When Choosing Fish For Fish Tacos, Mild Is Bettter

As the next Taco Tuesday in your home approaches, consider making your own fish tacos. Fish tacos can seem intimidating if you haven't cooked with fish very often, but with the right fish selection, the recipe comes together easily. The best (and most traditional) type of fish for fish tacos are ones that have white flesh. These fish are known to have a mild taste and a flaky texture. With such a mild flavor, the fish doesn't overpower the other ingredients in the taco, but complements them instead, delivering a light, tender base to the dish.

The basic fish taco preparation is called Baja-style. Inspired by authentic Mexican fish tacos, this taco showcases white-fleshed fish with a simple topping of shredded cabbage and a white sauce called crema that is similar in consistency to sour cream. Chunky salsa, mango salsa, and pico de gallo are popular topping alternatives to using cabbage and crema.

White-fleshed fish are leaner types of fish. The reason a fish can taste "fishy" is when it has a high quantity of fat or oil within, which means white fish don't typically have that strong seafood flavor profile. A leaner fish will also cook quicker, making fish tacos a fast and simple dish to assemble. Commonly found white-fleshed fish include cod, pollock, and tilapia.

Cod stands up to a variety of preparations since it's a firm fish that flakes easily. It is a staple of fried and beer-battered fish tacos. This is also the fish found in traditional fish and chips recipes. Cod can even be preserved to eat anytime by salting and drying it. This delicacy, known as salt cod, is prevalent throughout the Caribbean. If you're looking for something more savory, pollock is a great choice. Pollock is the fish used for McDonald's iconic Filet-O-Fish sandwich. Pollock is typically more affordable than cod while sharing many of cod's qualities. In fact, pollock and cod are members of the same family of fish.

Perhaps the most popular choice in recent years is tilapia, which brings a slightly sweet flavor profile to the table. Tilapia excels at absorbing the flavors of whatever it's cooked in so it ends up as the least "fishy" tasting of mild fish. Keep that in mind when choosing the heat level of any sauces or spices added when cooking

Of course, one should feel free to improvise with other types of fish for fish tacos. Salmon is found in more and more fish taco recipes, despite having a distinctive flavor and more fat content. And if you don't have fresh fish on-hand, you can make canned tuna fish tacos in a pinch. The fish in fish tacos don't necessarily have to adhere to a certain look, cut, or texture, so find the fish you like best and see how it fares in your taco preparation.