Crispy Air Fryer Steelhead Bites with Green Goddess Tzatziki
- by Seatopia
Guest recipe Paid partner
Recipe by Alex Bolivar
Developed for Seatopia using our Steelhead, in 6 oz skin-on portions from Hudson Valley
Serves 4 · about 40 minutes · one air fryer, one blender
Steelhead cut into cubes, tossed with oregano, smoked paprika and garlic powder, and air-fried until the edges go golden — then piled onto warm jasmine rice with arugula, feta, kalamata olives and a green goddess tzatziki that gets its colour and body from a whole avocado blended into the yogurt.
Two things carry it. Pat the fish properly dry before it is seasoned; that is the whole trick to the crust. And the sauce goes on at the table, not in the basket, so the bites stay crisp.
Alex Bolivar builds the bowl, start to finish.
At a glance
About 50 minutes
About 40 minutes start to finish. The rice cooks and the sauce blends while the fish sits drying, so the hands-on stretch is short and the air fryer is only six to eight minutes of it.
Serves 4
Serves 4. Four 6 oz Steelhead portions — two 2-Packs — over about three cups of cooked jasmine rice. Halves cleanly, and the tzatziki keeps two days either way.
Blended, not reduced
A whole avocado blended into Greek yogurt with cucumber, dill, parsley, mint, garlic and lemon. The avocado is what gives it the colour and the body — no thickener, no long reduction.
Watch for the C
Pat the cubes dry, then leave them uncovered in the fridge while you make the sauce. A dry surface is what browns; a wet one steams.
Watch the edges, not the clock
Six to eight minutes at 400°F, but the colour is what tells you.
Cubes this size go from just-done to dry in about ninety seconds, and every air fryer runs hotter or cooler than its dial claims. The signal is the corners: they colour before the flat faces do, and once they are properly golden the middle is there. Flip once at the halfway mark so both cut faces get the same air.
Pale, firming at the corners Not yet
About three or four minutes in. The surface has set and gone opaque but there is no colour on it yet. Leave it — pulling here gives you steamed fish with a seasoned outside.
Golden corners, centre just opaque Pull it here
Six to eight minutes, after the flip. The corners and edges have taken real colour, the flat faces are turning, and a fork slid into the thickest cube separates the flakes without resistance. This is the whole point of the recipe.
Deep gold, edges going crisp-hard Last chance
Still good if it goes straight into the bowl. The outside is past crisp and starting to harden, and the centre has lost some of its moisture. No margin left, and these keep cooking on a hot plate.
Uniformly dark, flakes falling apart dry Overcooked
The cubes have shrunk noticeably and the flesh crumbles rather than flakes. The tzatziki will mask it, which is the only thing to be said for it.
Ratings are how far along the fish is, not how good. Two smaller batches beat one crowded basket — cubes that touch trap steam between them, and steam is the one thing that stops a crust forming.
Crispy Air Fryer Steelhead Bites with Green Goddess Tzatziki
Seatopia
40 minutes
Steelhead cut into cubes, tossed with oregano, smoked paprika and garlic powder, and air-fried until the edges go golden — then piled onto warm jasmine rice with arugula, feta, kalamata olives and a green goddess tzatziki that gets its colour and body from a whole avocado blended into the yogurt. Pat the fish properly dry first; that's the whole trick to the crust. The sauce goes on at the table, not in the basket, so the bites stay crisp.
Ingredients
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4 × 6 oz Steelhead portions (two 2-Packs), thawed overnight in the fridge and patted very dry
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp dried oregano
1½ tsp garlic powder
1½ tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
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1 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
1 ripe avocado
1 English cucumber, divided — ½ cup grated and squeezed dry for the sauce, the rest chopped for the bowls
¼ cup fresh dill, plus more for finishing
¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp fresh mint
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
½ tsp sea salt, plus black pepper to taste
Cold water, to loosen
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1 cup jasmine rice, uncooked (yields about 3 cups cooked)
3 cups arugula
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup Kalamata olives, drained
¾ cup feta, crumbled
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Directions
Cook the rice. Rinse the jasmine rice thoroughly. Cook according to the package directions until tender, then fluff with a fork and set aside. One cup of uncooked rice yields about three cups cooked.
Make the green goddess tzatziki. Add the Greek yogurt, avocado, grated cucumber, dill, parsley, mint, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and black pepper to a blender. Blend until smooth, creamy and bright green. If it's too thick to drizzle, add cold water a tablespoon at a time until it loosens. Refrigerate while you prepare everything else.
Prepare the steelhead. Pat the steelhead very dry with paper towel — this is what gets you crispy edges. Cut into approximately 1½-inch cubes. Place in a bowl and toss gently with the olive oil, oregano, garlic powder, smoked paprika, sea salt and black pepper.
Air-fry the steelhead. Preheat the air fryer to 400°F. Arrange the bites in a single layer with space between them so they can crisp rather than steam. Air fry 6–8 minutes, flipping once halfway. Pull them as soon as the exterior is golden and the centres are just cooked through.
Prepare the vegetables. While the steelhead cooks, halve the cherry tomatoes, chop the remaining cucumber, thinly slice the red onion, crumble the feta and drain the olives. Gather the arugula, dill and lemon wedges.
Build and finish the bowls. Add a bed of warm jasmine rice to each bowl. Arrange the arugula, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, olives and feta over the rice. Pile the crispy steelhead bites in the centre. Finish with fresh dill, a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of olive oil and cracked black pepper. Spoon the green goddess tzatziki over the bites immediately before serving.
