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30+ Classic Sauces for Fish (Easy, Flavorful + Delicious!)

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Posted by:

Erin Lynch

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Updated:

November 19, 2024

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5 from 6 votes

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Collage of sauces for fish with text overlay.

Wondering what the best sauces to serve with fish are? I’ve got you covered with this handy guide.

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These sauces pair with all your favorite seafood recipes.

The BEST Sauces for Fish

These are some of my favorite sauces to serve with fish. I’ll usually pick one based on the type of seafood dish that I’m preparing.

Here are some examples:

  • Fish Tacos + Mango Salsa
  • Grilled Salmon + Homemade BBQ Sauce
  • Fish Sticks + Tartar Sauce
  • Halibut + Bearnaise Sauce

Keep reading to discover a sauce that you love. Then pair it with a couple fish side dishes, a perfect fish wine pairing, and you’re guaranteed an amazing dinner!

Fish with White Wine Sauce
An elegant, white wine sauce for fish that looks and tastes luxurious but is incredibly easy to make using a simple restaurant trick!
Get the RECIPE from Recipe Tin Eats
Crispy Salmon with Beurre Blanc and Sautéed Fennel
This Crispy Salmon with Beurre Blanc and Sautéed Fennel is definitely a crowd pleaser!
Get the RECIPE from Cooking with Cocktail Rings
Creamy tarragon sauce in white bowl with wooden spoon.
Tarragon Cream Sauce
Tarragon Cream Sauce is a warm and luxurious condiment for chicken, fish, beef, and more. Quick and easy to make with only 8 ingredients, it instantly makes your everyday dinners feel gourmet!
Tarragon Cream Sauce
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Chipotle Crema
Add some smoke and spice to your favorite recipes with this Chipotle Crema. A Mexican-inspired sauce, this creamy mix is made with chipotles in adobo to give a boost to fish tacos.
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How To Make Brown Butter
Learn How to Make Brown Butter with this info packed guide. With intense, nutty caramel flavour, browned butter will elevate all your dishes.
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Easy Lemon Dill Sauce
This lemon butter sauce, made with dry white wine and fresh dill, is the upgrade your next fish dinner craves! Switch up your go-to weeknight dinner recipes with this 10-minute creamy sauce for fish.
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Dill Pickle Tartar Sauce
Dill Pickle Tartar Sauce – No fish fry is complete without the perfect tartar sauce!
Get the RECIPE from Southern Bite
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Easy Remoulade Sauce
This easy Louisiana-style Remoulade Sauce is a smoky and tangy dipping sauce that’s perfect for po’ boys, fried green tomatoes, and crab cakes.
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Lemon Pepper Sauce
This easy Lemon Pepper Sauce recipe is bursting with fresh lemon and cracked black pepper! It’s a game changer for chicken wings, seafood, roasted veggies, and so much more.
Lemon Pepper Sauce
Lemon caper sauce on spoon over small bowl.
Lemon Caper Sauce
This easy 6-ingredient lemon caper sauce has a delicious dimension of flavors and a velvety richness, making it the perfect match for fish, shrimp, chicken, and more! Ready in just 5 minutes, it’s a simple go-to sauce that always upgrades your weeknight dinner.
Lemon Caper Sauce
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Easy Seafood Boil Sauce
Learn how to make Seafood Boil Sauce from scratch! It’s a rich and layered butter sauce that’s perfect for Southern seafood boils and for sprucing up your usual weeknight dinner. Easy to make in 20 minutes!
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Pesto Cream Sauce
Rich and herbaceous Pesto Cream Sauce in just 10 minutes! Make it with homemade or store-bought pesto for a quick and easy Italian-inspired dinner.
Pesto Cream Sauce
Creamy Cajun Salmon
This Creamy Cajun Salmon is absolutely loaded with flavour. Quick, easy, rich and delicious, this truly is the ultimate cajun salmon recipe!
Get the RECIPE from Don’t Go Bacon My Heart
Hand dipping spoon into green sauce.
Peruvian Green Sauce (Aji Verde)
This Peruvian Green Sauce (or Aji Verde) is a spicy and versatile condiment. Made with jalapeno, cilantro, and fresh lime juice, plus Greek yogurt to give it a creamy texture. It's an amazing dipping sauce, spread or dressing.
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Cod Piccata
Piccata sauce is a zesty, lemony butter sauce that complements the fish perfectly. This light, healthy recipe is a very easy to make, family friendly dinner that is great for busy wee…
Get the RECIPE from Delicious Little Bites
Orange Basil Butter Sauce Over Fish
Only 7 ingredients and 20 minutes stand between you & this fresh sweet and savory orange basil butter sauce that’s drizzled over your favorite white fish & vegetables!
Get the RECIPE from Bless Her Heart Y’All
