The best burger sauce recipe made with just 7 simple ingredients! It’s sweet and tangy, creamy with a little crunch, and just like your favorite hamburger sauce from restaurants and fast-food chains. Gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo, and Whole30.
Week 2 of burger month and what’s a good burger without some kind of sauce. Enter BURGER SAUCE!
If you have been to In-N-Out, P. Terry’s (our household favorite), or maybe even McDonald’s or Burger King, you should have an idea of what burger sauce is. If not, it’s that red-orange colored sweet and tangy sauce they put on hamburgers that is absolutely amazing!!
I honestly don’t know what goes into your typical hamburger sauce from restaurants. It reminds me of a ketchup and mayo hybrid with some other add-ins depending on where you are. But I do know it’s usually magical and the perfect touch on a burger.
So, of course, I had to recreate a healthy version of it and, as it turns out, it is so easy to make! If you have made my burger salad with the special sauce dressing, this is pretty much it, except tweaked slightly to make a huge batch, because it’s that good! It’s maybe one of my favorite sauces and that is saying a lot coming from me!
We’ve been putting it on all kinds of burgers (beef, chicken, veggie…), using it as a dip for air fryer sweet potato fries, and I even mixed it with tuna the other day for a spiced up tuna salad. You really can’t go wrong!
This hamburger sauce is also paleo and Whole30 compliant! Make sure to use a compliant mayo (homemade is best) and complaint pickles (I love the brand Grillo’s Pickles).
How to make burger sauce
Just 7 ingredients to whip up the best burger sauce recipe! It’s both sweet and tangy, creamy with a little crunch, and the perfect topping for any kind of burger! And will quickly become your new favorite sauce for just about anything!
Here is what you need:
- mayo (I prefer homemade – details how to make it below)
- tomato paste
- pickle chips + pickle juice
- dijon mustard
- lemon juice
- garlic powder
- paprika
- salt and pepper
First, start off by making your mayo if making homemade. Then simply just add the rest of the ingredients to the jar you made your mayo in or a large jar and mix well to combine!
That’s it! It’s as simple as mixing it all up and spreading it on everything! Even though it’s a “burger sauce”, you will want to dip anything and everything into it.
It makes a lot, but if you have a few people in your household, it should be easy to eat. It should last for 2-3 weeks in a tightly sealed glass jar (I usually go by the date on my eggs from making the mayo). The best thing is, the flavor gets better and better as it sits!
How to make homemade mayo
Homemade mayo is so easy to make and you only need a handful of ingredients, most of them being pantry staples. You do need an immersion blender for this recipe, but you can find them pretty reasonably and will definitely get a lot of use of it.
Here are the ingredients for homemade mayo:
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup avocado oil (or any kind of light tasting oil – light olive oil will work, but extra virgin olive oil will not work)
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- pinch of salt
To make homemade mayo, simply add all your ingredients in the order listed to a wide mouth jar. I like to use a jar that I will be storing the mayo in and love these weck jars. Make sure you add in the ingredients as listed, with the egg on the bottom. That way it will blend first and create the emulsion.
After you add all the ingredients into the jar, place the immersion blender in the jar with the blade being on top of the egg yolk. Then, turn it on. You will see it start to make an emulsion and the egg will start to blend with the oil after 5-10 seconds.
After about 30-45 seconds, slowly raise the immersion blender so you get all the oil and you have homemade mayo! This recipe will make about 1 cup of mayo.
It should be thick and creamy. If needed, throw it in the fridge for a couple of hours to let it thicken.
Homemade mayo vs store-bought mayo
As you can see, making homemade mayo is pretty easy – you only need a few basic pantry staples and it takes less than one minute. That being said, not everyone wants to make it. I have made this special sauce with both homemade and store-bought mayo and I prefer homemade. It is a lot creamier and the flavor is slightly different, giving the burger sauce a better flavor.
That being said, you can use store-bought mayo if you like, it might just alter the flavor a little. Opt for a classic kind without any additional flavorings.
How to use burger sauce
Whether you want to call it burger sauce, fry sauce, or special sauce, you can’t really go wrong with how you want to use it! Here are a few suggestions to use this burger sauce recipe:
- on burgers – ground beef, turkey, chicken, or even veggies burgers!
- French fry dipping sauce
- as a dressing – I love making a burger salad and using this as the dressing, but any kind of salad would work
- on sandwiches – use it instead of your typical plain mayo
- as a dip – use it for veggies, roasted potatoes, chips, or even chicken tenders/nuggets
More healthy sauce recipes
6 Whole30 Sauces that aren’t Mayo
Burger Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup homemade mayo*
- 3/4 heaping cup finely diced pickle chips (120 grams)
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 1 1/2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 tablespoons pickle juice (from the jar of pickles)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- If needed, make your mayo (see directions above in blog post).
