Cocktail Sauce is an extremely versatile sauce that can be eaten with all sorts of cold seafood. I personally love it with shrimp and raw oysters the most. Tangy, sweet, and just a hint of spice, it's super easy to make with only 6 common ingredients.
Looking for a recipe on how to cook shrimp for cocktail sauce? Check out my recipe for cocktail shrimp here.
About This Recipe
When I told my wife I was working on a recipe for cocktail sauce, you could see her eyes light up from across the room because that meant we were going to be eating a lot of shrimp. Shrimp is my wife's favorite food.
Truthfully, my cocktail sauce recipe isn't much different from the one I shared a few months ago in my cocktail shrimp recipe. Except I've increased the Worcestershire just a tad, as I've found it to be more savory than what I initially remembered.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I were on Vancouver Island for a mini summer vacation, and we stopped at a seafood restaurant called Marilena. We got the triple-tiered seafood tower, and it came with cocktail sauce for the oysters and shrimp. It was super tasty! I guess that is what spawned me to want to make it at home since it was amazing.
You do not need many ingredients to make cocktail sauce at home. Only 6 common pantry ingredients, which I will discuss more about below.
Key Ingredients
Ketchup: This forms the base of the cocktail sauce. Many recipes use only ketchup, but I love adding some mild chili sauce for extra depth.
Mild chili sauce: I use the Heinz brand.
Prepared horseradish: Make sure you get "prepared horseradish" and not some random horseradish sauce. Prepared horseradish is just grated horseradish preserved with vinegar, salt, and sugar. Horseradish sauces, on the other hand, are not just horseradish; sometimes they can be creamy sauces, and the horseradish flavor is not that strong.
Lemon juice: Helps brighten up all the flavors.
Worcestershire sauce: A few spoonfuls for some umami and tang.
Hot sauce: Add ½ teaspoon or more, depending on how spicy you like it.
Instructions
STEP 1: Add all the ingredients to a bowl and whisk. Taste and add salt and black pepper to taste.
STEP 2: Serve with your favorite cold seafood, like shrimp, oysters, clams, or shellfish. You can also use it as a dip for fries, onion rings, fish and chips, and more.
Cocktail Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ cup ketchup
- ½ cup mild chili sauce (like Heinz)
- 3-4 tablespoons prepared horseradish
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 ½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon hot sauce (like Tabasco)
- salt and pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to a bowl and whisk. Taste and adjust the salt and black pepper to taste.
- Serve with shrimp or any other type of cold seafood. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 5 days.
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