Jamaican Jerk Fish Tacos with Plantain Fried Rice and Pineapple Salsa.
Hey, hi… can we do Taco Thursday, PLEEEAAASSE?
Because I am so super happy and excited to share these Jamaican jerk fish tacos with you!! And…cause man, it has been a week. So many recipes have been made, so many recipes tested, not enough recipes photographed, too many trips to the store, too many animals to take care of, and in general just not enough hours in the day.
You know what’s so odd though?? Tacos just seem to make everything better. Well, tacos, and the flowers (I just wrote out flours instead of flowers…man too much baking going on this week!) I bought LAST Friday that still look so pretty sitting on my desk. Oh, and re-runs of Gilmore Girls into the wee hours of the night. AKA – early, early morning…ugh.
So let me tell you some stories from around here. Stories that start and end with the goats. Oh those flipping goats. First of all, even though they are a pain in the butt (my umm kinder choice for a word), I still find them totally cute… and I still want all the baby goats we will eventually have once they get pregnant. That said, man those goats are killing me this week. I was milking Taramisu on Sunday and I realized this giant balding patch on her back. It looked pretty nasty, so I sent some photos to my dad, who then informed me that she has ringworm.
Like eeeeewwww.
First words back to him where, “Eewwwww” and, “wait, you know that is highly contagious… GROSS”.
Why does this have to happen when I am stuck on goat duty??? You guys, I have to rub iodine on the infected areas. It is maybe, possibly, the grossest thing ever. OK, that is an exaggeration, but I really do not like doing it. I am not a fan of gross things on my own skin, let alone the skin of the goats. The first day I did it, I was so grossed out that I had to come in and shower immediately… at 10:30 pm. No seriously.
I am a little…ok a lot, crazy, but honestly, it is still so gross. I will not go into details because I don’t want to disgust any of you, but man, this is SOOO not what I signed up for.
Also, you guys remember my cat Snape, right?? Yes, well he has turned into a little demon cat. He is still cute as ever, but man, he is kind of evil. I brought in an egg from the chicken coop (which REALLY needs to be cleaned…ugh) and put it on the table… only to have Snape roll it off the table, crack it and start eating it. There was also a whole paw stamping episode in the middle of my chocolate cake. I love him, but wow, he is going through that terrible kitten stage, and man, it is driving me insane!
In other news, I saw some of the Grammy awards via Snapchat. I am dying to know, who had on your favorite dress? Who did you feel was the worse dressed??? I’m still and not sure how I feel about T-Swifts looks, but I dunno, the more I see photos of her the more I am liking it. Thoughts??
I didn’t really see all that much, since there were just a few short clips, so let me in on all the fun stuff!!
Ok, ok – can we now finally talk about these tacos?? These tacos that are saving me this week. These tacos that are loaded with flavor and remind me that I need to plan a spring break this year… for realzzz.
I feel like the easiest way to go over these is just to break them down, layer by layer. Mmmm, k?
First: you’ll need warmed corn or flour tortillas. I went with flour for these, but either is DELISH. I also really LOVE a hard shell with these tacos. To be honest, hard shells are my favorite, but I prefer the way corn and soft flour tacos photograph.
Second: plantain fried rice. YESSS. So much yessssss. This is the bestest taco filling ever. Think fried plantains, but broken down into rice form and then tossed with salt, lots of salt, black beans and cilantro. It is so good.
Third: Jamaican Jerk seasoned salmon. One word. YUM.
Fourth: caramelized pineapple salsa…aka my happy food… pineapple + salsa. Hand me a spoon please. 🙂
Fifth: toppings, toppings, toppings, all the toppings please. I went with greek yogurt, fresh cilantro, lime and fresh sliced jalapeños.
Meal = complete.
And now you see, right?? Tonight needs to be Thursday Night Tacos!! Then leftovers can be Friday’s lunch…with a side of Margaritas. Now that is smart planning.
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Jamaican Jerk Fish Tacos with Plantain Fried Rice and Pineapple Salsa.
By halfbakedharvest
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American, jamaican, Mexican
Keyword: fried rice, jerk fish, pineapple, plantain, salsa, tacos
These tacos are loaded with flavor
Ingredients
- 1 pound salmon left whole or cut into steaks
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon all-spice
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- salt + pepper
- juice from 1 orange + lime
- corn or flour tortillas warmed
- plain greek yogurt for serving
Pineapple Salsa
- 1 ripe pineapple
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1-2 jalapenos seeded, + chopped (I used 2)
- juice of 1 lime
- 1/3 cup fresh cilantro chopped
- salt to taste
Plantain Rice
- 4 large ripe plantains
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- salt + pepper
- 1/2 cup cooked black beans
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
Instructions
-
Place the salmon in a 9x13 inch pyrex pan and rub with olive oil. In a small bowl, combine the cumin, chili powder, curry powder, all-spice, cayenne, cinnamon and a pinch of salt + pepper. Rub the spice mixture over the salmon. Drizzle over the orange juice and lime juice. Cover and place the salmon in the fridge while you prepare the rice and salsa.
