How to make mini fish tacos made with spiced fish, a spicy chipotle slaw and baked wonton cups. Jump to the Mini Fish Tacos in Wonton Cups Recipe or read on to see our tips for making them.
Warning: make a double batch. These mini fish tacos will fly off the plate.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: These are the perfect party appetizer. Wonton wrappers are baked in the oven until crisp, filled with arugula, a lime sour cream, and then topped with a big juicy chili-lime baked shrimp. Jump to the Baked Shrimp Cups Recipe.
Turn Wonton Wrappers into Taco Cups
It’s really easy to transform store-bought wonton wrappers into mini cups. We’ve done it for shrimp and even smoked salmon. This time, we fill the baked wonton cups with spiced fish and a spicy red cabbage slaw.
To make the cups, brush wonton wrappers with a little oil then press into mini muffin cups. Bake them until golden brown and crisp.
While the wontons bake, you can get the fish ready. Season with garlic powder and chili powder — we use our homemade chili powder recipe. Then bake the fish until just cooked through. You’ll know when it is done when a fork can easily flake the fish.
We round the recipe out with an easy homemade slaw. Toss finely chopped red cabbage with sour cream, salt, lime and chipotles in adobo sauce. We use chipotles in adobo sauce quite a bit in our recipes. It’s usually found in the international food aisle in most grocery stores or in international markets. It’s smoky and spicy — you won’t need the whole can so take a look below for more recipes that use it.
If you’ve got leftover chipotles in adobo, take a look at these easy recipes:
- Make a chipotle butter then melt over oven roasted corn.
- Stir into lime mayonnaise then spread onto buns and top with seared salmon.
- Make these easy sweet potato tacos with their own spicy cabbage slaw.
Recipe updated, originally posted January 2012. Since posting this in 2012, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
Mini Fish Tacos in Wonton Cups
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
These mini tacos are great warm or at room temperature. Make the wonton shells a day in advance, just keep in an airtight container. For the slaw, we use chipotles in adobo sauce, which can be found sold in small cans in the international section of your grocery store or international markets.
You Will Need
Baked Wonton Cups15 wonton wrappers (see notes below)
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Spiced Fish1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tilapia fillets, 4 to 5 ounces each
1 1/2 teaspoons ancho chili powder, try our homemade chili powder recipe or substitute regular chili powder
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Spicy Slaw1 cup finely chopped red cabbage
Salt
1 tablespoon sour cream or more as needed
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon minced chipotles in adobo sauce, finely minced
12 fresh cilantro leaves
Directions
- Bake Wonton Cups
1Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly brush wonton wrappers on both sides with olive oil. Lightly season one side with salt.
2Using a mini muffin pan, press the wonton wrappers down into the cups, laying back the corners and pressing the bottoms down to make a defined cup. Bake until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool.
- Cook Fish
1In a small bowl, stir the chili powder, garlic powder and about 1/4 teaspoon of salt together. Rub both sides of the fish fillets with olive oil and spice mix.
2Place fish onto a baking sheet and bake uncovered until the the fish flakes, 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets.
- Make Spicy Slaw
1Meanwhile, make the slaw. Rub the cabbage with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Stir in sour cream, lime juice, chipotles in adobo and cilantro. Taste then adjust with more sour cream if too dry. Or adjust with salt or chipotle as needed.
- To Finish
1Divide the fish between 12 wonton cups and top with a spoonful of slaw.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Number of Wonton Wrappers: A few of the wonton cups may collapse during baking; making them difficult to stand up without falling over. We usually bake a few extras, just in case.
- Make-Ahead: The wonton cups will keep, unfilled, in an airtight container for up to a week. Fill them right before serving or they’ll get soggy.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
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I really enjoyed your artlice! I am a full on fisher so your blogs are really appealing to me and my friends. Thx.
would it work with blackening the fish? Or will the slaw make it too spicy…
That would be nice. It really depends on your spices for the fish.
Made these tonight. They were good but not fabulous. For our taste the fish needed more spice and we cut way back on the lime and found it a little overpowering and we love citrus. For the record these are just fine at room temp. I will definitely make these again with some tweaks. Thanks for the awesome inspiration!
Hi Lisa — Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! So happy you were able to make them into something you and your family enjoyed.
Would these really be good cold, you think? I’d love to bring them to a BBQ this weekend, but now I’m re-thinking the cold fish aspect…
Hi Vanessa — We enjoy the fish warm, however, these do taste great at room temperature.
Can’t wait to try …yum.
These look fabulous! A nice twist on tacos and I love using wonton wrappers fr all different items. Thanks for sharing.
These look DELISH and I can’t wait to try! Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing!
These look really really good. :0) I can’t wait to try them.
thanks, beverly!
Wow! What a cute idea! They would be perfect for Superbowl Sunday! This is exactly what our food lovers on our community page love to read about! We hope you stop by!
I love the idea of making these inside wonton wrappers. It’s no wonder they fly off the plate. They look just amazing.
What a delicious looking recipe! Really great idea for serving fish as an appetiser 🙂
Seriously these look amazing and super creative! I’ve never been to your site before but the Novice Chef Blog facebook page had this link….and now I have another sweet place to find recipes!! 🙂
These look awesome! I love the idea of making them into little bites!
thanks, Jessica 🙂
Great idea! What a fabulous appetizer! Going to pin it, too!
Holy. Crap.
I LOVE THESE.