Dennis and I have both been craving salmon, so I decided I’d make salmon for dinner tonight. Dennis asked if we could make salmon tacos and I was all over that. I actually thought about making salmon tacos for Cinco de Mayo, but we ended up going to a great restaurant called Tocaya here in San Diego that night for tacos instead.

I made a spice rub to marinate the salmon in. I first squeezed the juice of one naval orange and two limes onto the fish. Before squeezing the juice over the fish, however, I zested the orange and one of the limes. I like to use freshly squeezed juice over meats, poultry and fish vs. brushing with olive oil – if it works out for a particular recipe. I think it adds so much flavor, while saving on calories and fat.

Once I squeezed the juice from the orange and limes, I added the zest of one of the limes and the zest from the orange.

For my spice rub, I mixed together chili powder, cumin, oregano, kosher salt, red pepper flakes, dried orange peel (which adds such an incredible freshness – it even smells fresh!), brown sugar and garlic powder.

I sprinkled the seasonings over the fish, as well as fresh sliced jalapeño (95% of the seeds removed, but feel free to keep all of them in if you’d like the extra heat).

I placed this dish into the refrigerator to marinate for two hours.`When I was ready to bake the salmon, I placed the fish onto a large baking sheet and into a preheated 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. While the salmon was baking, I prepared a sauce to drizzle over the tacos. The sauce consisted of an 8 ounce container of non-fat Greek yogurt, the zest and juice of one lime, a minced garlic clove and kosher salt.

While the fish was in the oven, I diced and sliced the toppings for the tacos and heated the corn tortillas on my stovetop burner.

The fish was perfectly flaky after 20 minutes in the oven. I highly recommend this salmon for your next fish taco craving or taco Tuesday … or any night. I would actually feel comfortable making this for our Dinner Club. These tacos are great for a casual dinner, but would also be great for a dinner party. I think the Del Mar Dinner Club would really enjoy this one!

I built my tacos with the intention of placing the fish on the top of my “toppings”. I started with the avocado on the bottom, the onion and cabbage on top of the avocado, then the cherry tomatoes. The fish and sauce went on the top with the cilantro topping the taco.

This was so unbelievably good! If I weren’t going to a book club meeting tomorrow night, I would definitely be eating leftovers from this fabulous salmon.

Ingredients

1-1/2 pounds salmon fillet

1 naval orange, zest and juice

2 limes, zest of one, juice of both

1/2 tablespoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon dried orange peel

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 jalapeńos, sliced (1 for marinade, 1 for topping)

For Toppings

avocado

red onion, diced

red cabbage

cilantro

cherry tomatoes

For Yogurt Crema

8 ounce container non-fat Greek yogurt

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 lime, zest and juice

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, cumin, oregano, kosher salt, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, dried orange peel, and brown sugar.
2. Place salmon in a large shallow dish for marinating. Squeeze orange juice and lime juice over salmon. Add orange zest and lime zest to top of salmon. Sprinkle seasoning mix over the salmon and top with jalapeño slices. Set in refrigerator for 1-3 hours to marinate.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake salmon for 15-25 minutes, until fish flakes easily with a fork.
4. In a medium sized bowl, add yogurt, garlic, kosher salt and lime zest and juice. Mix well.
5. Heat tortillas over burner on stove top.
6. When salmon is done, cut into bite size pieces for tacos.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris