
Shrimp Taco Sauce with Pickled Jalapeños
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If you're looking for a shrimp taco sauce that will rock your dinner, this is your recipe! It's wonderfully creamy with tons of flavor from cilantro, lime juice, green onion, garlic, and our special ingredient: pickled jalapeños.
Also, try our fish taco sauce recipe and our avocado sauce!

Shrimp taco sauce for life
Honestly, this is the best sauce for shrimp tacos. It's super flavorful and creamy with a little hint of spice. It's a cilantro lime sauce with an extra special ingredient.
We LOVE to blend pickled jalapeños into our shrimp taco sauce. They're not overly spicy and they have the best flavor. Without them, this recipe is good. But with them, it's truly next level.
It's the shrimp taco sauce recipe that we make again and again, because once you've tried it, there's no going back. This is the same sauce that we use in our shrimp tacos, and the two recipes go beautifully together. Perfectly seasoned shrimp tucked into a warm tortilla and smothered in this sauce = magic!

How to make shrimp taco sauce in minutes
You are only minutes away from drizzling this sauce on top of your tacos!
- Put the ingredients into your food processor. No need to chop or mince, just put them in.
- Now pulse until things are mostly smooth. That's it!
The full recipe instructions are in the recipe card below.
How to use this shrimp taco sauce
While this sauce is a must when you're serving shrimp tacos, you're not going to want to stop there.
- As a dip for fries.
- Liberally drizzled over the top of these Mexican food truck nacho fries.
- On beer-battered fish tacos or Baja fish tacos.
- To freshen up grilled chicken.
- As a dip for bbq chicken quesadillas.
- With shrimp fajitas.

Frequently Asked Questions: Shrimp Taco Sauce
Can I make this without a food processor?
Yes! You can finely mince the cilantro, green onion, garlic, and pickled jalapeños by hand then mix them into the sour cream and mayonnaise. Or you can use your blender – just make sure to blend at low speed so as mayonnaise can ‘break' and become oily and thin if it's blended at high speed.
How long will this sauce last in the fridge?
This shrimp taco sauce will keep for a week in your fridge.
Is this taco sauce spicy?
It's not overly spicy. It has a lovely little zing to it but won't burn your tongue off. If you want it a little spicier, you can add extra pickled japapeños or some fresh jalapeño for a major kick. And if spicy isn't your thing at all, simply leave out the pickled jalapeños.

Popular taco recipes
- Baja Fish Tacos with Crunchy Slaw
- Best Fried Fish Tacos
- Mexican Pork Carnitas
- 20-Minute Buffalo Chicken Tacos
- Best Shrimp Tacos (with this delicious sauce!)

Shrimp Taco Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup cilantro
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup pickled jalapeños
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 green onion (green part only)
- 1 large garlic clove
- A pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Put the ingredients into your food processor.½ cup cilantro, ½ cup sour cream, ¼ cup mayonnaise, ¼ cup pickled jalapeños, 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, 1 green onion, 1 large garlic clove, A pinch sea salt
- Pulse until mostly smooth then pour over your shrimp tacos.
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.