Beer Battered Fish Tacos with Chipotle Slaw

It’s Taco Tuesday! How about some beer battered fish tacos with chipotle slaw today? Of course you can use grilled fish if you want to be a little healthier, but I love this beer batter so much that I wanted to share it with you today. The other main component to this taco is the slaw which uses the Chipotle Honey Lime Vinaigrette…such a good use of that dressing!

The batter is made from a good mexican beer and rice flour, with some spices thrown in the mix. I’m not sure if it was the rice flour or not, but the inside didn’t get “gummy” like batters do sometimes. It was nice and crispy, just the way I like it. I’m sure you could substitute all purpose flour if you’d like.

The slaw is very simple, just some shredded cabbage and chipotle vinaigrette. The white sour cream sauce is made from equal parts sour cream and mayonnaise with a squeeze of lime (you could also add some more chipotle seasoning in here if you want). And for the pico de gallo, you can make it fresh or use your favorite store bought variety.

A couple of notes on this recipe: I used the individually wrapped, frozen, pollock fillets that I found in my grocery store freezer. One fillet cuts up into about 3-4 pieces each, and in the pictures here, I used two pieces of fish per taco (which was probably a bit too much). The batter was enough for about 3 fillets. If you want to make more fish, use a whole bottle of beer and 2 cups flour. Also, make sure your fish is really dry. Pat it well with a paper towel, even dredge it in a little all purpose flour first if necessary. This will help the batter to stick to the fish. You will have extra slaw and pico de gallo, which is a good thing! The slaw is yummy by itself, and there’s always lots of uses for pico de gallo. It’s very easy to adjust this recipe according to how much you want to make.

Beer Battered Fish Tacos with Chipotle Slaw

Ingredients

Small corn tortillas, two per taco

For the fish:

Firm, white fish fillets (I used pollock) - 1 fillet will cut into about 4 pieces depending on size of fillet.
½ bottle of Mexican beer (about 1 cup is fine)
1 C. rice flour
½ tsp. each: paprika, cayenne, chile powder, chipotle powder, garlic powder, oregano, salt, pepper
Oil for frying

For the slaw:

¼ head green cabbage, shredded
¼ head red cabbage, shredded
½ C. Chipotle Honey Lime Vinaigrette

For the pico de gallo:

3 tomatoes, chopped
½ white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
handful of chopped cilantro (about ¼-1/2 cup)
½ lime, juiced, zested
salt & pepper to taste

For the white sauce:

½ C. sour cream (or greek yogurt)
½ C. mayonnaise
½ lime, juiced
Opt: ½ tsp. chipotle puree or a couple shakes of chipotle or chile powder

Instructions

Shred cabbages and combine with dressing in bowl. Set aside.
Combine pico de gallo ingredients in bowl and set aside (or use store-bought).
Combine white sauce ingredients and set aside.
Mix together the beer, rice flour and spices. Pat fish fillets very dry with paper towels and cut in 4 inch long pieces, like fish sticks. You can dust them with all purpose flour if needed to make sure they're dry. Important that they're dry so the batter will stick and not slide off. Fill a heavy bottomed skillet with about 3 inches of oil and heat to 350 degrees. Coat each fish piece in batter and drop a couple fish fillets at a time in the oil and deep fry, flipping once, until golden browned. This just takes a couple minutes. Remove fish and let drain on paper towels. Repeat until all your fish pieces are cooked.
To assemble: Warm tortillas, place some slaw on tortilla, top with fish, pico de gallo, and white sauce. Squeeze a bit of lime juice over taco and top with cilantro.