Budget Friendly and Easy: No-Fry Fish Tacos

If fish tacos are on a restaurant menu, I'll order them every single time. They're light, yet satisfying. Comforting, yet healthy.

Recently, I discovered a new way to hack some of my favorite fish tacos with store-bought frozen beer battered cod fillets, making this a meal you can feed a family of four for less than one serving at a restaurant (assuming you have some pantry staples already on hand).

At Macaroni KID, we skip the fluff and get straight to the good stuff. No need to scroll through pages of unnecessary content — our recipes are easy to find. Now let's get cooking!

Here's how to make these Easy No-Fry Fish Tacos:

Easy No-Fry Fish Tacos

Ingredients:

• 1 box of frozen, beer-battered cod fillets
• 1 small head of radicchio
• 1 avocado
• Limes
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Light mayo
• Sriracha
• Tortillas

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven according to package instructions. Line a sheet pan with foil and parchment paper (parchment on top). Spread out fish fillets and bake per instructions. 
2. While fish is cooking, prep your slaw and spicy sauce. For the sauce, mix a 3:1 ratio of light mayo to sriracha (you can change the ratio to dial the heat up or down, but 3:1 is what works for us!). 
3. Thinly slice radicchio into ribbons and dress with olive oil, and lime juice, using a 2:1 ratio of olive oil and lime juice. Season lightly with salt.
4. When the fish is done, remove from oven and season lightly with kosher salt. 
5. While fish cools slightly, wrap up tortillas in foil and pop them into the oven (note: the oven should be off, but the residual heat will soften the tortillas in about 5 minutes). 
6. Cut the fish fillets into small, bite-sized pieces.
7. Thinly slice avocado and season with lime juice and salt.
8. Take the tortillas out of the oven and assemble your tacos! Lay tortillas flat and layer with radicchio slaw, fish, and spicy sauce, then top with avocado and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

Picky Eater Tips!

One of my kids isn't keen on the whole taco thing yet, and the other doesn't have enough teeth to bite through them. Fortunately, fish fillets can please just about anyone. After cooking the fish, I'll remove the beer batter, mix the fish into rice and sprinkle with lemon or lime juice. Or, I'll offer them a deconstructed taco so they can try the components on their own. It's not perfect, but it's an easy way to enjoy an adult meal without having to make something different for picky eaters.

Jenna Amyot is the publisher of Macaroni KID Burlington-Wilmington-Woburn-Winchester, Mass.