In episode 040 Fish Stick Tacos: Susie shares a recipe for crispy fish tacos that are made with the shortcut of frozen fish sticks! Perfect weeknight family dinner. The flavors are elevated with a recipe for jalapeno tartar sauce and cilantro lime slaw.
Transcript
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Intro: Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. That’s my guarantee. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.
Susie Weinrich: Who’s ready for a super easy dinner recipe that you can get done in 30 minutes? It’s pretty much kid-friendly, especially if your kid’s like fish sticks. But we have some elevated components that make it delicious for adults. We’re making fish stick tacos with a jalapeno tartar sauce and a cilantro lime slaw. It’s going to be delicious, y’all. You’re going to love it.
Tips and Tricks: So let’s talk about fish sticks. You can absolutely make your own fish sticks. I actually have a recipe for crispy oven-baked fish sticks that I will link in the show notes for you. But if you have a really good fish stick that you can buy at the store, why not take that shortcut? I know that Costco has an excellent fish stick. It’s the Trident Panko breaded fish stick. It’s whole filet fish, so it’s not the minced fish. So it’s very good quality. Now, if you don’t have a Costco membership and you’re just going to your local grocery store or Target, what you’re going to want to look for is a crispy breading like the ones at Costco. They have a Panko crumb on them, so it’s definitely going to be crispier. You also want to look for something that says whole filet or fish filet instead of minced fish right on the package. It should say it on the package if the package also says haddock or cod, or actually names the fish that they use, even better. Most fish sticks are going to be made with some kind of white-fleshed firm fish.
The other component of this recipe is the jalapeno tartar sauce. Now if you’re feeding kids, I will also link in there my just regular tartar sauce recipe. But if you’re like, I need to just get dinner on the table, I’m not trying to make homemade tartar sauce, you could absolutely just buy a quality tartar sauce at the grocery and call it good.
As far as the slaw goes, I would still recommend making the slaw for these tacos. It’s very simple to make. You probably have a lot of the ingredients already in your kitchen. Definitely take the shortcut of buying that pre-made slaw mix, not with dressing on it, just the slaw mix that has the carrots, the cabbage, and the red cabbage all mixed together, right in a bag.
All right. The last tip that I have for this recipe is that you can actually make the tartar sauce and the slaw a day ahead. So if you want to plan this for a Monday, and maybe on Sunday you have a little bit more time, you could absolutely prep those two things ahead, pop them in the fridge, and then when it comes to dinner time, all you have to do is bake your fish sticks, but you still have a really delicious dinner.
Before you get started, my number one tip when you make these three recipes, the fish sticks, the cilantro lime slaw, and the jalapeno tartar sauce, is that you multitask through the recipe. So get the fish sticks in the oven, and then while that’s baking, make the slaw. While that sets and marinates, make the jalapeno tartar sauce, and then everything will come together at once.
Fish Stick Taco Recipe: So let’s get on to the full recipe. You’re going to start by getting those fish sticks in the oven and just baking them per package instructions. The next step is I recommend making your cilantro lime slaw so that that can marinate a little bit while you make the tartar sauce.
So for the cilantro lime slaw, you’re going to need three cups of a shredded slaw mix. Like I said, buy that at the grocery. Then combine that with a quarter cup of red onions, a quarter cup of chopped fresh cilantro, and one fresh jalapeno that you finely dice. Here’s the tip with jalapeno. If you like very little heat, only use the outer green parts. If you like medium heat, remove the seeds and just use the green parts with the white pith, ribbing that’s on the inside of the jalapeno. If you want Wowza heat, use the whole thing except for the stem.
Then in a small bowl, you’ll want to combine one tablespoon of olive oil, one tablespoon of honey, and two tablespoons of fresh lime juice, and then add in a three-quarters teaspoon of kosher salt and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. Whisk that all together, and then pour that over the cabbage and toss it to coat. Now you can use it immediately, or as I said before, you can make it ahead and use it 12 to 24 hours later.
So while that’s sitting and marinating, we’re going to get to the jalapeno tartar sauce. This again is super easy. The one piece of equipment that you’re going to need for this is either a strong blender or some kind of food processor.
To the blender, you’re going to add three quarters, a cup of mayonnaise, a quarter cup of pickled jalapeno peppers, two heaping tablespoons of red onion, two heaping tablespoons of fresh cilantro, two tablespoons of capers, one fresh garlic clove, and then two teaspoons of fresh lime juice. You will process this for about 15 seconds so that it all comes together and any big pieces are chopped down. You don’t need it to be a smooth paste. You can still have a few small little pieces in there. Again, with this one, you can use it right away or you can refrigerate it for up to five days. So you can make this one way ahead if you need to.
Make sure that you have the fish sticks baked and it’s time for assembly. You can use corn tortillas or flour tortillas, and what I recommend is just letting everybody kind of make their own. You just pile in a little bit of that slaw in the bottom of your tortilla. Add about three or four fish sticks, and then drizzle with that jalapeno tartar sauce. You are going to love it and you are going to be amazed at how easy fish tacos can be.
Since this is such an easy recipe, I definitely recommend keeping the side dishes really simple as well. You could definitely do Mexican rice, you could do a store-bought or have a great recipe for stove-top Mexican rice or instant pot Mexican rice. If you love refried beans, I have a wonderful recipe for a 15-minute refried beans. Since you have the oven on already for the fish sticks, you could just mix that up and pop it right in the oven. Or you could always just add a side of chips with salsa and guacamole and call it good.
That does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner. Of course, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you so you can make this for dinner whenever you are ready.
If you’re loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast feed.
Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.
Tips Shared
- Buy a quality frozen fish stick that is made with whole filet instead of “minced fish”. Also look for one that identifies the actual fish variety (like cod or haddock) right on the package. A fish stick that uses a crispy coating, like panko, will also be better.
- Take the shortcut and buy the packaged slaw mix that is in the grocery store (cabbage, red cabbage and carrots).
- If you have time you can make the slaw a day ahead and the jalapeno tartar sauce up to 5 days ahead.
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