This easy homemade tartar sauce is better than anything you can buy at the store. It’s extra creamy and perfect for serving next to your favorite seafood dishes.
This easy tartar sauce is quick to make and flavorful, making it better than store-bought tartar sauce. You probably already have most of the ingredients you need to make it in your kitchen.
We love this sauce served next to poached salmon, homemade fish sticks, and our favorite crab cakes.
Key Ingredients
- Mayonnaiseprovides our creamy base. You can use store-bought mayo or for the best tartar sauce, try making your own mayonnaise. While I prefer the richness of full-fat mayo, you can substitute the mayonnaise for light mayo or plain yogurt for a lower calorie sauce.
- Picklesadd crunch and flavor to the sauce. We use dill pickles and particularly enjoy these homemade pickles or the refrigerated Claussen pickles for this. For a sweeter style, try bread and butter or sweet pickles instead.
- Fresh lemon juiceis essential for the best tartar sauce. It thins out the sauce making it the perfect consistency for dipping, and adds a fresh zesty flavor.
- Capersadd texture and so much flavor to our tartar sauce. I think this is one of those ingredients that really makes this sauce better than what you can find at the store.
- Fresh or dried dillis a must for us. If you don’t have dill, parsley is a good alternative.
- Worcestershire sauceis an unusual ingredient, but it brings the sauce together. We only add a dash. We add Worcestershire sauce to dressings and sauces quite a bit. We even use it to make this homemade ranch.
- Dijon mustardadds extra flavor and tang. I love it.
How to Make the Best Tartar Sauce
If you can chop and stir a few ingredients together, you can make tartar sauce. I’ve always been disappointed with store-bought tartar sauce, so taking a few tips from our favorite seafood restaurants, we devised a recipe of our own. I’ve never looked back.
You’ll add everything to a bowl and stir them until well blended. Just a few seconds of stirring turns the sauce into a creamy and delicious sauce. Then, I place it into the fridge for at least 30 minutes since this does get better overtime.
What to Serve with Tartar Sauce
Skip store-bought sauce and serve it next to these easy homemade fish sticks, easy baked popcorn chicken, these perfectly roasted shrimp, or oven-baked salmon.
Tartar sauce is a must when making our Maryland-style crab cakes.
I love to serve tartar sauce with roasted vegetables. I especially love dunking baked sweet potato fries or these oven-baked potato wedges into the sauce. Roasted cauliflower is also delicious.
More Homemade Sauce Recipes
- Creamy Honey Mustard Sauce
- Homemade Ketchup
- Sweet Tangy BBQ Sauce
- Creamy Tahini Sauce
- Easy Mignonette Sauce
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Best Homemade Tartar Sauce
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I love this tartar sauce recipe so much. I’ve always been disappointed with store-bought tartar sauce, so I was so excited when we figured out a way to make tartar sauce at home.
Makes 3/4 cup
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
1/2 cup mayonnaise, try homemade mayonnaise 1 small dill pickle, chopped very small (3 tablespoons) 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste 1 tablespoon capers, chopped, optional, but recommended 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill 1/2 to 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard, optional, but recommended Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Directions
1Combine the mayonnaise, pickles, lemon juice, capers, dill, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard in a small bowl and stir until well blended and creamy.
2Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Taste then adjust with additional lemon juice, salt, and pepper. For the best flavor, cover and store in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
3Keep, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for one week.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- How long does homemade tartar sauce last? This easy sauce lasts for about a week when stored in the fridge. We love making a double batch to enjoy it throughout the week. Past that, and you lose the fresh flavor from the lemon.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
Nutrition Per Serving Serving Size 1 tablespoon / Calories 64 / Total Fat 6.9g / Saturated Fat 1.1g / Cholesterol 3.9mg / Sodium 103.8mg / Carbohydrate 0.3g / Dietary Fiber 0.1g / Total Sugars 0.1g / Protein 0.1g
AUTHOR: Joanne Gallagher
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