
In my opinion, chipotle flavoring with these baja california fish tacos is a match made in heaven, and these tacos just aren’t the same without it. Depending on how much heat you prefer, add just a little chipotle powder or 1/2 red chili at a time and stop when you have the flavor you prefer.
- To make the chipotle aioli start by combining garlic, mayonnaise, lime, chili powder or red chilis, salt, and pepper in a food processor.
- Then blend on high until smooth. Adjust the salt, pepper, and chipotle flavor to your taste.
- Remember you can always add, you cant subtract.
Get ready to get addicted to this sauce because it is so simple to make, and out of these world delicious.
Authentic Mexican Baja California Fish Tacos Recipe With Chipotle Aioli
Description
These Baja California Fish Tacos are a classic Mexican peninsula staple made with a crispy flaky cod and served with a homemade spicy chipotle aioli.
Ingredients
Taco Ingredients
- 8 Warm Corn Tortillas
- 1 pound wild-caught white fish
- 2 cups chopped red cabbage
- 1 Avocado
- 2 cups chopped lettuce
- 1/2 Jalapano Pepper (finely chopped)
- Pico de Gallo
- Salt and Pepper
- Fresh Cilantro
- Lemon and Lime
Aioli Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
- 1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder, or 2 small red chilis
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 and place your fish in a glass baking dish. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper and bake for ~25 minutes, or until fish is flaky.
- Then chop all of your remaining vegetable ingredients, and set them aside for easy taco assembling.
- Taking a food processor, combine all ingredients for the aioli and blend on high until smooth. Adjust the salt, pepper, and chipotle flavor to your taste. Remember you can always add, you cant subtract.
- Once your fish is nearly finished place the tortillas in the oven for 1-2 minutes to soften slightly and warm.
- Remove tortillas and fish from the oven and begin to assemble your baja fish tacos.
- Start with the cabbage and lettuce, then move onto the pico de gallo. Next add your fish and top with avocado, chipotle aioli, and salt, pepper, fresh cilantro, and jalapeno’s to your taste.
