12 Delicious Taco Sauces That Aren’t Salsa

The taco isn’t merely a food — it’s a gift from the culinary gods. The Mexican-originating dish can essentially consist of anything served inside a taco-sized hard or soft tortilla (though we’re sure some purists would disagree). Consequently, if you find yourself tired of topping your Taco Tuesday meals with standard salsa, there’s a literal world’s worth of potential sauces to consider for your tacos.

Now, to be fair, “salsa” is technically just the Spanish word for “sauce.” But considering we’d have nothing to write about if we followed that guideline to the letter of the (arbitrary, completely made up) law, we’re willing to overlook that translational inconvenience. Additionally, since there’s often some confusion regarding the difference between a sauce and a dip, only items that are at least partially liquid were considered sauces for our purposes.

From classic south-of-the-border options (like mole or avocado crema) to wholly unexpected twists on the Latin American delight (remoulade, anyone?), there’s no shortage of taco toppers. If you’re eager to evolve beyond that boring scoop of a chunky red mixture inside your tortilla, here are 12 sauces to put on tacos that aren’t salsa.

Outside of classic red salsa (the type we’re here to avoid discussing), few sauces are more intimately associated with Mexican cuisine than mole. In fact, whether or not your taco spread includes salsa as an option, mole is the bold and sweet sauce your tacos are missing.

Realistically, when you’re looking for a truly authentic Mexican taco topper, mole may be the best of the bunch. Considered the mother sauce of Mexican cuisine by some, mole doesn’t come in a universal, one-size-fits-all preparation style. Yet no matter the recipe or particular ingredients used, mole’s uniquely sweet, spicy, and rich flavor profile is bound to raise any taco into the stratosphere.

You can make your own mole sauce if you’re so inclined, though it tends to be a fairly involved and time-consuming process. You can also opt for a restaurant-made or store-bought variety (assuming you can find one nearby) or try this shortcut mole sauce recipe to drastically cut down on the cooking time.

When it comes to tacos, cheese may not be the first idea that springs to mind … at least as a sauce. Of course, while cheese is considered a quintessential ingredient by many when constructing a taco, you don’t need to stick exclusively to crumbled queso fresco or a handful of shredded cheddar jack inside your folded tortilla. With a few extra steps, you can go with a cheese sauce on your taco instead of salsa.

Now, it’s certainly plausible — and, depending on the specific brand, a tasty option — to heat a jar of salsa con queso purchased from the store. However, if you’d prefer to skip a premade product, you can build a simple cheese sauce with a few ingredients, as well, allowing you to tweak the flavors to your personal preferences.

If you’re feeling a bit fancier, don’t be afraid to try an outside-the-bun option when opting for cheese sauce. You can even consider something like chicken cordon bleu-style French tacos if you’re looking beyond the Mexican culinary purview.

Seemingly, every type of restaurant chain across the U.S. has opted to add, even briefly, a taco option to its menu since the turn of the century. At the very least, there’s no shortage of barbecue-centric restaurants serving tacos of one kind or another in the 2020s. With that in mind, if you’re unsure which sauce to turn to for a pulled pork or beef brisket taco beyond salsa, opt for the natural pairing in barbecue sauce.

Now, if you’re the type of person who loves to slather their barbecued meats in, say, Sweet Baby Ray’s no matter what, feel free to use your preferred brand of sauce on a taco. But just as there’s a process for choosing the best barbecue sauce when grilling, you may want to first consider the type of meat in your taco. Additionally, don’t forget to consider your own personal preferences when choosing a barbecue sauce for tacos. There’s no point in using an exceptionally spicy variety if you enjoy sweeter sauces more than hot ones.

Have breakfast tacos caught on yet in the same way as breakfast burritos? If not, they should — largely because it’s never too early for tacos. Of course, if you’re preparing a batch of tacos in the A.M. filled with eggs, bacon, home fries, and the like, you may prefer a sauce that pairs well with a morning time meal, like a little drizzle of hollandaise sauce.

While the notion of hollandaise sauce on a taco may be tough to swallow for some (in theory, that is), it’s really just a twist on eggs Benedict. After all, the main difference lies in the type of bread component used, swapping in a flour tortilla for an English muffin. You can even opt for Canadian bacon and poached eggs as in a traditional eggs Benedict, though it may be better to go with scrambled eggs given the inherent eat-with-your-hands nature of tacos.

No salsa substitute may be more amenable to the modern American palate than chipotle sauce. After all, the uniquely delectable smokiness of chipotles translates wonderfully in sauce form, leading to a rise of chipotle-based sauces (not to mention monumentally successful restaurant chain names) during the 21st century. In fact, you probably don’t need us to recommend the use of chipotle sauce on your tacos … though we’re going to do so anyway.

It’s no secret how well the smoky flavor profile of chipotle sauce works with tacos in virtually any form. The peppers themselves — which are just jalapeños dried via smoking – originated in Mexico, after all, and can be found in countless culinary iterations throughout the nation’s cuisine.

The nature of these jalapeño peppers means chipotle sauce works well beyond traditional tacos, as well. You can amplify the smokiness of beef brisket tacos with a chipotle sauce or keep it free of animal-derived proteins entirely with a batch of barbecued tofu tacos topped with vegan chipotle mayo.

Adobo crema is the type of taco sauce option that’s potentially enjoyed already by numerous individuals across the U.S. (and beyond). Of course, we’re not solely interested in shining a light on unusual or unexpected sauces to put on tacos in this article or looking to avoid mentioning any delectable selections because some folks are already fans. With that in mind, there’s a reason we’ve previously described adobo crema as the ingredient that will elevate your tacos.

Whether you’re making it with the adobo sauce itself or including chipotle peppers that have been marinating in the sauce, adobo crema offers a smoky spiciness that’s nicely tempered by its smooth and cooling cream component. A sauce that any chipotle fans are likely to enjoy, adobo crema is the type of simple ingredient that’s apt to impress while providing an incredibly delicious alternative to a standard salsa in the process.

As we noted previously when discussing barbecue meat-filled tacos, countless restaurants from seemingly every culinary niche have adapted the taco — or, at least, the taco aesthetic — to entice customers. Consequently, there are plenty of culinary avenues modern diners can take when considering the precise fillings (and sauce toppings) for a taco. Fish tacos, for example, can consist of seafood fried in a batter seasoned with virtually anything, including Louisiana-style spices — the type that’s perfectly accentuated with a remoulade sauce.

Now, you can obviously go the ultra-traditional route when it comes to remoulade and prepare a centuries-old recipe of precisely French origin. But if you’re more inclined to prefer the Americanized version, you may want to try something like this remoulade sauce recipe instead.

Furthermore, you don’t need to stick exclusively to fried fish when utilizing remoulade on your tacos. Plenty of Cajun-style recipes involve a lighter preparation style, and a blackened fish or shrimp taco will benefit just as well from a remoulade sauce in lieu of salsa.

To be clear — tartar sauce isn’t for everyone. More than that, the standard fried seafood condiment — which in its simplest form consists of relish mixed with mayonnaise — is hardly ideal for anyone trying to lessen their caloric intake with seafood. But we’d be remiss if we skipped one of the most basic sauce options for tacos, particularly ones starring fried white fish of some sort.

There’s no denying the tangy taste and cool, creamy nature of tartar sauce add an intriguing dimension to the deep-fried crispiness of fried haddock or pollock. This is true whether you’re enjoying a fisherman’s platter at a coastal spot in Harwichport, Massachusetts in July, or a basket of fish tacos served at the exact same location.

Tartar sauce may not be what most traditionalists turn to when considering a non-salsa option for their taco. But depending on the type of taco and the person in question, it can be an excellent option atop a folded tortilla filled with battered and deep-fried fish.

Did you expect to see guacamole on a list of sauces to consider on tacos beyond salsa? Well, we initially did, too. But as we mentioned at the beginning of this article, we arbitrarily decided against categorizing smooth (but mostly solid) dips as sauces for our purposes. Of course, just because we can’t include guacamole doesn’t mean we’re skipping over avocado-based sauces entirely; rather, we’re highlighting a more sauce-like option in avocado crema.

If you’re a fan of guacamole on tacos (who isn’t?), it’s reasonable to assume you’d enjoy avocado crema, as well. Avocado crema is essentially just a creamier, more liquid-esque version of guacamole, after all. Plus, as seen in this smoked chicken tacos recipe, the sauce can consist of little more than avocados, sour cream, lime juice, and cilantro. Consequently, if you’re looking to enhance or tweak the specific flavor profile of avocado crema, the base of avocados and sour cream is highly compatible with any number of additional herbs and spices.

Other than the tortilla, few ingredients may be more commonly associated with tacos than cilantro and lime (outside of those sold by Taco Bell or Jack in the Box, of course). Fresh cilantro typically comes sprinkled over the top of tacos, while lime juice in some form is often found and included, as well. With that in mind, make things simple on your palate by opting for a straightforward cilantro lime sauce on your next taco.

Now, it may seem like most cilantro lime sauces are just an avocado crema minus the avocados; since it’s impossible to deny the similar nature of the two sauces, we won’t try. Still, many cilantro lime sauce recipes call for Greek yogurt instead — a stunningly similar tasting but nutritionally superior alternative to sour cream.

Regardless of the precise creamy ingredient you use (some may even opt for mayo), cilantro lime sauce is a fantastic sauce to put on tacos. Easy to make and easy to use, you can even adapt the sauce from this cilantro lime burger recipe for your tacos.

For some readers, this may be the most obvious sauce option when it comes to tacos. After all, just as there’s a segment of Frank’s RedHot fans who put that (stuff) on everything, we’ve encountered plenty of sriracha sauce devotees in our day. It’s not unreasonable, then, to assume some folks already opt for sriracha sauce on their tacos — because they add sriracha to any food they feel needs a zingy kick.

Of course, whether or not you’re a fan of sriracha sauce, the fact remains that Mexican-style hot sauce differs from other styles, including sriracha (which is fermented). This means sriracha sauce is a unique option to replace salsa for anyone used to more authentic Mexican flavors.

Regardless of its origins, sriracha sauce — with its unusual combination of sweet, garlic-heavy heat — is a top-notch sauce option for tacos. Though it varies from a traditional Mexican salsa picante in its composition and preparation style, the spicy aspect of sriracha isn’t that far removed from what’s expected.

For whatever reason, the notion of dessert tacos doesn’t seem to have entered the broader culinary or cultural lexicon. In fact, after Klondike discontinued the Choco Taco in 2022, the mere thought of dessert tacos might’ve been wiped from existence for many consumers. But just because a mass-produced frozen treat is no longer available as of February 2025 doesn’t mean you can’t make your own dessert tacos. And if you do decide to whip up tacos as an after-dinner delight, no flavor of sauce can match the decadence or deliciousness of chocolate.

Realistically, the simplicity of tacos means making sweet varieties is as simple as savory ones. Plus, there’s seemingly no end to the type of chocolate sauce options available, though you’ll want to keep in mind the other components of your taco and which flavors you want to impart with the addition of chocolate. You can use a stroopwafel to make dessert taco shells (which meshes well with many types of chocolate), and even relieve days gone by with a Choco Taco-inspired recipe.