Traditional

Pescado Zarandeado

Name: Pescado Zarandeado
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 8 tacos
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 1/2 cup Mayonnaise; 3 tbsp Butter, melted; 2 tbsp Salsa Huichol (or another mild bottled hot sauce); 1 tbsp Soy sauce; 2 tsp Yellow mustard; 3 cloves Garlic, finely grated; 1 tbsp Lime juice; 2 lb Whole snapper or robalo, butterflied through the back; to taste Coarse salt; 1 tbsp Neutral oil, for the grill grate; 8 Corn tortillas; 1 Cucumber, thinly sliced; 1/2 Red onion, shaved and rinsed; 1 Avocado, sliced; 2 limes Lime wedges

Nayarit's pride — a whole butterflied fish brushed with a chile-mayo baste of Salsa Huichol, soy, and mustard, then grilled slowly over coals until lacquered and smoky. Flaked hot off the skin into tortillas with cucumber and avocado, it tastes like the beach at Mexcaltitán.

Time: 45 min
Heat
Yield: 8 tacos
Region: Nayarit

Ingredients

Zarandeado baste

The fish

To build

Per-100g nutrition (6 ingredients verified)

Ingredient	kcal	Protein	Fat	Carbs
Mayonnaise	786	0 g	78.6 g	0 g
Soy sauce	53	8.1 g	0.6 g	4.9 g
Yellow mustard	0	0 g	0 g	0 g
Lime juice	—	0 g	0 g	6.7 g
Coarse salt	500	0 g	57.1 g	0 g
Corn tortillas	188	3.1 g	1.6 g	40.6 g

Values are per 100 g of the listed ingredient. Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central (snapshot 2026-09-11). Ingredients without a verified match are omitted.

Method

Light a charcoal fire and let it burn down to medium coals — ask your fishmonger to butterfly the fish through the back so it opens flat like a book.
Whisk the mayonnaise, melted butter, Salsa Huichol, soy, mustard, garlic, and lime into a smooth orange baste. Season the flesh side of the fish with coarse salt and brush on a first coat.
Set the fish skin-side down in an oiled grill basket — the zaranda — and cook over medium coals, brushing on more baste every few minutes, until the flesh is nearly opaque.
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Flip the basket and char the flesh side briefly, just until the baste caramelizes at the edges.
Slide the fish off the skin in big flakes, catching any juices from the basket.
Warm the tortillas over the coals and fill with fish, cucumber, red onion, avocado, and a hard squeeze of lime.