This creamy, smoky, and slightly spicy sauce is the perfect fish taco sauce! Delicious with blackened, grilled, or battered fish tacos, this versatile sauce is easy to make and sure to please everyone. Inspired by California fish tacos.
What Makes This Fish Taco Sauce So Good
- It’s a flawless blend of creamy, tangy, and spicy! You can dial the heat or up or down to your liking, too.
- I know it’s called fish taco sauce, but there’s really nothing fish-specific in these ingredients. You could also use this sauce on shrimp fajitas or with chicken nuggets, on burger bowls, or on a yummy cobb salad.
- Feeding a group? Doubling or tripling this recipe is super easy. There’s really no extra work involved!
- If you’re meal prepping, this sauce is perfect! A batch of fish taco sauce will keep in the refrigerator up to two weeks. Be sure to store it in an airtight container to keep it fresh and prevent any other fridge scents from mixing with it.
Key Ingredients for Fish Taco Sauce
Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce – This is where your sauce gets that delicious smoky flavor. If heat is your thing, you can increase the amount of adobo sauce you use, or use a whole chipotle pepper instead of half of one. If you’re heat sensitive, leave out the chipotle pepper.
Sour Cream and Mayonnaise – Total rockstars. They add a little tang to the sauce without overpowering the other flavors, and they give it that incredible creamy consistency. If you’re not a fan of sour cream, you could use plain yogurt instead.
Chef’s Tips
- The flavor is great immediately, but oh my damn, it’s incredible if you let it sit for a little while first! When I have time to spare, I’ll mix this fish taco sauce up and then chill it, covered, in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, to really maximize the flavors!
- A blender (or food processor) is really a must to get the perfect, smooth consistency. If you don’t have one, you can whisk everything together by hand instead! Be sure to dice the chipotle pepper first, or skip the pepper and use more adobo sauce.
- To make drizzling the fish taco sauce over your food a little easier, transfer the mixture into a squeeze bottle, or spoon it into a zip-top plastic bag and snap a small corner of the bag off with a pair of scissors. If you’re not using all of your sauce right away, though, don’t put the entire mixture in the plastic bag, since you won’t be able to store it like that.
More Fish Recipes You’ll Love
- Baked Fish with Lemon-Garlic Butter
- Air Fryer Fish Sticks
- Italian Fish Stew
- Easy Fish Tacos with Slaw and Chipotle Sauce
- Whole30 Fish Taco Bowls with Mango Salsa, Chipotle Aioli, Coconut-Lime Cauliflower Rice (Paleo)
- Air Fryer Salmon
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Fish Taco Sauce
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
Ingredients
- ½ cup sour cream or plain yogurt
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ½ of one chipotle pepper from can of adobo sauce
- 2 teaspoons adobo sauce
- 1 clove garlic peeled
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- juice of ½ to ¼ lime as desired
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor bowl. Blend until smooth. Transfer finished sauce to jar or squeeze bottle. Serve immediately or refrigerate until chilled.
Notes
- For more heat, add a little more adobo sauce or use a full chipotle pepper. For less heat, leave out the chipotle pepper altogether.
- Make it Dairy Free: Use dairy-free sour cream.
- Make it Vegan: Use vegan mayonnaise and sour cream.
Nutrition
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Cheryl Malik is the recipe developer, writer, and photographer behind the healthy, flavorful, family friendly recipes at 40 Aprons. She’s been a blogger for 10+ years and is known for her delicious recipes and detailed recipe instructions. Cheryl is a mom of three who lives in Memphis, TN.
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