Fish Taco Sauce is quick, easy, and the perfect way to add a little, creamy, tangy kick to fish tacos or sandwiches. It makes a wonderful fry sauce as well.
Fish taco sauce is our go-to sauce for mahi mahi tacos, beer battered fish, and crab cakes. It’s packed with citrus flavor with a bit of a spicy touch. Some of our other favorite sauces are this chipotle cream sauce, homemade remoulade sauce, and tzatziki sauce.
Fish Taco Sauce Recipe:
Have you ever had baja fish tacos or tilapia fish tacos? Fish tacos are some of my favorite seafood dishes. Quick, simple and fresh. I love the meatiness of the fish, the soft tortillas, the crisp fish taco slaw, and best of all this spicy fish taco sauce.
It can be difficult to find the right fish taco sauce, though. Our recipe with mayo adds a tangy kick of lemon to cut through any meaty white fish. We made this fish taco sauce without sour cream, but you could easily substitute a little sour cream for some of the mayonnaise if you’d like.
Our taco sauce is easy to make, comes together in about 5 minutes, and is very versatile. Your entire family will love this taco sauce. We also have a homemade dill sauce and homemade tartar sauce if this type of sauce isn’t what you’re looking for!
How to Make Spicy Fish Taco Sauce:
- In a medium mixing bowl, mix all the spices, then add the mayonnaise and lemon juice.
- Enjoy the sauce immediately or refrigerate it until ready to use.
Fish Taco Sauce Tips and Variations:
- Intensity: As it’s stored in your fridge, the flavors will become more intense.
- Mayonnaise: We used full-fat mayonnaise for this recipe. Something like Miracle Whip is not going to taste the same, so we recommend that real deal, full-fat mayo be used.
- Pairing: Obviously, we love to use this sauce on fish tacos, but it also pairs well with our fish taco slaw and several other recipes that we’ve linked to above.
- Spices: We love the blend of spices in this recipe, but they can be adjusted to your tastes. If you want to make this recipe less spicy, reduce or omit the chipotle.
- Sour Cream: We made this recipe without sour cream, but you could swap out some of the mayonnaise for sour cream if needed.
Storage Recommendations:
Room Temperature: We do not recommend storing this taco sauce at room temperature due to the mayonnaise base.
Refrigerator: Fish taco sauce should be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container and be discard after 3 to 4 days.
Freezer: We do not recommend freezing this fish taco sauce.
Other sauce recipes you may love:
- Homemade Remoulade Sauce
- Simple Chipotle Cream Sauce
- Tzatziki Sauce with Sour Cream
- Homemade Fry Sauce
Don’t forget to check out our Fish Taco Sauce web story!
Fish Taco Sauce
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup mayonnaise
- 1 ½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice juice from ½ a lemon
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
- ½ teaspoon dried dill weed
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon chipotle powder
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon garlic salt
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl.1 ¾ cup mayonnaise1 ½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning½ teaspoon dried dill weed½ teaspoon onion powder¼ teaspoon cumin¼ teaspoon chipotle powder¼ teaspoon smoked paprika¼ teaspoon garlic salt¼ teaspoon kosher salt⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Keep cold in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
Angie
Tuesday 26th of July 2022
Thank you for this amazing sauce recipe, I will never put any other sauce on my fish again, this was simply delicious.
John
Wednesday 27th of July 2022
Thank you Angie, we're glad you enjoyed the taco sauce. Have a lovely day :)
Laura
Saturday 16th of April 2022
Wow, easy, fast, delicious! My kids are quite picky and let me know when they don’t like things. This passed muster and I added it to my family cookbook page next to my grandma’s fish recipe. Thanks!
John
Sunday 17th of April 2022
Thank you Laura, Kim and I are glad everyone enjoyed the fish taco sauce. Have a lovely weekend :)
Elaine
Monday 4th of April 2022
This sounds delicious! I am curious though, why does it only keep in the refrigerator for only 3-4 days? I keep my plain mayonnaise in my refrigerator much longer than that.
John
Monday 4th of April 2022
Good morning Elaine, thank you for the compliment and asking a question. Kim and I worked in restaurants for a number of years in our teens and twenties. During that time, it was common practice to toss leftover refrigerated sauces after 3-4 days. That practice included mayonnaise based sauces. So, that's why we recommend trashing most of our leftovers after 3-4 days. Thank you again for dropping by to leave a comment, have a lovely day :)
Patty
Friday 22nd of October 2021
Oh my goodness!! I wrote the first chapter of a book praising this sauce ON THE WRONG WEBSITE!! AARGH! I will wait till it post and attach it here where it belongs. This recipe IS ALL THAT!! 5+ stars folks and I'm darn picky about my cookin.
Patty
Saturday 1st of January 2022
@Kimberly, Printed this recipe and it's getting taped to the inside of my spice cabinet door for easy reference! Happy New Year!
Patty
Wednesday 27th of October 2021
@Kimberly, Another 5 star Review!!! My post never showed up on the other(WRONG) website! So here's what I did... I pan fried catfish nuggets coated in Zatarains Fish Fry, because I was out of Kentucky Kernel seasoned flour. I had homemade flour tortillas made and and heated them with a smidge of butter in a hot pan on the stovetop 25 seconds each side. Put on a plate with some catfish, "THE SAUCE", fresh chopped tomato, chopped green scallions and some cool, crisp lettuce shredded and topped with fresh cilantro sprigs. Oh my, oh my what a fantastic dance of flavors in my mouth and the sauce brought it all together with zing. P.S. I added a little diced jalapeno to the mix to spice it up. YUM!! and THANK YOU!!
Kimberly
Friday 22nd of October 2021
Hi Patty!
We're thrilled that you like the fish taco sauce. It's great dipping sauce for French fries, too, if you haven't tried that combo yet! Thanks for coming back to comment. We hope you have a lovely weekend! :)
Becky
Monday 29th of June 2020
I made this sauce to go with tilapia fish tacos. It was awesome!!! The whole family loved it. I didn’t put old bay seasoning because it was out of stock at the store but the sauce was still great without it. Thanks for sharing!!
John
Tuesday 30th of June 2020
Thank you, Becky! We're glad you and your family loved the sauce. If you decide to make it again and the store is out of Old Bay seasoning, you could add 1/2 teaspoon of seasoned salt in place the Old Bay. Thank you again for coming back to comment on and rate the recipe card. Kim and I hope you have a lovely day :)