Homemade Tartar Sauce
The best homemade tartar sauce recipe is easy and is made with capers and dill relish. It’s flavor is unbelievable and it definitely will elevate your next Friday night fish fry or your favorite seafood dish.
What makes this the BEST homemade tartar sauce recipe
Up until a few years ago, I despised tartar sauce. I just couldn’t figure out why people would want to ruin their fish by using it. That is, until I had homemade tartar sauce at a restaurant. I will never be able to remember what restaurant it was, but it changed my life.
Their tartar sauce was more than just pickle relish and mayonnaise. It was a truly flavorful sauce, complete with capers, chives, and Dijon mustard, and it’s the tartar sauce that inspired this recipe.
What makes this the best homemade tartar sauce is undoubtedly the capers and fresh chives, but it doesn’t hurt that it’s easy to make and completely dairy free, either.
I’ve always been a big fan of making my own condiments. I love fresh salad dressing, and I’ve been making homemade cocktail sauce forever. But, homemade tartar sauce might be the single best condiment you can make for yourself.
It blows store bought sauce out of the water, which is convenient since it’s a condiment for fish (pun intended). I made this particular batch of tartar sauce for frozen beer battered cod that we bought at Costco.
This tartar sauce would also be great with baked fish, crab cakes, salmon burgers or even your favorite fish cakes. It’s a very versatile sauce.
If you like this recipe, you have to try this Cocktail sauce, and this Homemade ranch dressing and this 3 ingredient bang bang sauce.
Searching for more dairy free condiments? thousand island dressing / no cook homemade pizza sauce / vegan blue cheese dressing / dairy free pesto sauce
Ingredients:
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
- Mayonnaise – Use your favorite brand of mayonnaise, or make your own. Just don’t over mix your ingredients. If you would like to make this recipe vegan, use your favorite plant based mayonnaise
- Chives and capers – Feel free to customize your tartar sauce to your taste: add as many chives and capers as you want.
- Pickle relish – Don’t substitute sweet relish. You really need the dill if you want your sauce to taste like traditional tartar sauce.
The following is a detailed overview of the recipe steps with added tips and tricks for recipe success. For a simplified and printable version, including ingredient amounts and more formal instructions, see the recipe card below.
How to make tartar sauce
Making this tartar sauce recipe couldn’t be easier. It’s a mayo based sauce, so you can use your favorite store brand, or make your own mayonnaise by following my homemade aioli recipe. When I use store bought, I typically by the canola oil version because it’s a little, but not as sweet as the low fat versions.
Add everything into one bowl and stir gently to combine. Make sure you don’t mix until you have everything measured and ready to go because you can easily over mix mayonnaise, which will result in a thin, messy tartar sauce that you won’t even want to eat.
This tartar sauce recipe should last in the fridge for as long as the ingredients hold up. Provided you’re using ingredients with reasonable expirations dates, and relatively fresh chives, you should be able to keep it up to two weeks.
If you’re using homemade mayonnaise, be sure to use fresh eggs and factor this in when you’re deciding how long to keep it. I typically toss mine after a week, just to be safe.
Ingredients
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons dill pickle relish (or chopped dill pickles)
- 2 tablespoons capers (smashed)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon dill pickle juice
- 2 teaspoons whole grain or Dijon mustard
- Salt & pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, gently stir the ingredients together. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Optional: let tartar sauce to sit for 30 minutes in the fridge to allow flavors to develop.
