Air Fryer Snapper

Learn how to cook some whole red snapper in the air fryer using a small amount of oil and some fish seasoning. This is a much healthier alternative to traditional deep fat frying with the same crispy skin and full of flavour.

When it comes to whole fish I love many variations of fish but I'm a red snapper kind of girl at heart.

Which can be quite expensive here in the diaspora so nowadays it tends to be eaten as the occasional treat because of inflation.

Growing up, like most people we didn't have an air fryer, infact the concept of an air fryer is a new age device.

Fish was either, fried, steamed, roasted, grill or baked, we would fry or steam our fish the most.

Ever since purchasing an air fryer and using it to "fry" some fish I've almost given up on cooking fish on the stovetop because the results speak for themselves.

I'm really impressed with how little oil is needed to yield that crispiness that would normally require an amass of oil.

This makes a much healthier alternative and one that I want you all to try. Plus it's a very simple yet tasty recipe.

I pretty much just use my favourite homemade seafood seasoning, along with some olive oil, lime juice and that's about it.

I told you it was that simple?

Ingredients you need

• Seafood seasoning - This is my FAVOURITE seasoning that works so well with SO many of my fish/seafood dishes.
• Olive oil - You only need a small amount oil.
• Lime juice - The lime juice helps to make the paste.
• Black pepper and pink salt - not pictured, this is optional for additional flavour.

Cleaning the fish

These steps are very much the same and have already been featured in many of my fish recipes.

I usually ask my fish monger to gut and scale the fish because I don't really enjoy doing this myself even though I am perfectly capable of doing so.

• Place the red snapper in a medium sized bowl with some cold water.
• Squeeze the lime and pink salt over the fish in the bowl of water.
• Use your hands to wash the fish with the citrus water.
• Directly rinse the fish off under the tap (you can use a colander to make it easier).
• Rub the lime halves on the outside and the cavity of the fish and rinse off a final time.
• Blot and dry off the fish with kitchen towel.

The steps

• Place the red snapper on a chopping board.
• Use a sharp knife to make 3-4 diagonal scores, leaving 3-4cm between each line on each side of the fish (becareful not to slice too deep into the fish cavity).
• Use kitchen scissors to trim off the dorsal/pectoral fins/tail if required and then discard.
• In a small bowl, combine the seafood seasoning , the lime juice and olive oil to form a paste.
• Do a taste test of the paste and adjust with additional pink salt and black pepper or a small amount of water if you want to thin it out.

• Use your hands (you can wear gloves) or a pastry brush to apply the wet rub on the inside and the outside of each snapper.
• Line the air fryer basket with parchment paper
• Place the snapper in the basket (you may need to cook each fish separately, depending on the capacity)
• Air fry the fish @180C/356F for 25-30 minutes (turning half way through).

Notes and tips

• Snapper is a bony fish so be mindful of any bones when you are eating it.
• Feel free to substitute with another type of fish i.e doctor, parrot, red mullet, butter fish etc..
• Make sure to do a taste test of the paste and adjust accordingly before applying it to your snapper.
• This is the recipe that you need for the Caribbean Caramelized Onions.
• If you are a novice or don't enjoy scaling/gutting your fish, ask your fishmonger to do this for you.
• If you don't want to use lime juice, you can either use lemon juice or water instead.
• Here is the link that you will need for my homemade Seafood Seasoning Recipe.
• As per Caribbean custom, the fish is washed and cleaned before hand.

More seafood and fish recipes to try

• Jamaican Shrimp and Cabbage
• Caribbean Baked Fish
• Spicy Sweet Shrimp and Plantains
• Shrimp Rundown
• Caribbean Stewed Fish
• Air Fryer Whole Fish
• Jamaican Curry Shrimp
• Brown Stew Fish
• Jamaican Steamed Fish

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