These crispy golden Air Fryer Fish Tacos are quick and easy to make in under 30 minutes. Healthy air fried fish tacos are best with a firm white fish like Mahi Mahi, Tilapia, Cod, Halibut or even barramundi as the fish is white and flaky and its easy to make it breaded using panko crumbs, or to add a taco spice rub to keep it low carb.
Why You Need These Fish Tacos In Your Life!
- Makes crispy fried fish with very little oil, so way healthier and better for you
- Cooks breaded fish quicker than in an oven
- Its quick, easy, simple and creates tender soft flaky perfectly cooked fish
- Easy to make low carb by skipping the panko and using a fish taco seasoning instead
- Less mess than fussing about with cooking fish on the stove or in the oven
- Fish tacos in the air fryer in a warm tortilla with simple salad ingredients is the perfect combination of soft, crunchy, fresh, and zesty
- Easy to make the fish less or more spicy and you can use a store-bought taco spice mix or use the one in this recipe
- These cod tacos with a slathering of favourite fish taco sauce on top are perfect for game night, taco Tuesdays, and easy casual weeknight dinners.
Love Tacos but no Air Fryer? Why not check out these Crispy Fish tacos with Pineapple Salsa - so fresh, or these one of a kind Crunchy Calamari Tacos, and these super simple Prawn (Shrimp) tacos with slaw.
Ingredients
Ingredients Notes
Fish: You can use either fresh or frozen fish for this recipe, and the best kinds are a firm white fish like like Mahi Mahi, Tilapia, Cod, Halibut and Barramundi. Cutting the fish into 4 equal sized fillets will ensure that they cook evenly all the way through.
Panko Breadcrumbs: these are a light Japanese breadcrumb perfect for achieving a crispy and crunchy texture when air frying. Panko are different to regular breadcrumbs as there are no crusts, just the bread, allowing it to cook to a beautiful colour without retaining the oil
Salt and Pepper: this is essential for the basis of the seasoning of the fish. Even if you don’t use any of the other spices, salt and pepper will still achieve a deliciously seasoned fish fillet.
Eggs: these are used to dip the fish pieces in so that they hold the panko breadcrumbs. The egg helps to create a “stickiness” so you get more panko and thus crunch on your fish. You could skip the egg, but the panko will have trouble holding onto the fish.
Spices: I used a combination of garlic powder, ceyenne pepper, chili powder, onion powder and dried oregano for a punchy, spicy Mexican flavour with some heat. Alternatively you could omit the pepper or chili powder if you don’t like the heat or are making it for kids.
Cooking Spray: Spray oil is perfect for using in the air fryer. I like to use a vegetable oil, or extra virgin olive oil spray. Really, though as you don’t use a lot of oil, you could use any variety or spray oil.
How To Make Air Fryer Tacos
- Preheat Air Fryer to 400 F / 200 C and line a baking tray with baking paper/parchment paper.
- Cut up Fish: Remove excess moisture from fish by patting dry fish fillets with kitchen paper or towel. Cut fish fillet into 4 pieces of roughly equal size and lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper, and set aside.
- Set up your breading bowls: In bowl 1 add the eggs and beat lightly. In bowl 2, add panko breadcrumbs, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, chili powder, onion powder and dried oregano.
- Bread the Fish: One at a time, dip each piece of fish in the egg mixture and shake off excess. Then lay flat in the breadcrumbs and press gently both sides to coat.
- Cook Fish: Place the fish in the air fryer basket without overcrowding it and lightly spray on one side. Depending on the size of your air fryer you may need to cook the fish in two batches. Cook fish at 400 F / 200C one side for 4 minutes then flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Fish is cooked when gold and crispy.
- Warm Tortillas and Assemble: Once fish is cooked, removed from air fryer and warm tortillas in the air fryer by laying flat and set to cook for a 10 seconds. Alternatively you can warm them in the microwave. Assemble taco with fish and garnish. Serve with your favorite sauce.
Sauces for Fish Tacos
- Mayonaise: I love mixing mayonnaise with a little srirarcha for a creamy fish sauce with spice
- Aioli: either plain, or garlic aioli which is one of my favourites
- Ranch Dressing: an easy alternative and great to temper the spices
- Sweet Chilli Sauce: good for even more heat with little bite
- Smoky BBQ Sauce: a nice option to add a little smokiness to the Mexican spices.
These sauce suggestions are also perfect with my Air Fryer Cauliflower Bites and Air Fryer Crispi Calamari.
Check out your local supermarket for low sugar or no sugar variations of your favourite sauces or consider making your own like my sugar free sweet chili sauce, and smoky BBQ sauce.
Recipe Tips
- Using Frozen fish: Remove frozen fish the day before and let it defrost in the fridge overnight so its fully thawed first for best results.
- Preparing Fish: make sure to pat dry the dish with kitchen towel to remove excess moisture before dipping into the egg wash. This will allow the panko to stick to and coat the fish better
- Temperature: Air frying “fried” food at a higher temperature creates a better result as it becomes crispy on the outside and soft on the outside.
