Classic Tartar Sauce

by Sabrina Snyder

Last Update:

130 Comments

4.84 from 42 votes
16 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
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Classic Tartar Sauce with mayonnaise, pickles, pickle juice, and onions is so easy and delicious, you’ll never buy bottled sauce again!

You’ll love this tartar sauce with my Crispy Baked Fish Sticks, Beer Battered Fish, and even Beer Battered Crispy Fish Tacos. It is the PERFECT swap for the bottled sauce.

Sabrina’s Classic Tarter Sauce Recipe

I first created this recipe for Tartar Sauce when I made Crispy Fried Shrimp and needed something delicious to serve with them. I love GOOD tartar sauce, and no offense to the pre-made variety, but we can do better.

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Classic Tartar Sauce

Classic Tartar Sauce in with mayonnaise, pickles, pickle juice and onions is so easy and delicious, you'll never buy bottled sauce again!
Yield 16 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Course Sauce
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Sauce in a white bowl with a sheet pan of fish sticks next to it.
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Ingredients
 

  • 2 cups mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons dill pickles , minced
  • 2 tablespoons pickle juice
  • 2 tablespoons minced onion

Instructions

  • Mix ingredients together in a small bowl.
  • Chill in refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours for the best flavor.

Nutrition

Calories: 192kcal | Carbohydrates: 0.4g | Protein: 0.3g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 13g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 221mg | Potassium: 9mg | Fiber: 0.04g | Sugar: 0.2g | Vitamin A: 22IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.1mg

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About this Recipe

This homemade tartar sauce makes for the perfect bottled tartar sauce replacement. I haven’t bought another jar since! I’m going to serve this tartar sauce on all the delicious seafood I can eat this summer including Coconut Shrimp and more.

Variations

I’ve seen a few other variations of Classic Tartar Sauce, which you can totally incorporate into your recipe:

  • Instead of dill pickles you can chop up bread and butter pickles.
  • Instead of pickles, you can use sweet relish.
  • Instead of pickle juice you can use ½ the amount of lemon juice.
  • Instead of minced onion, use ½ teaspoon of onion powder.

More Amazing Sauces

Collage of homemade sauce in a bowl with fish sticks for dipping

These pictures were used in prior versions of this post:

Bowl of sauce next to pan of fish sticks
Fish Stick dipped in sauce

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  2. Perfect. I made mine your way
    But I used light miracle whip reduced
    fat. Minced onion the juice relish Jar
    Wonderful flavor if you want a zing
    In your mouth
    This is it……
    Thank you for the recipe

    Reply

  3. I loved you tartar sauce.. I did use hot sweet relish the second time I made it, for just a little zip, but it was great either way!!

    Reply

  5. This is the best tartar sauce! Super easy to make and adding more or less of the ingredients is great. You don’t have to settle for a pre-made.

    Reply

  6. My husband said this was the best tartar sauce he ever had. He’s really picky about his tartar sauce so this is really high praise!

    Reply

    1. Tartar sauce should be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for about a week. Of course if it starts to smell wonky, I would toss.

      Reply

  10. I didn’t have any pickles for some strange reason, so substituted sweet relish and red wine vinegar. Came out delicious! Thank you for the recipe!

    Reply

  11. Made it for dinner tonight but used sweet pickle relish instead because I didn’t have dill. It was delicious

    Reply

  14. I made this using Vlasic Bread and Butter pickles and white onion. I used Hellman’s mayonnaise, four tablespoons onion, four tablespoons pickles, and only one tablespoon of pickle juice. It was so easy and with the added chopped onions and pickles, it was the texture our family prefers. Thanks for such an easy recipe that is so delicious.

    Reply

  15. Nice recipe ,tartar sauce,if you don’t have dill relish you can use sweet relish to keep the texture and a little white distilled vinegar to give you your dill taste. Also the vinegar will make the tartar sauce last a little longer.

    Reply

  16. I use Miracle Whip and Dill Relish and that’s it. My husband doesn’t care for tartar sauce and I don’t care for sweet relish. I will add a little bit of onion powder the next time I make some.

    Reply

  17. Delish!!! I don’t think I will ever go back. I made some changes. I used sweet relish and added some garlic powder to mine 🙂

    Reply

  18. Taking those same ingredients, I always add a little sugar, and a Tbs. of finely shredded carrot = Red Lobster Tartar Sauce recipe.

    Reply

  19. I might have missed it, sorry if I did. I was wondering how long this will keep in the fridge? This is really good! I do not care for the bottled brands .
    Thank you

    Reply

    1. This homemade tartar sauce recipe will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to one week. This sauce is something you’ll want to make fresh for your seafood dishes, but you can certainly save any extra for a few days without any problems.

      Reply