Bearnaise sauce in small black bowl.
Easy Bearnaise Sauce
Bearnaise Sauce is great with steak, but also one of the classic sauces for fish. Flavored with fresh cracked blacked pepper and tarragon leaves.
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Cocktail Sauce Recipe
This easy Cocktail Sauce recipe is a zesty and tangy dipping sauce that’s perfect for prawn cocktails, po’ boys, and crab cakes. 
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Small bowl of aji amarillo sauce topped with habanero pepper and surrounded by french fries.
Aji Amarillo Sauce Recipe
This Aji Amarillo Sauce is a spicy and versatile Peruvian condiment. Spicy yellow pepper paste is blended with creamy and tangy ingredients, leaving you with an outstanding dipping sauce, spread, or dressing.
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Simple Garlic Butter Cod Fillets
This delicious recipe for garlic butter sauce is simple and extremely satisfying. Cooked in one pan, no fuss, amazing results.
Get the RECIPE from Erren’s Kitchen
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Baked Salmon Sushi Bowl
Creamy wasabi sauce is delicious on these Spicy Salmon Sushi Bowls!
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Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
This easy homemade Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce recipe is made with just 4-ingredients This easy sauce for fish will be ready in 5 minutes! All you need to make it are yellow mustard, dijon mustard, mayonnaise and honey. 
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Cilantro Lime Crema
This quick and tangy Cilantro Lime Crema is ready in just 5 minutes. Better than sour cream, this Mexican condiment is flavored with fresh cilantro and lime juice to create a creamy and vibrant dressing, taco topping, or dipping sauce for fish sticks.
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Mojo Sauce
This Green Mojo Sauce can be used for topping SO many different things. It’s loaded with fresh herbs, garlic and spicy peppers and it just perks up everything that it comes in contact with.
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The BEST Tartar Sauce
Ditch the store bought stuff and learn how to make the BEST TARTAR SAUCE! Made with mayo, relish, herbs, and lots of citrus, this is fantastic as the perfect seafood dip!
Get the RECIPE from Grandbaby Cakes
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Easy Chimichurri Sauce
This Chimichurri Sauce recipe is packed with flavor and easy to make with simple ingredients & your blender or food processor.
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Easy BBQ Sauce
This Homemade BBQ Sauce Recipe is so easy!  Made in just 15-minutes with simple ingredients you probably already have on hand. This southern sauce is delicious on grilled salmon.
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SIDE VIEW OF BOWL OF GREMOLATA NEXT TO LEMON AND GARLIC CLOVES.
Italian Gremolata
Learn to make Gremolata, a zesty Italian condiment that always adds fresh, vibrant flavor to seafood. All you need is fresh parsley, lemon zest, and garlic. Bonus: customize it with more add-ins or use olive oil to transform it into a marinade!
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Zesty Italian Dressing
This easy homemade Italian Dressing recipe is made with a tangy and zesty mix of pantry staple ingredients and dried herbs. Use it as a zesty marinade for fish or drizzle it on your cooked dish.
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Green Goddess Dip
This healthy Green Goddess Dressing takes less than five minutes to make and is loaded with fresh herbs, garlic and tangy lime juice. Use it as a dip or as a zesty topping for seafood.
Recipe
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Fresh Mango Salsa
This sweet Mango Salsa has tons of flavor and flair! The bursts of acidity and brightness from the juicy fresh mangos, jalapeno, lime juice, and red onion are delicious with tortilla chips or on fish tacos.
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Romesco Sauce + How to Use It!
Romesco Sauce is packed with flavor and easy to make with simple ingredients & your blender or food processor. This roasted red pepper based Spanish sauce is delicious with chicken, pork, seafood and roasted vegetables.
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Overhead shot of pineapple salsa in bowl.
Pineapple Salsa for Fish, Tacos & More
This Easy Pineapple Salsa is light and fresh with just a hint of heat. It makes an amazing dip for chips but is also amazing as a topping for grilled fish or pork tacos! 
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Jalapeno Sesame Salsa Recipe
This jalapeno sesame salsa recipe is totally unique and so addictive! It’s the perfect topping for a simple salmon filet.
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Basil Arugula pesto in small white bowl with spoon.
Arugula Pesto
Arugula Pesto has peppery kick from the arugula and is flavored with parmesan, garlic, lemon zest and pine nuts.
Recipe