- Add the mayo, pickles, tomato paste, mustard, pickle juice, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper to a large glass jar (I add the rest of the ingredients to the jar I make the mayo in) and stir to combine. Adjust according to taste and enjoy! Burger sauce will keep for 2-3 weeks in a tightly sealed glass jar (and the flavor gets better as it sits!).
Notes
Nutrition
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Can’t wait to try
New favorite sauce!
This is my new favorite recipe! Made it last night with grilled chicken, sweet potato fries, and brussel sprouts. The whole family dipped everything in it! Can’t wait to make it again and double the recipe it was such a hit!
That meal sounds so good! So glad everyone liked it – thank you for trying!!
Makes my mouth water…can’t wait to try it. But, can u tell me which pickle chips to use… thanks in advance.
I love the brand Grillos pickles and use their classic Italian dill ones – https://www.grillospickles.com/food_product/italian-dill-chips/ – I will suggest a classic flavor over another kind.
So good! Way healthier than sauce you buy out. And so easy to make’
Glad you enjoy it Jess!
So so good!! Ate it on the salad and a plain cheeseburger and it was the perfect mixture of sweet, Smokey, and pickley! Will make it again 🙂
Glad to hear that Ali! Thanks for trying it!
I love this sauce! I use it as dressing but I also mix it in with the ground beef for the salad and I use it as dipping sauce for fries, chips, cuxmbers, carrots chips, its very multi-purpose and easy to make!
Yes, so many things! So glad you like it Kari!
Love this sauce! I make it frequently for burger salad. It’s just the right mix of salt and brine. Don’t skip or substitute any ingredients, it’s perfect just how the recipe is written.
Thank you Kristin!!
This sauce is the bomb. You can use it for so many different things and just so delicious.
Woot woot!! Glad you enjoy it!!
Tastes exactly like In n Out sauce! I made it with the homemade mayo. It’s a little runny right now but I imagine it will firm up after some time in the fridge. I was hesitant about making the full recipe because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to eat it all in 2-3 but now I’m sure I will! 100% would recommend.
So glad you liked it Katie!! Thanks for trying it!!
This sauce is so good!! I would highly recommend it
Thank you Anna!
This burger sauce is amazing. Easy to make along with the homemade mayo. I dipped my air fried fries in it and will do so again. This is a must have in my refrigerator from now on.
Yes, we love it as a dip for fries!! Thanks Holly!
Delicious and versatile sauce! My mouth is watering thinking about it again!
Glad you enjoyed it Tanya!
This sauce is amazing! I made it for a dipping sauce for chicken nuggets and French fries for my kids and they are obsessed with it!
Yum! Love how versatile it is and glad the kids enjoyed! Thanks for trying it Jodi!
This sauce!! So damn good. I hate to be the commenter with substitutions, but during quarantine times, you have to work with what you got! I only had sweet relish, and no pickles. I used the sweet relish in place of the chopped pickles. In place of the pickle brine, I used an equal amount of white vinegar and it turned out great! I will be eating burger bowls for the next week just to eat this sauce.
Great recipe, Kelly!!!
Haha!! Glad it turned out so well and good to know all those substitutions work! Thank you Lucy!!
This recipe was a hit among the whole family! Even my dad, who doesn’t like pickles, enjoyed it! He said it reminded him of the burger joint from his childhood. I enjoyed it so much I used the rest of it (made about a 1/3 batch for 1 dinner) as a dip for homemade fries. Wishing today that I hadn’t used it all up!!! Delicious.
Yay, love it when the guys get in on it too, especially dads! Thanks for trying Molly and glad you enjoyed!
This is the best sauce I’ve ever used on a burger! I usually don’t do burger sauces because they all taste like Thousand island dressing which I don’t like but this sauce was so different. It’s delicious as is but I added a bit of sriracha for a little spice. Yum!
YAY!! So happy to hear that Leslie! I love the addition of spice too! Thanks for trying Leslie!
A must try! Made mine with homemade avocado mayo and used smoked paprika (our personal favorite). I ate this on everything from a black bean sweet potato burger to fish to plopping a little on a salad. Soooo good!
Oh yes! I love hearing that! It really is versatile! Glad you enjoyed Holly!
This sauce was INCREDIBLE!!! After I made it, we used it on burgers (of course) and as a dip for potatoes, radishes and carrots- so yummy!
So glad you liked it Katie!! It really is versatile!
This burger sauce is BOMB. I meal prepped burger salads for lunch this week and, as a result, lunch has been the highlight of my day everyday.
I think this burger sauce will become a staple in our fridge. Delish!
So happy to hear that!! Thank you Michelle!
Am I missing something here because I can’t see the quantities of any of the ingredients? I can’t cook by eye, I want to follow instructions 😅
Hey Jade! The recipe is in the recipe card at the end of the post before the comments. Hope that helps!