Pineapple Salsa
-
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
-
Rub the pineapple with coconut oil and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Add the jalapeno. Roast for 20 minutes or until the pineapple is charred and caramelized. Turn the pineapple half way through cooking. Remove from the oven and let cool.
-
Once the pineapple is cool enough to handle, finely chop the pineapple and add to a bowl. Remove the seeds from the jalapeno, chop and add to the bowl with the pineapple. Stir in the lime juice, cilantro and a pinch of salt.
Plantain Rice
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Remove the peels from the plantains and roughly chop them. Add the plantains to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped and the plantains resemble rice. You can finely chop the plantains as well.
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Add the coconut oil to a large skillet set over medium heat. Once hot, add the plantain rice and fry until golden and crisp, about 3-5 minutes. Once golden, remove from the heat and season with salt + pepper. Stir in the black beans and cilantro. Keep warm.
To cook the Fish and Assemble
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Place a large cast iron skillet or grill pan on high heat, or preheat the grill to high.
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Once hot, add the fish and cook until your desired doneness is reached. I cooked about 4 minutes per side. Remove from the heat. Using a fork, flake the salmon into pieces.
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To assemble your tacos, add the plantain rice to the warmed corn or flour tortillas. Add the salmon and top with pineapple salsa and a dollop of yogurt if desired. Garnish with fresh cilantro and limes. EAT!
Hehe. Tacos make me :). Happiest Thursday!
plantain rice?? that sounds like carb heaven! and i actually prefer flour tortillas- the hard shells always break off in weird pieces and it’s so messy to eat (plus have you ever gotten a shard stuck in your throat?).
Wow wow wow! That salmon looks mindblowingly good! I’ve been meaning to use plantain in some way or the other soon, so this sounds like the perfect chance! Especially since we also really, really love grilled pineapple, and tacos and salmon and well just basically everything in this recipe!
Plantain rice sounds amazing! Our family just had plantain this week from our garden!! And the tacos themselves=awesomeness!!
I usually look past fish or seafood recipes because I can’t eat them but chicken would work well with all these good ingredients.
These will be great with chicken! 🙂
Awesome taco recipe!! Looks amazing!
Love all the flavors going on in this dish Tieghan! That fried rice and pineapple salsa sound soo good! Sorry about Tiramisu! Hope she is on the mend soon!
Tacos are my favourite way to eat fish and the jerk salmon sounds amazing! I also really like the sound of the plantain fried rice – what a good idea!
Plantain fried rice! What a beautiful thing. I’m on a serious Caribbean kick right now and these tacos have everything I’m craving. Sorry about the goat and cat problems. But you did name him Snape, after all….
Love love LOVE that you used salmon. Really don’t see that too often and I think it really holds up in a taco. Beautifully done!
Salmon tacos are my favorite!! Nothing better, thanks Brian!
This looks AMAZING! Yummmy!!
Wow, looks amazing!
Nothing better than fish tacos!
hehe, thank you!
Ugh, sounds like you had a rough week. I feel for ya girl! I had a rough week too a while back and I’m still trying to get over it (aka a lingering cold:( bleh) these tacos make me feel like basking in the sunlight on a sandy beach while shoveling them into my mouth. How about I come take care of all the farm work while you cook and then we can go to a beach and eat all the tacos in the world. aight? aight. I didn’t watch the Grammy’s either because I was deep into the bachelor, a rabbit hole into which I have fallen and can’t get out. send help. BUT, T-Swift’s hair has me remembering my terrible decision to cut my long locks my senior year of high school and it turned out JUST like Taylor’s. I cried for days. She still kicks butt though. It’s almost (?!?!) fri-yay so hang in there and just do the best you can!
As a Jamaican, I approve of this recipe!! LOL.
Seriously though, I LOVE your blog (I’ve been visiting for a while) and the recipes are awesome! (Love the fun stories about your family too. With 5 siblings, I can relate!!)
Jamaican jerk salmon tacos is a little bit left of what we usually do, but I love the fusion element. Honestly though, Jamaicans just love food that is well seasoned and delicious, and this one knocks it out of the ball park.
Well done!
Um, WOW!! Thank you so much! 🙂
Oh my, the food looks GREAT!! Beautiful presentation and pictures too.
Yum! Did you try the jerk seasoning with any fish other than salmon? I love fish tacos but have never had it with salmon before!
HI Amy! Yes, any fish you love will work great! White fish especially!
I am so on for taco Thursday, and I am loving that pineapple salsa!
Thank you!
If I am unable to find plantains, can I sub bananas? Or will the taste be completely off? Thanks for the help, I am really excited to give this a shot???
HI! Bananas will not work for this as they are just to soft. SORRY! I would use cauliflower or just regular rice. Let me know if you have questions. THANKS!