More fish pairings:

  • Side Dishes for Fish
  • Wine Pairings for Fish

More sauce recipes:

  • Sauces for Steak
  • Sauces for Mahi Mahi
  • Sauces for Fried Fish
  • Sauces for Calamari
  • Sauces for Scallops
  • Sauces for Lobster
  • Sauces for Prime Rib
  • Sauces for Pulled Pork
  • Sauces for Pork Chops
  • Sauces for Sushi
  • Sauces for Tacos

Did you Make Any of These Sauces for Fish?

Please leave a comment and rating below, if you loved this round up of sauces for fish. Also, be sure to snap a picture of your finished dish and share it with me on Instagram using the hashtag #platingsandpairings and tagging me @platingsandpairings.

HUNGRY FOR MORE? For more great Platings & Pairings recipes, be sure to follow me on Pinterest, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

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Spoon stirring lemon butter sauce in small white bowl

Full Recipe

30+ Classic Sauces for Fish

Looking for the best sauces for fish? I've got you covered with this guide! Start off by trying this lemon butter sauce, made with dry white wine and fresh dill. It's the upgrade your next fish dinner craves!
5 from 6 votes
Print Pin
Serves 8
Created by Platings and Pairings
Cook Time: 10 minutes mins
Total Time: 10 minutes mins

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup dry white wine (or dry vermouth)
  • 3 Tablespoons shallot (minced)
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice (fresh squeezed)
  • ½ cup unsalted butter (cut into 6 pieces)
  • 1 ½ Tablespoons fresh dill (chopped)
  • Salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions

  • Boil wine, shallot and lemon juice in a small saucepan over high heat until reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes.
  • Reduce heat to low and add butter, one piece at a time, whisking until melted before adding more.
  • Remove pan from heat. Stir in dill.
  • Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  • Enjoy over your favorite fish.

Notes

  • If you don’t have dill, you can still use this delicious recipe, just swap the dill ingredient out for parsley, basil or tarragon.
  • If your sauce is too thin, you can continue cooking it over low-medium heat and whisk in a few tablespoons of cornstarch and cold water to thicken it up a bit. Always start with a little and add as needed.
  • If you over season the sauce, Like I said before, less is more! When making sauces especially, it’s super easy to season, taste, and season some more. To take down too much seasoning, you’ll have to add in more bone broth and water to balance the flavors — then likely more cornstarch to thinking the mixture again. You’ll then end up with LOTS of sauce.
  • If your sauce is too sour, then you probably just have a bit too much lemon juice in comparison to your other ingredients. Even that out by adding in a little more garlic, shallots, and white wine, then whisk together. Don’t be afraid to taste your sauce while you cook to ensure you’re getting the perfect flavors.

Nutrition

Calories: 124kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 3mg | Potassium: 36mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 361IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 1mg
Did you make this recipe?Mention @platingsandpairings or tag #platingsandpairings!
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5 from 6 votes (6 ratings without comment)

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Hi, I’m Erin!

Can I pour you a glass of wine? Let’s have some fun in the kitchen! Maybe some pasta? A juicy steak? I’ve got loads of yummy, easy recipes for you! Because cooking should feel as comfy as your favorite yoga pants. ♥

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