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
- Mayonnaise provides 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.
- Pickles add 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 juice is essential for the best tartar sauce. It thins out the sauce making it the perfect consistency for dipping, and adds a fresh zesty flavor.
- Capers add 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 dill is a must for us. If you don’t have dill, parsley is a good alternative.
- Worcestershire sauce is 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 mustard adds 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
Best Homemade Tartar Sauce
- PREP
- TOTAL
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.
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.
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This tartar sauce recipe is the best thing ever! I’ve never made by scratch before and now I won’t have it any other way. The only thing I added was two crushed cloves of garlic and now it’s perfect! Thank you for sharing the recipe
Quick and simple recipe that is oh so yummy!
I am generally not a fan of tartar sauce but made this for my lady to go with our fried cod fingers. I tasted this after making it and was surprised to learn that I do like tartar sauce…….at least this one. Excellent!
I’m not one to leave a lot of reviews but I have to say that this is by far, the absolute best tartar sauce! Coming from someone as picky as I am…it really is saying a lot.
I have been making this sauce for years. It’s perfect every time and so quick to make.
Thank you so much, the sauce is great and easy!
Delicious! I used homemade sweet pickles which added the perfect amount of sweetness. The dijon mustard and capers added the perfect tang and depth. This is my go-to tartar sauce recipe from now on!
I’ve been using a tried & true recipe for YEARS. So glad I decided to try this one! It is the BEST I ever had. I’d like to think the addition of (homemade) Worchester sauce it the reason! Thank you!
Best ever! Used relish for pickle, so yummmy!
Thank you so much for this recipe. It was soo delicious! So much healthier than the garbage we get from the store. Most of them have High Fructose Corn Syrup in them. This will always be our go to now. 🙂
Absolutely the best tartar sauce I ever tasted. Delicious!!!!
So happy you enjoyed it, Carolyn!
I have made this recipe many times!! Always delicious!! I love all of your recipes 🙂