Yum Yum Sauce is another chapter in the love affair between mayonnaise and ketchup. First there was Thousand Island Dressing, various “special” sauces claimed by burger chains galore, and then…there was Yum Yum Sauce.
A touch of melted butter, rice vinegar, spices, and chili garlic hot sauce makes it irresistible. You’ll want to put it on everything from french fries and burgers to even shrimp and steak.
What the heck is Yum Yum Sauce?
I’m really late to the game on the Yum Yum Sauce phenomenon. We recently got an email from a reader asking if we have a recipe for it.
I politely and cheerfully responded that we don’t have one yet, but that we would add it to the to-do list(!), conveniently glazing over the fact that I had zero clue what the heck Yum Yum Sauce even is.
After some good old-fashioned Googling, I learned it’s a standby of Japanese hibachi restaurants, where shrimp go flying, whole eggs breakdance on the griddle, and onion volcanoes hiss and spit into the air. At such establishments, this sauce flows like sweet lava onto platters of fried rice, steak, shrimp, and just about anything else people can cover with it.
An Extra Savory homemade Yum Yum Sauce Recipe (Variations & tips!)
People seem lowkey obsessed with this sauce. There are store-bought versions and a loooot of online recipes. I did pay $3.96 to sample a bottle of Terry Ho’s version, a self-proclaimed best Yum Yum Sauce out there for reference.
No disrespect to Terry Ho, but I found it tasted like a sweet, slightly more vinegar-y, thinner thousand island dressing—NOT that I dislike Thousand Island dressing. It wasn’t quite as thick as a classic Thousand Island that you could drown a reuben in and mop up with curly fries.
This version is more savory than sweet, with chili garlic sauce adding some extra zing. I actually tried it with just a vinegar-based hot sauce (Louisiana Crystal is my go-to), and while you can just use whatever you have on hand in a pinch, it’s much better with a chili garlic hot sauce like Sriracha.
I used Lee Kum Kee’s chili garlic sauce, and it yielded a smoother texture than a traditional Rooster / Huy Fong brand sambal oelek (the LKK version seemed to have fewer pepper seeds).
If you don’t mind a little chunkiness though, you can really use whatever you have on hand. If you want the smoothest sauce possible, use Sriracha, which isn’t chunky at all.
If you are missing ketchup you can substitute tomato paste! You will just need to add sugar to offset the lack of sweetness that comes from the ketchup.
Some may also prefer their Yum Yum Sauce saltier, sweeter, or more tangy so you can adjust the sugar and rice vinegar to your personal tastes. For us though, this recipe has a great balance!
The history and origins of Yum Yum Sauce
Trust NPR to do some serious digging on the origin of this condiment. Read: Yum Yum Sauce: The Making Of An American Condiment. In short—it’s definitely not Japanese. But then again, neither is the “hibachi-style” restaurant that Americans recognize (it’s actually closer to teppanyaki, which is cooking on a flat griddle. A hibachi is quite different).
How to use Yum Yum Sauce
Conveniently, the week that I developed this recipe, I also was working on a new burger recipe, and let me tell you. That burger was indeed yum yum. You can use this sauce as a sauce or a dip:
- French fries
- Chicken tenders
- Steaks or steak bites
- Over seafood (with crab cakes, shrimp, fish sticks, or even with a flakey filet as a sauce)
- Drizzled over roasted potatoes
- Burgers and sandwiches (this on an egg sandwich with melted cheese and bacon would be…heavenly)
- As a sauce for grain bowls or salads
- Vegetable platter dip
If it tastes good to you, just add a little yum yum sauce!
So here’s our recipe for the storied Yum Yum Sauce. Use it liberally and recklessly, at your discretion.
Recipe Instructions
Melt the butter in a medium bowl in the microwave (15-30 seconds should do it). Set aside to cool—this is important, or it may melt the mayonnaise.
Once the butter is cool, add the remaining ingredients (the mayonnaise, ketchup, rice vinegar, chili garlic sauce/sriracha, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, paprika, and white pepper). Whisk together until smooth.
More homemade sauces
For more tasty condiments, from chili oil to dumpling sauce, check out our full list of condiment recipes.
Storage and Make Ahead Instructions
You can store Yum Yum sauce covered in the fridge for a few weeks. It keeps great because it uses fairly durable refrigerated ingredients like butter, mayo, ketchup, and hot sauce.
You can easily make this sauce ahead of time and it’s actually great to let the flavors meld overnight! We did notice that it did taste just slightly saltier after sitting overnight, so you may want to save your final taste test for the day of serving if you are making your Yum Yum Sauce ahead of time!
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Recipe
Yum Yum Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic hot sauce / sriracha
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- ⅛ tsp white pepper powder
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a medium bowl in the microwave (15-30 seconds should do it). Set aside to cool—this is important, or it may melt the mayonnaise.
- Once the butter is cool, add the remaining ingredients (the mayonnaise, ketchup, rice vinegar, chili garlic sauce/sriracha, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, paprika, and white pepper). Whisk together until smooth.
