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I had salmon tacos that were exceptionally flavorful while I was at the shore in early October. This sweet red chili salmon taco recipe is my homage to that dish. Crisp and crunchy pineapple coleslaw is layered onto a lightly grilled flour tortilla and topped with a strip of salmon glazed with a sticky, sweet red chili sauce. Each bite delivers a perfect balance of warmth from the chili, sweetness from the fruit and a satisfying crunch from the coleslaw.
These sweet red chili salmon tacos are easy and quick to prepare. They are great for a week night dinner and special enough for entertaining. Better yet, add them to your rotation for Taco Tuesdays.
As an aside, if you don’t have time to prepare pineapple coleslaw from scratch, pick up some coleslaw at your local deli and mix in a can of drained crushed pineapple and a tablespoon or two of reserved pineapple juice.
Please see the recipe card below for exact amounts and directions.
Ingredient Round Up
- Salmon fillets
- Flour fajita sized tortillas – I used Mission Carb Balance ones.
- Sweet Red Chili wing sauce – G. Hughes and Sweet Baby Ray’s brands are good.
- Olive oil spray
- Pineapple coleslaw – Recipe from a previous post.
- Cilantro or parley for garnish, depending on your taste
Sodium Alert: The sodium is high due to the sodium in the salmon and tortillas. While Flatout Multigrain with Flax flatbreads are not tortilla they would work in place of tortillas and are large enough to cut in half to yield 2 tacos. Using 1/2 Flatout flatbread would reduce the sodium content per taco from 436 mg to 346 mg with the Ray’s sauce and from 421 mg to 331 mg with the G. Hughes sauce.
Making the Sweet Red Chili Salmon Tacos
- Line an air fryer tray with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with olive oil and smear it around with a napkin or piece of paper towel.
- Cut your salmon fillets into strips.
- Brush the top and sides of the salmon fillets with sweet red chili sauce.
- Transfer the strips of salmon fillets from the cutting board to the air fryer tray placing the top side that is brushed with the sweet red chili sauce facing down on the air fryer tray.
- Brush the top of the fillet strips with the red chili sauce.
- Put the fillets in the air fryer on the bottom level of the air fryer and air fry until done.
- While the salmon is air frying, spray fajita size flour tortilla with a light mist of olive oil spray on one side. Use a pastry brush to spread the olive oil around.
- Place the tortillas on a preheated electric griddle or in a hot skillet and light grill them briefly olive oil side face down. Flip the tortillas and grill the other side lightly.
- Transfer the grilled tortillas to a clean cutting board or platter olive oil side facing up. Place some pineapple coleslaw down the center of the tortillas.
- Remove the done salmon strips from the air fryer.
- Place a strip of sweet red chili salmon on top of the pineapple coleslaw on each grilled tortilla.
- Garnish the top of the tacos with some chopped cilantro or parsley depending on your taste.
- Serve and enjoy. Refrigerate any leftover salmon fillet strips and/or pineapple coleslaw.
Serving Ideas
- Crispy tortilla chips with some pineapple or mango salsa is a great starter to pair with sweet red chili tacos. To save points, you can spritz some low point tortillas with olive oil, cut them into wedges and air fry them until they are crispy or use Good Thin corn and rice thins.
- Side dishes such as Mexican rice, cilantro lime rice, confetti cauliflower rice and black beans (a future post) or corn and black bean salad work well with these tacos.
- To finish up the meal, you can serve grilled pineapple slices alone or on top of frozen fat free vanilla yogurt, a scoop of mango sorbet, Mexican chocolate pie bites or a slice of key lime pie.