Everything on this plate
Our Steelhead, in 6 oz skin-on portions from Hudson Valley. Everything else is a greengrocer and a spice shelf — Greek yogurt, avocado, cucumber, dill, oregano, smoked paprika, feta and kalamata olives.
Vendor:SEATOPIA
A celebration of clean flavor and coastal elegance. Contains salmon, whitefish, and peruvian scallops.
Vendor:SEATOPIA
$11.88
/serving
Freshwater elegance — tender, nutty, and superb when pan-fried with herbs or gently smoked
How the sauce actually gets built
The avocado is the thickener — which is why the cucumber has to go in dry.
A classic tzatziki is strained yogurt and not much else. This one carries a whole avocado, and that is what gives it the colour and enough body to sit on top of hot fish instead of running off it. Three moves, and the order matters for exactly one reason: water.
1
Squeeze the cucumber dry
Grate half a cup and wring it out in a clean towel until no more comes. Cucumber is mostly water and it will keep releasing into the sauce for an hour after blending — that is how a thick tzatziki turns into a thin one in the fridge.
2
Everything in at once
Yogurt, avocado, the squeezed cucumber, dill, parsley, mint, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. No need to build it in stages — there is nothing hot in the jug, so it goes straight to smooth and bright green.
3
Loosen last, a spoon at a time
Cold water, one tablespoon at a time, until it pours in a ribbon rather than a blob. Adding it at the start means you cannot tell how thick the avocado made it, and a sauce you have over-thinned cannot be taken back.
Swaps that work
The method holds whatever you put through it — roast something sweet, blend it with something rich, bloom a warm spice in fat, and add the protein last.
| As written | Easy swap | What changes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The fish | 4 × 6 oz Steelhead portions | King or Atlantic Salmon, same cut | Both are fattier — check them a minute early |
| The yogurt | 1 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt | Skyr, or a thick dairy-free yogurt | Skyr is tarter, so loosen it with a little more water |
| The avocado | 1 ripe avocado | Leave it out, add 2 tbsp olive oil | Thinner and paler — still pourable, less able to sit on the fish |
| The herbs | Dill, parsley and mint | Any two of the three | Keep the dill if you keep only one — it is what reads as tzatziki |
| The grain | 1 cup jasmine rice | Basmati, farro or orzo | Farro takes longer and holds the sauce better |
| The brine | ½ cup Kalamata olives | Capers, or chopped preserved lemon | Sharper and saltier, so pull back on the added salt |
| The cheese | ¾ cup feta | Goat cheese, or none | Goat is creamier and much less salty |
The sauce is the make-ahead
The tzatziki keeps. Blend it a day ahead and refrigerate it with a film pressed to the surface — the lemon holds the avocado's colour overnight. Cook the rice ahead too. The fish is the only part that wants to be made to order, because the crust is the point and it softens as it sits.
Why steelhead takes to an air fryer
Steelhead is firm enough to hold a cube through the basket without flaking apart, and fatty enough that it does not dry out at the high, dry heat an air fryer runs. That is why it crisps at the edges while the middle stays moist — a leaner white fish would be chalky by the time the outside coloured.
Ours comes from Hudson Valley, blast-frozen to -10°F at harvest and vacuum sealed. Every supplier is tested before we approve them, then randomly audited to ensure consistent compliance with the Seatopia Standard — third-party lab tested for nutrition, mercury and microplastics, and sourced from best-in-class aquaculture. Farms named, panels published.
Air fryer steelhead, answered
How do I know when the bites are done?
400°F for six to eight minutes, flipping once halfway, but go by the corners rather than the timer. They colour before the flat faces do, and once they are properly golden the centre is cooked. A fork slid into the thickest cube should separate the flakes without resistance. Because the cubes are small they carry on cooking for a moment after they leave the basket, so pull them at golden rather than waiting for dark.
Why does the fish have to be patted dry?
Because a wet surface steams instead of browning. An air fryer works by moving hot dry air fast over the food, and any moisture sitting on the cubes has to boil off before the surface can colour — by the time it does, the inside is overcooked. Pat every side with paper towel after cutting, and if you have the time leave the cubes uncovered in the fridge while you make the sauce. That is the whole trick to the crust.
Can I pile the bites into the basket?
No — that is the other way to lose the crust. The cubes need space around them for the air to move, so lay them out in a single layer with a gap between each one. Two smaller batches will beat one crowded one every time, and the first batch holds its crisp while the second cooks.
Should I toss the bites in the tzatziki?
Put it on at the table, not in the basket. The sauce is cold, thick and yogurt-based, and anything that crisped in the air fryer goes soft the moment it sits in it. Spoon it over the assembled bowl, or serve it alongside so people can dip.
Will the avocado sauce go brown?
Not overnight. There is enough lemon juice in it to hold the colour, and blending it into yogurt limits how much air reaches the avocado. Keep it in the fridge with cling film pressed down onto the surface rather than stretched over the top of the bowl, which is what leaves an air gap.
How do I thaw the steelhead?
Overnight in the refrigerator in the sealed pack, about 12 hours, then pat it dry before cutting. In a hurry, submerge the sealed pack in a bowl of cold water and change the water every 20 minutes. Never thaw fish on the counter or in warm water, and never thaw it out of the pack — it takes on water and that works directly against the crust.
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