Can you sub EVOO for coconut oil??
yes, that will be great! Thanks!
Of course not, since live oil is rancid if cooked!
I’m nearly fainting with hunger and longing at the sight of those photos! Must make this now.
THANK YOU!! Hope you love these tacos!
This dish takes me right back to the Caribbean!
hehe! YEAH! Thanks Kari!
Weird to say but I had tacos on Wednesday! But tacos are awesome anytime of the week IMO!
Agreed, tacos anytime! 🙂
Hi Tieghan! Just made this recipe for dinner – Love! Thank you. One thing I couldn’t get right was the plantain rice.. I cut it up into small pieces then pulsed it in my vitamix… Didn’t come out into small bits as I had hoped. Do I need a food processor? Or, was my plantain just too soft?
Thanks in advance for the tip!
I think your plantain was too soft, they should be ripe, but firm. Not soft at all like a banana. Let me know if you have questions. Sorry for the trouble, but so happy you enjoyed the tacos!
Every single thing about this dish looks amazingly perfect. Wow. Just wow.
Thank you so much, Nicholas! 🙂
we had for dinner last night–its a Bingo–
first time using plantains, over pulsed– and we added cooked rice—
it was a learning experience–
tks
gordon
Thank you so much!!
Beautiful photos and awesome recipe! I had the same problem as Leanne — my plantain never got into small bits, it just turned mush. Is this because it was too soft? Thanks!
Thank you!! Yes, my guess is that your plantains where too ripe. You need then brown, but they should not be soft. Sorry, I should have mentioned that, but I personally have never seen a soft plantain. Sorry for the trouble!
Wow you definitely are a bundle of energy, love these tacos, that nice char on the tortillas, all those wonderful spices making that salmon jerk. The plantain cooked in coconut oil that would be so good give it a bit of nuttiness. You are a very talented individual. As for the goat yuck!, the cats totally understand since having the cats we have gone to a shortened sleep cycle 3-5 hours depending on their appetite, lol. The picture of these tacos lovely, the reclaimed wood in that rich red color, a nice back drop for the food. The Grammies wer great some technical difficulties at time but overall nice tributes for the ones that are concerting In heaven aka David Bowie. Thank you for the great recipe, wonderful storie have a great day.
Loreto
This looks amazingly delicious. Also, where can I find bowls and spoons like those in the pictures?
I don’t quite understand the directions for the plantain rice. Do I chop the peels, or just the inside or both parts? I have never bought or used plantains before.
Hi Lisa!
Do not chop the peels, just the yellow banana like part. Let me know if you have questions. Thank you!
Plantain? Mine just went to mush when is a plantain ripe? Mine were starting to go yellow. Should they have been green?
HI! For this recipe it’s best to have them somewhere in the middle. Sorry they went all mushy on you!
I’m assuming you are using a semi ripe yellow (sweet) plantain.
Do you think a green (tostones) plantain would work well here too?
Yes, I used a ripe plantain, but green ones would be great too! Enjoy and let me know if you other questions.
When eating a bowl of salmon with Jamaican jerk spices mixed, should we add line juice or no lime juice?
Lime juice would be delicious! Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Thanks! 🙂
Sis this is false advertising, it not Jamaican or Jerk
Hi!
Just a gentle reminder to update the plantain description to be “green plantain” or “under-ripe” I bought ripe plantains and had the whole mush fiasco happen…I dont usually read the comments for a recipe, so I wasn’t able to avoid the same issue everyone else is having.
Not sure what to do with the mushy plantains now…??♀️
Everything else seems to be coming along swimmingly, so I do appreciate you sharing this awesome concept/recipe!
Hi Mia! I am so sorry about that. I will update the recipe. I am so glad you enjoyed the rest of it, though!
Is it supposed to be unripe plantains? The ripe ones turned into mush…
Hey Jaymie,
I am so sorry you had issues with the plantains, I used ripe plantains. Let me know how I can help! xTieghan
I loved the part of the recipe where you talked about getting ring worm from your pet goat!
Lol I didn’t actually get the ring worm:) xTieghan
We will try this again, but with some adjustments. First, although several people have commented and asked, the ingredients still say ” ripe plantains.” Fully ripe plantains are mostly brown. Using ripe plantains will create a mushy textured “rice.” Although the mixture was still delicious, it wasn’t what you pictured Please change that in your recipe or add a picture of the actual plantain you use so everyone understands. Unfortunately, we used canned pineapple. We hoped that would work, but it did not. The canned dried out and never charred. We will try this again when we have both the plantains and the fresh pineapple. Our tacos were very dry, but I think with the change to fresh pineapple, these would be amazing even if the plantains never looked like rice. The plantain mixture was the best part. But remember to make that note about yellow plantains in the recipe please.
Hey Patrica,
Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try, so sorry it did not turn out to your liking! xTieghan