WW 1 pt per taco, 2 pt per 2 tacos – G. Hughes Sweet Chili Sauce
2 pt per taco, 4 pt per 2 tacos – Sweet Baby Rays Sweet Red Chili Sauce
Servings: 5 tacos
Calories: 210kcal
Equipment
- Cutting board
- Chef knife
- air fryer
- Cuisinart Deluxe Griddler or electric griddle or skillet
- silicon basting brushes
- measure cups and spoons
- aluminum foil
Ingredients
- 2 salmon fillets, about 7 oz each
- 2 tbsp sweet red chili sauce, Sweet Baby Rays or G. Hughes
- 5 Mission Carb Balance fajita flour tortillas
- 1¼ c pineapple coleslaw
- olive oil spray or Pam
- ½ tbsp sweet red chili sauce if you want to drizzle it over the finished taco
Instructions
- Line an air fryer tray with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with olive oil or Pam and smear it around with a napkin or piece of paper towel.
- Cut your salmon fillets into strips. I use Kirkland Atlantic salmon individually wrapped and frozen fillets from Costco. I cut the narrower fillets into two strips and the wider fillets into three strips.
- Brush the top and sides of the salmon fillets with sweet red chili sauce. I have used both Sweet Baby Rays Sweet Red Chili wing Sauce and G. Hughes Sweet Red Chili Sauce successfully. 2 tbsp of Rays is 4 pts and G. Hughes is 0 pt. Go with your favorite brand and adjust points accordingly.
- Transfer the strips of salmon fillets from the cutting board to the air fryer tray placing the top side that is brushed with the sweet red chili sauce facing down on the air fryer tray. Then brush the top of the fillet strips with the red chili sauce.
- Put the fillets in the air fryer on the bottom level of the air fryer and air fry at 400℉ for 16 min or until the salmon is done and flakes easily. Remove the salmon from the air fryer when done and set it aside
- While the salmon is air frying, prepare the fajita size flour tortillas. Spray the top side of the tortilla with a light mist of olive oil spray. Use a pastry brush to spread the olive oil around. Place the tortilla oiled side faced down on a preheated griddle or skillet.
- Lightly grill the tortilla. You are looking for it to be lightly toasted but still flexible. Flip the tortilla over and lightly grill the other side.
- Transfer the grilled tortillas to a clean cutting board or platter with the grilled oiled side facing up.
- Spread ¼ c of pineapple coleslaw down the center of each tortilla. Place a strip of the air fried sweet red chili salmon on top of the coleslaw. The sweet red chili sauce loses it heat when it is cooked. If you want your tacos to have a kick, drizzle some additional sweet red chili sauce over the salmon after it is cooked. Sprinkle some chopped cilantro or parsley on top of the salmon depending on your preference.
- Transfer the tacos to a plate. Serve and enjoy. Refrigerate any leftover pineapple coleslaw or salmon. (see note at end)
Notes
I cut the salmon strips to match the length of the tortilla. The ends from the salmon strips are enough to fill a fifth taco. We normally eat 2 tacos apiece for dinner and the hubby has the 5th taco for lunch the next day.
For this particular recipe, the salmon fillets were narrower and I had 4 strips. You'll have to decide how to divide the fillets to suit your circumstances.
I normally use G. Hughes sweet chili sauce but I was out so I used what I had on hand, namely Sweet Baby Ray's sweet red chili sauce.
The nutritional info for the Sweet Baby Ray's sweet red chili sauce is at the very bottom of the recipe card.
The nutritional info for the G. Hughes sweet cili sauce is below.
cal. 196.2 kcal | fat 10 g | sat. fat 3.6 g | carb.14.7 g | fiber 9.3 g | tot. sugar 1.2 g | protein 18.6 g | sodium 421 mg
Note, the sodium is high due to the sodium in the salmon and tortillas. While Flatout Multigrain with Flax flatbreads are not tortilla they would work in place of tortillas and are large enough to cut in half to yield 2 tacos. Using 1/2 Flatout flatbread would reduce the sodium content per taco from 436 mg to 346 mg with the Ray's sauce and from 421 mg to 331 mg with the G. Hughes sauce.
Nutrition
Serving: 1taco | Calories: 210kcal | Carbohydrates: 18.5g | Protein: 18.6g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 3.6g | Sodium: 436mg | Fiber: 9.3g | Sugar: 4.4g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
