Perfect Homemade Fish Tacos (Grilled Vs. Fried)

this is easily one of the grossest sounding most delicious foods on the planet and it is the fish taco it just doesn't sound right but hear me [Music] okay so today we are making fish tacos but not just any fish taco we're making two different iterations a grilled version and a fried version this is one of those overlooked menu items that i know there's a coveted group of people that will live and die for a fish taco and then there's the group of people who never order it and if they just did their lives would be changed forever and that's a fact or well maybe it's more of an opinion the point still stands look there's not much else to say let me just show you the way and then we can figure out how we feel about it sound good okay great let's make this shall we let's make this simple we have two tacos a beautiful yakitori style grilled fish taco with a grilled pineapple relish sounds fancy well that's because it low key is brother and of course we have our down bad naughty fried fish with a chili crema with a [Music] of slaw let's cover this first use whatever tortillas you want fresh flour tortillas are great but the ideal choice would be a beautifully hot and fresh corn tortilla with a touch of char now first off let's sing the beauties of our perfectly grilled fish oh josh but grilled fish is boring and yucky and hard wrong congratulations you're wrong grilled fish is one of the greatest foods of all time and it is commonly also one of the most up cooked items on the entire planet i mean really people can't seem to get it right and we're gonna stop that today first you gotta pick the right fish make sure it at least has some level of fat on it and then grill it beautifully that's really all you need to do but before we even start that let's make our relish fire up a grill or in this case a yakitori grill you can use either or normal gas grill yakitori up to you i get mine set up by getting a few blocks of binchitan nice and red hot over just a stovetop and a chimney and then placing those hot coals in the same direction with some unheated binchoton in my conro grill and i just leave that there to catch and get hot now get half of your grill nice and hot on high heat and the other half completely off or just no heat then snack yourself a nice ripe pineapple cut off the top and the bottom then slice the skin off by running your knife around the shape of the pineapple doing your best to leave as much flesh on as possible of the pineapple then cut it in half then in half again to get quarters then take those to your grill grease the grates in your pineapples lightly and place in the hot side of your grill flipping often for about four to eight minutes or until you get nice caramelized and charred on all sides don't overdo the char here some of these pieces were a little too close to being too far then just remove those from the grill let it cool slightly and use a sharp knife to remove the course from all your quartered pineapple and dice that brother up into bite-sized pieces to your relish add two pickled jalapenos thinly sliced one serrano chili very thinly sliced one tablespoon of finely chopped cilantro and one teaspoon of finely chopped fresh oregano finally add one clove of garlic grated then season that to taste with salt and the juice of two limes finish with a nice glug of good quality extra virgin olive oil you know you really want to get that viscosity going a nice spicy olive note along with that fruity pineapple sounds blessing to me alright it's fishy time get yourself two pounds of good white fish that's not too thick i personally went with three full sides of bronzino and then divided those into three pieces each that'll give you six to eight tacos you might be wondering what in the witchcraft keeps my fish from sticking to the grill how does he do it well first off i like to use a separate rack and more importantly you ready for this non-stick cooking spray will keep it from sticking so first get yourself a separate small stainless steel wire rack give that a light spray then give the skin and the flesh of your fish a light spray as well season a taste with salt and pepper then pop those bad boys inside down onto your wire rack you know as many as you can fit reasonably you may need to do two batches here then just place those on the hot side of the grill and let them grill for about one to two minutes and once you can see that the cook of the fish begins to travel halfway up the flesh and the skin is crisp and lightly charred give it a gentle flip to the flesh side and pop it to the middle of your grill and let it finish cooking by the radiant heat for just another 30 seconds if your fish is flat enough it should cook that quickly now if it's thicker may take a minute or two now once those are done let's take them inside to assemble really easy get a hot corn tortilla lay on your beautifully crisp skinned grilled man a nice couple spoonfuls of your grilled pineapple relish some diced avocado optionally some fresh sliced radishes for crunch and optionally some cilantro leaves for extra freshness yes you can serve these with a salsa like the jalapeno salsa from my many taco guides but it's perfectly great on its own here and look despite it looking unnecessarily fancy it truly is unnecessarily delicious and our bodies are about to find out but first we're going to talk about the fried fish version if we're doing fried fish you cannot do it without a crunchy cabbage sauce to make that you only need half a head of cabbage which still produces like you know 450 pounds of shredded cabbage but anyway you're gonna slice that as thinly as you possibly can i want absolute ribbons followed by half a red onion peeled and very thinly sliced as well i mean when i say thin on this by the way you should borderline be able to see through these to that you're gonna add a quarter cup of finely chopped cilantro and next you want the zest of two limes hit that with salt to taste and the juice of your two limes protip if your limes are giving you a hard time just roll them on the board like the bad little lime that they are they like it it also makes for efficient juicing hit that with two tablespoons of extra virgin uh olive oil you got a nasty mind anyway give that a toss until thoroughly combined and adjust salt acid and olive oil levels to your desired well level for the crema it's real simple get one guajillo and one ancho chili optionally de-seed them then cover those with water and bring to a boil let that boil for about five