- Breadcrumbs: If you can’t find panko breadcrumbs or want to make your own, grab a loaf of bread that is a few days old, remove all the crusts, and blitz in a food processor. Avoid using fresh bread as it will be too soft. Older bread will achieve a better texture crumb.
- Spice alternatives: Smoked paprika for a hit of smokiness in the spice mix, or a little turmeric for extra golden colour
- Salt Alternatives: Whilst I love using regular sea salt, I also like to change it up and sometimes use garlic salt, onion salt or celery salt instead of regular and each of these different salts will give a slightly different flavour, especially if using in conjunction with additional onion powder or garlic powder.
Common Questions
Only a tiny amount of spray oil is needed when air frying fish. About a 3 second spray is what I do. Even if you spray too much oil, the fish won’t drown in it like in traditional deep drying or even shallow pan frying, since the fish is sitting on a raised insert and excel oil will fall away.
It will depend on your air fryer and the size of your fish. Cooking four small fish fillets at 400 F / 200 C for minutes one side, then flipping to the other side is a good guideline. Generally flipping your fish in the air fryer will give you a nice golden crust on both sides and you typically want to cook it for less on the second side.
Yes, breaded fish absolutely does get crispy and golden in the air fryer, even with very little oil.
Air frying fish fillets is faster, easier and healthier than doing it on the stove, and even in the oven since so little oil is used. Not too mention, getting that delectable golden crispy outside and soft tender flaky inside is simple.
If you’re addicted to food truck tacos, or if you’ve been making them at home using pre-packaged fish, you need to try air fried fish tacos made from scratch. They are the best and pretty addictive too! Just like these golden crunchy Air Fryer Popcorn Prawns.
Air Fryer Crispy Fish Tacos
Equipment
- Air Fryer
Ingredients
- 3 medium White fish fillets - thawed (about 500 grams/1 pound)
- Sea salt - to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
- 1 cup /110 grams panko breadcrumbs
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 large eggs
- Cooking spray oil
For Tacos
- 8 medium flour tortillas
- ¼ cup Spicy mayonnaise
- 8 Lettuce leaves
- 1 Lime
- 2 medium Tomatoes, diced
- 1 large Red chili, seeds removed and diced
- 1 handful Fresh Corriander/Cilantro, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat Air Fryer to 400 F / 200 C and line a baking tray with baking paper/parchment paper.
- Cut up Fish: Remove excess moisture from fish by patting dry fish fillets with kitchen paper or towel. Cut fish fillet into 4 pieces of roughly equal size and lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper, and set aside.
- Set up your breading bowls: In bowl 1 add the eggs and beat lightly. In bowl 2, add panko breadcrumbs, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, chili powder, onion powder and dried oregano.
- Bread the Fish: One at a time, dip each piece of fish in the egg mixture and shake off excess. Then lay flat in the breadcrumbs and press gently both sides to coat.
- Cook Fish: Place the fish in the air fryer basket without overcrowding it and lightly spray on one side. Depending on the size of your air fryer you may need to cook the fish in two batches. Cook fish at 400 F / 200C one side for 4 minutes then flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Fish is cooked when gold and crispy.
- Warm Tortillas and Assemble: Once fish is cooked, removed from air fryer and warm tortillas in the air fryer by laying flat and set to cook for a 10 seconds. Alternatively you can warm them in the microwave. Assemble taco with fish and garnish. Serve with your favorite sauce.
Notes
- Air Fryer: The Air Fryer used in this recipe is 1300W and has a round basket. Its 4.5 kg which is a bit more than 5 Quarts. I would consider it to be medium size and I cooked the fish in 2 batches.
- Type of Fish: You can use either fresh or frozen fish for this recipe, and the best kinds are a firm white fish like like Mahi Mahi, Tilapia, Cod, Halibut and Barramundi. Cutting the fish into 4 equal sized fillets will ensure that they cook evenly all the way through.
- Panko Breadcrumbs: these are a light Japanese breadcrumb perfect for achieving a crispy and crunchy texture when air frying. Panko are different to regular breadcrumbs as there are no crusts, just the bread, allowing it to cook to a beautiful colour without retaining the oil.
- Salt and Pepper: this is essential for the basis of the seasoning of the fish. Even if you don’t use any of the other spices, salt and pepper will still achieve a deliciously seasoned fish fillet.
- Eggs: these are used to dip the fish pieces in so that they hold the panko breadcrumbs. The egg helps to create a “stickiness” so you get more panko and thus crunch on your fish. You could skip the egg, but the panko will have trouble holding onto the fish.
- Spices: I used a combination of garlic powder, ceyenne pepper, chili powder, onion powder and dried oregano for a punchy, spicy Mexican flavour with some heat. Alternatively you could omit the pepper or chili powder if you don’t like the heat or are making it for kids.
- Cooking Spray: Spray oil is perfect for using in the air fryer. I like to use a vegetable oil, or extra virgin olive oil spray. Really, though as you don’t use a lot of oil, you could use any variety or spray oil.
- Calories: calories are calculated per taco (8 in total), using mini flour tortilla tacos with salad. 8 tacos was enough for 3 people for dinner.
Nutrition
Note: Sugars contained in this recipe are from naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables or other natural sweeteners.
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