Blackened Fish Tacos are inspired by the legendary Paul Prudhomme and his famous blackened red snapper at his renowned French Quarter restaurant. My problem? All the red snapper we caught during our fishing trip was long gone!
I was seriously craving blackened fish, but without the star ingredient, what’s a cook to do? You improvise! In this case, I substituted orange roughy, a once-overfished species now making occasional appearances in seafood markets. Lucky for me, my local market had some in stock that day, and I couldn’t resist.
Orange roughy is an excellent choice for blackening. Its mild, white flesh soaks up the spices beautifully and is firm enough to stay intact during cooking. If you can’t find orange roughy, don’t worry—you can blacken a variety of other fish, even catfish, if that’s your style. Wanting to keep the dish quick and satisfying, I opted to make tacos. Pair them with a simple homemade slaw and a creamy honey avocado sauce. These accompaniments enhance the blackened fish by complementing its bold, spicy flavor. Tacos never tasted so good!
Lime infused red onion and cabbage slaw add crunch and flavor.
Avocado with sour cream, sweetened with honey and a touch of jalapeno top things off. Print
Blackened Fish Tacos with Avocado Honey Sauce
Tacos with orange roughy blackened with cajun seasoning, cole slaw and honey avocado dressing
- Yield: 12 tacos 1x
Ingredients
Slaw
- 1/2 head green cabbage – thinly sliced and separated
- 1 red onion – sliced in half root to stem, then thinly crosswise to leave long pieces
- 2 large ripe, juicy limes
Avocado Honey Sauce
- 1 ripe avocado – pitted
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 TBL cilantro – chopped
- 1 jalapeno – seeded and diced
- 1 TBL honey
- Pinch of salt
Blackened Seasoning
- 4 TBL sweet paprika
- 5 tsp salt
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1–1/2 tsp white ground pepper
- 1–1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried oregano
Blackened Fish
- 2 lbs orange roughy filets
- 1 stick unsalted butter – melted
- Blackened seasoning
Assembly
- 12 taco shells or tortillas
- Slaw
- Blackened fish
Instructions
Slaw
- Combine the cabbage and onion
- Squeeze the lime juice over them
- Toss it together – rest covered in the fridge for 1-2 hours
Avocado Honey Sauce
- Scoop out the avocado into the food processor
- Add everything else
- Pulse and taste
- Adjust salt and honey until desired level of sweetness is obtained.
Blackened Seasoning
- Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly and store in an airtight container until ready to use
Blackened Fish
- Do this outdoors using a propane burner capable of heating a large cast iron skillet red-hot
- Pre-heat the skillet until it’s almost smoking
- Use butter to coat both sides of the fillets, then generously coat them with blackened seasoning on both sides
- Carefully place the filets into the smoking hot skillet and drizzle butter over the filets as they cook
- Turn over after about 2-3 minutes, drizzle more butter on them and cook another 2-3 minutes, remove and drain on a rack.
- Serve as quickly as possible
Assembly
- Microwave the taco shells wrapped in a kitchen towel for 30-45 seconds
- Place the shells in racks, fill with the fish, cover with slaw and add a large dollop of sauce over them