an easy sauce for all things tex-mex
Cilantro sauce is a necessity for anything Tex-Mex. Tacos, salads, nachos … everything. This cilantro sauce is made with sour cream, a few spices, hot sauce, milk (or water), fresh lime juice and fresh cilantro.
The flavors in this sauce will really benefit from chilling for about an hour, but it’s not 100% necessary. They have more time to blend this way, which makes the sauce more flavorful. It’s a really great make-ahead recipe if you do have time to chill it!
can I substitute greek yogurt for sour cream?
Absolutely. Just substitute equal parts, and keep all of the other ingredients the same. You can also substitute the milk with water or vegetable broth if you need to!
What can I eat with cilantro sauce?
I recommend:
- These spicy shrimp tacos (there’s a sauce in the recipe, but this is also perfect!)
- Carnitas sliders
- Carnitas tacos
- Spicy salmon tacos
- Fish tacos
OR use any of the proteins from the above salads, toss them with some chopped greens and this sauce, and create a salad! This sauce can easily be used as a dressing. If you need to thin the sauce out to make it a dressing, just add milk (or water) one tablespoon at at time until it’s just the way you like it!
how long will this cilantro sauce keep?
You can keep this sauce in the same bowl you made it in, just cover it in plastic wrap. It will keep in the refrigerator for about 3-4 days. I don’t recommend freezing it, so I made a smaller batch to hopefully prevent too much leftover sauce! This recipe doesn’t require a food processor, so the cleanup is super easy!
Be sure to tag #aflavorjournal on Instagram with any of your favorite recipes! And as always, feel free to reach out to me with any questions!
xx Sara
cilantro sauce with sour cream and lime
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp. onion powder
- 1/8 tsp. cumin
- 1/8 tsp. ancho chili powder
- 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 tsp. hot sauce
- 2 lime wedges to make about 2 tsp. lime juice
- 3 tbsp. milk
- 2 tbsp. chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Whisk sour cream and spices together. Add hot sauce and lime juice, and whisk to blend.
- Carefully whisk in milk, then stir in chopped cilantro.
- Serve immediately, or refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors blend together.
Nutrition
Tried this recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
This sauce sounds amazing! I love the flavours that you have put together in here. I also love that I have all the ingredients already so I will be making this tomorrow!
Awesome, Sam!! I wanted to keep this sauce as easy as possible! No food processor cleanup, no major chopping. I hope you love it as much as I do!
Totally in love with this sauce recipe. So flavorful and delicious it is. Wow
This is seriously good on everything! I love to keep a batch of it ready since we eat Mexican food so much. It is just a perfect condiment that goes well with everything but also does not over power anything! Yum!
SAME! Thank you for such an awesome compliment, Kim! We seriously eat Mexican food so much too – this sauce is exactly like you said: goes well with everything, but doesn’t overpower anything. So glad you enjoy it!
That’s a great sauce! I can see putting that on all kinds of different dishes.
Thank you, Ben! It’s so good on so many different Tex mex dishes, for sure!
This cilantro sauce looks like it would go really well with fish. I also like our idea to use it as a salad dressing!
Oh, I LOVE the idea of pairing it with fish! And yes, the salad dressing option is also so good! You can thin it out with water or more milk if it needs it!
I added over my fried fish just long enough to warm the sauce. It was delicious!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Mary!
Wow, this sauce looks really amazing! I am so excited to make this and use it in many of my dishes. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Amy! It’s so good on SO many different tex-mex dishes, or salads!
Definitely perfect for carnitas! Easy to make and goes on just about anything.
I love that you can use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream! I usually have some of that around. And I’m one of those people that loves cilantro. I don’t get why so many people hate it. 😀
I can imagine the deliciousness of this recipe. Totally love the combination oof sour cream, cilantro and lime.
I love this cilantro lime sauce ! It has a perfect balance of spiciness and freshness. We loved this on our grilled fresh tacos..yummm!
Oh wow, that sauce sounds amazing. I love how you added hot sauce and ancho chili. I must give this a try. I will serve this with potato wedges for dinner tonight.