pan fried tilapia with avocado salsa

like fish tacos but not (exclusive recipe)

Episode 13 of my seafood counter series and this time we’re working with tilapia. I feel like when I was growing up, we had tilapia or salmon anytime we had fish for dinner. My dad wasn’t a big fan of fish back then, so I imagine tilapia was an agreeable choice all around because its very mild (aka not “fishy”), yet still delicate and flakey.

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The issue with tilapia, though not exclusive to tilapia, is that it is a very thin fish. So anytime I am working with a very thin piece of fish, I often opt for pan frying. Trying to just get a hard sear on a piece of fish this thin is tricky without overcooking, so pan frying allows it to still have a crispy and brown exterior, while the interior is perfectly cooked.

I’ve also been seeing a lot of tilapia haters out there, saying its a bottom feeder fish and what not. Truthfully, I don’t know if it is, nor do I care. Tilapia is lean, high in protein, flakey, and delicious. IDC where it is in the food chain.

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the full recipe:

makes 1-2 servings

watch the video of this recipe!