minutes or until they're super soft and easy to tear fish your chilies out of the water get it fish because we're doing a fish taco okay that's stupid place in a blender then begin blending adding the cooking water just until it begins to blend easily we don't want pure liquid you just want something super duper smooth now to a medium-sized bowl add a third cup of mayonnaise a third cup of sour cream one tablespoon of hot sauce one tablespoon of smoked paprika half of your pureed chilies whisk together until thoroughly combined season the taste of salt and add additional chili paste if needed this is gonna be up to you now optionally you can add one to two cloves of grated garlic if you want this to have some garlicky kick to it but it's beautiful on its own now look at this sauce just by the mere visuals of it i wanna be in a bathtub full of it just plop it around in there okay last thing we need to fry our fish we're beer battering this bit because well it's gemmy first you'll need one and a half pounds of cod cut into pieces that will snugly fit in a tortilla now they will expand a little so keep that in mind i would say going for a two and a half inch by one inch log would have been the most ideal shape here but it's really up to you from there season your fish generously with kosher salt and let it sit in room temp for 15 minutes to quick cure to make your batter get a large bowl and add 1 cup of all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons of white pepper 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika one tablespoon of garlic powder and one tablespoon of kosher salt give that some whiskey till thoroughly combined now crack an egg and uh crush it by accident that really helps good job let's try that again crack in one egg and whisk together until you get a very shaggy dough then slowly stream in one 12-ounce can of beer the ideal choice here is going to be some sort of a lager or a real light sort of summer beer then just keep whisking until everything is added and you have a smooth yet viscous batter if it's not viscous enough just add a small pinch of flour and that should do it now fill a large heavy bottom pot with at least two inches of oil heat that puppy to 365 fahrenheit then all you got to do is toss your fish in a separate bowl of just plain all-purpose flour this is about half a cup make sure the fish is completely coated then shake off the excess drop it in your batter to coat on all sides then carefully remove it from the batter and drop it into your hot oil and that's it then just let it fry for three to five minutes or until golden brown and crisp you can usually do about two to four pieces of fish at a time depending on the size of your pot don't overcrowd it then just pull that out of the oil using a spider and place it on a wire rack to drain then count your blessings because lord have mercy then just repeat that process with all your fish maybe crack open a cold one with the boys then once all your fish is fried comes the easiest part pop down a nice hot tortilla hit it with a fatty of fish followed by an artfully drizzled pattern of your crema and a generous mound of your perfect slaw you know i tried adding different garnishes here like maybe some serrano or some cilantro but you know what this is beautiful in its own right it's unadulterated raw form is just perfect so let's have it the way it's meant to be give it a taste test and see if there truly is a greater fish taco all right we have two tacos de poisson reason why i use the french term is i might have made these a little fancier than really necessary let's be honest you just throw some stuff in a nice properly heated tortilla a little bit of char it's got the chew it's got some crisp penis to it if you will let's start off with the more healthy sort of uh austin texas version if you will how long they've been sitting here an hour despite them sitting so long the flavor the crunch in the skin is still there it's salty the fish is perfectly cooked you got the sweetness from the pineapple you get a little bit of pickliness from the pickled jalapeno layered chilies cilantro everything it all comes together into a beautiful symphony of fragrance and freshness this is a summer style taco you can have this be a summer taco kind of you'd be sweating a lot but you'll be happy anyway pat it down this is a fatty here we go welcome to the symphony of sounds oh good look obviously i'm gonna choose the fried one fried things are just always infinitely better but in the right context the right weather this is the choice but for any time of the year winter summer it doesn't matter this fried fish taco comes through you got the beard batter you got the crunch it's salty it's acidic and it all finishes off with a nice mildly spicy you can make it more spicy ancho chili crema what more do you want brother you want to know what else is a fish taco maybe don't answer that because i feel like that goes too many directions but um [Music] all right guys and that is it so we made our fish tacos two different ways and they came out gorgeous the grilled version was probably my favorite one but if you're in the right mood and you get that beer battered fried fish and aioli and it's spicy and rich and acidic and crunchy it's kind of hard to beat just make this taco for somebody who isn't expecting it that hopefully enjoys fish blow their mind and change their life forever and it's gonna be beautiful time papa love you papa gesu make it however you want you can change the sausage you can add a salsa you can take away a salsa if you want to replace the pineapple with maybe i don't know grilled apple that could maybe potentially work i didn't really think that through maybe not grilled apple mango mango would work that would be good so with all that said if you enjoyed this video or you learned something leave a like subscribe and i will see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Joshua Weissman

Views: 983,445

Keywords: sat bawl pro, joshua weissman, fish tacos, tacos, fish, best fish tacos, fish tacos recipe, homemade fish tacos, how to make fish tacos, grilled fish tacos, grilled fish tacos recipe, fried fish tacos, fried fish tacos recipe, grilled vs fried, youtube recipes, youtube cooking, grilled fish, fried fish, easy fish tacos, fish taco recipe, fish tacos sauce, fish tacos sauce recipe, making fish tacos, making fish tacos at home, best tacos, easy taco recipes, taco recipe

Id: yy5Of27EYFQ

Length: 11min 5sec (665 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 23 2021