How to Make Fry Sauce

This is how to make fry sauce with 4 ingredients for french fries! Make it a bit spicy if you want or leave it mild like you get at the restaurant just like Culvers or a copycat Freddy’s fry sauce recipe. Just one of many chicken wing dipping sauces.

Have you heard of or tasted fry sauce?? I hadn’t until we moved to Idaho and now I’m obsessed!! If you don’t want to wait until you go out to eat, this is how to make it at home. Now you too can put it on hamburgers, chicken nuggets, and of course your french fries too! It’s one of our favorite recipes for dip that goes on everything.

Of course there are slight variations of how to make fry sauce out there because everyone’s pallet is a bit different. It starts with 2 basic ingredients though and you add on from there.

I mean we do live in the potato state and we did notice when we moved here that EVERYWHERE offered this. We weren’t familiar at first but it was a favorite with our first fast food run for sure! Then we wanted to dip everything in this, yes on Beer Batter Fries too but well beyond just potatoes.

What is fry sauce?

It’s like a creamy ketchup with just a little zing. Better than just the original red sauce you got as a kid for sure. It’s a mixture of ketchup and mayo with a few secret ingredients You can add heat too with a little Sriracha or chili powder too Arctic Circle burger chain is said to have started it. This started in Utah “they” say but is slowly moving to other states. Now you can make it wherever you live though!

Now that’s the beginning and you could stop there. This is how it started in the beginning. Simple right??!! It is quite good like this, a bit like Thousand Island dressing just without the relish.  To add the bit of zing though you’ll need 2 more things, 3 if you want some spice added.

Ingredient Notes

1. Ketchup is the base of this which gives it most of it’s orange color. I like Heinz organic myself.
2. Mayonnaise, do not use low fat, in the jar is better than the squeezable containers if you ask me. I have tried Kewpie before and Miracle Whip but Best Foods is well….the best
3. Add ins you will want to adjust to your liking
   1. White wine vinegar will give you that zing that you would expect though you could use some use dill pickle juice instead, others prefer worcestershire sauce
   2. Seasoned salt – we use Lawry’s but there are quite a few brands out there or you might make your own but you do want more than just table salt.
   3. Sriracha, hot sauce or chili powder (less or more) will add a bit of heat. I will say that typically at fast food restaurants there is just a very small pinch so it is mild.
   4. Onion powder and/or garlic powder added to your liking to add to the seasonings + salt and black pepper to taste.

Tips

Keep in mind that you can serve this immediately after making it, however it is best if you leave it in the fridge for a while. Allowing it to chill and the mayonnaise to thicken back up is best (I feel in the mixing process the mayo thins out just a bit)

I like a bit more tang than my husband and we’ve experimented with lots of ingredients, and just kept it simple too. It’s a fun sauce to do that with.  You can find it bottled in stores every once and a while but I just keep the packets I get if we don’t use them in our fridge. So if we’re in a rush I pull it out and enjoy! What are you waiting for??

How long does fry sauce last?

This homemade version would probably last a few weeks if stored in an air tight container in the fridge. An unopened bottle you bought would last a few years on the shelf. Looking for another dip to use for things like air fryer fried shrimp and more? Try our bang bang shrimp sauce too!

What restaurants have fry sauce?

It depends on where you live of course. I never heard of it when we lived in California, but when we moved it is all over the place. Freddy’s, Artic Circle, Culver’s is where we discovered it and Red Robin (not all of them). Some serve it packaged like you see above and some have their own recipe for fry sauce that will vary just slightly from one another.