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If you don’t know what Fry Sauce is, you are missing out! Just mix a few simple ingredients and you will never dip your fries in anything else again!
Not too long ago, if you’d walk into a restaurant in most states and ask for fry sauce, you would likely get either a strange look or a handful of ketchup packets. Trust me. I know from experience. Thankfully that’s not the case anymore! The secret is out! This irresistibly creamy sauce is the belle of the french fry ball, and has won over tastebuds throughout the nation with its charming deliciousness. Seriously, this fry sauce is so yummy and super easy to make! I can’t explain how just a couple simple ingredients can take the potato world by storm, but they have and they do. I grew up on this stuff. To be honest, it’s probably the first “recipe” I ever made when I was 4 or 5. Try it. You will love it. You will never go back to eating fries with plain old ketchup again.
What is Fry Sauce?
Originally, this tasty condiment was mainly found in Utah, Idaho, and parts of Oregon. At its most basic level, a fry sauce recipe is just a combination of ketchup and mayonnaise. Put a couple of spoonfuls of each in a bowl and whisk until you get an orange-y pink color. Once you have the basics down, the options for what to dip into it are endless. Make sure to store it in the fridge, and the batch will last up to a week.
Fry Sauce Ingredients
Fry sauce is made of 2 ingredients: Ketchup and Mayonnaise. Pretty simple, right? There is no need to overcomplicate it. In my opinion, it is very best with Best Foods Mayo (Hellmann’s for you East coasters) and Heinz Ketchup. Combine 1 part ketchup to 2 parts mayo (1:2 ratio) and stir well. That’s it!
Restaurant Variations
As you will see in the recipe below, there are all kinds of variations you can make to the original fry sauce. Here are some of our favorites
Red Robin Campfire Sauce: BBQ sauce replaces ketchup in Red Robin’s Campfire Sauce. It tastes great with onion rings, fries, and chicken strips or nuggets. This is a sweet and savory sauce that is a delicious dip to go with a variety of recipes. The perfect combination for thick fries!
In-N-Out Fry Sauce: This version has a pickle relish in it. The relish gives it more of a dill flavor and the little chunks of pickles give it some texture and crunch. Mix together in a small bowl and get ready for loads of flavor!
Outback Steakhouse Blooming Onion Sauce: A little horseradish and brown mustard give this fry sauce some kick. It gives onion rings and French fries a richer, more mature taste.
More Additions and Variations
You can mix and match or substitute the flavors above or come up with your own. They are all the same basic idea and they are ALL so tasty in their own way. Here are a few additional ideas to try:
- Mustard: Yellow mustard is the most popular addition for most fry sauce recipes. It adds a new dimension of flavor that I absolutely love. Just a little squirt of mustard is all you need to take your fry sauce to the next level.
- Pickle Relish: Add a little pickle relish or juice (dill or sweet) to the mayo and ketchup for an extra tangy flavor.
- Hot sauce: For a little kick, toss in a dash or two of hot sauce, cayenne pepper and paprika.
- Spices: Add any spices you like to a basic ketchup and mayo mixture: garlic powder, salt, black pepper, onion powder, or grill seasoning.
- Worcestershire: A teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce will give the fry sauce a deep flavor that tastes delicious on a burger.
What Tastes Good with Fry Sauce?
There are some people who will tell you that pretty much anything tastes better with fry sauce. But there are several things that go best with this sauce. Our delicious Baked Potato Wedges are one of the first things that come to mind. You could try one of our alternate versions on our Loaded Cheesy Potato Skins, Onion Rings, or chicken tenders. The next time you pick up takeout french fries, whip up some of this amazing dipping sauce and see how much better even the best restaurant french fries can taste.
More French Fry Dipping Sauce Recipes
Fry sauce isn’t the only dip for fries! Try any of these other popular dipping sauces:
Homemade Chick-Fil-A Sauce
Red Robin Campfire Sauce
Tartar Sauce
Homemade BBQ Sauce
Blue Cheese Sauce
Sweet Potato Fry Dip
How to Make Fry Sauce
Fry Sauce (made 4 ways!)
Video
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise
Variations:
Red Robin Campfire Sauce
- 1 cup Fry Sauce (see above)
- 1/3 cup BBQ Sauce
In-N-Out Fry Sauce
- 1 cup Fry Sauce (see above)
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 1/4 cup dill relish
Outback Steakhouse Bloomin' Onion Sauce
- 1 cup Fry Sauce (see above)
- 1 tablespoon brown mustard
- 1 tablespoon creamy horseradish (or to taste)
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients until smooth.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Eat with fries or chicken nuggets.
This is SO GOOD! Made the Outback steakhouse version to go with tater tots and my family went nuts over it. Thanks for the recipe!
This fry sauce is a game-changer! DELICIOUS!
My mom was manager at A & W. I remember sitting on a bucket in a corner out of the way watching her make fry sauce by the buckets, using mayo, catsup and mustard.
Delicious…
A&W has such yummy fry sauce! Their fries are so good too 🙂 Yum!
What a fun memory! My favorite at A&W is the Root Beer freeze. The fry sauce is also delicious there!
This stated modifications are nothing like Red Robin’s Campfire sauce. Just to list some of the things Red Robin’s sauce has: soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, chicken, ancho pepper, whiskey, hoisin sauce, etc. It has a lot more depth of flavor and is not really BBQ sauce flavor.
If you like spicy try three parts ketchup and two parts sriracha sauce. It’s not too spicy but has a really nice flavor.
Thanks Lori!
We’ve gotten a little more adventurous in our old age. To the original we’ve added chipotle chilies with a little adobo sauce. Adds a nice kick.
We LOVE fry sauce! We lived in Okinawa for a few years. My youngest was in kindergarten at the school on the military base. They had all day kindergarten and ate lunch in the classroom. One day he was mixing mayo and ketchup and his teacher was shocked to see him doing that she told him he shouldn’t waste the mayo and ketchup. He told her he was making fry sauce. She was totally grossed out. When she told me about it I told her it was a Utah thing. She still thought it was gross. We still loved the teacher.
Writing from England, we call it Marie Rose sauce and usually use it on prawns/shrimps in a prawn cocktail or on a sandwich. But yes, truly delicious. Try adding a bit of Tabasco or Worcester sauce!
I live in Utah, but travel to New Jersey a lot to visit family. And was excited that Bobby’s burger Palace out there has amazingly good, slightly spicy, fry sauce! It’s so good that I always bring home a couple of bottles 🙂
I live in Puerto Rico and that sauce is used here practically on everthing especially with tostones and mofongo. It’s the best sauce ever,here it’s called mayo ketchup.
Try replacing the Ketchup in any of the above recipes with Chili Sauce (Heinz for example) generally one of the methods when making thousand Island as well. Fry sauce is basically thousand island. For texture and thickening, try blending a hard boiled egg or even just the yoke into the sauce. Can even make deviled eggs and blend one into your sauce.
Sounds delicious!
When I lived in Henderson, NV from 1970- 1978, their was a little restaurant w/a drive-thru that served that with fries. I just called it “secret sauce” and I’ve been making it ever since. It was a great place. You could get a HUGE paper bag of fries for $1, with the secret sauce. Chili’s made something similar for it’s Blooming Onion, only it had Horseradish and something else I couldn’t identify in it. Of course they wouldn’t tell. I guess it was their secret, too. They said is was a base of Thousand Island salad dressing, but that has relish in it, so I know that’s not right. I’m happy with my home-made secret sauce, and it’s so easy to make!
I just read the comments above mine, and I realized that it was Arctic Circle, too! I had forgotten the name, but as soon as I saw it, I remembered. Good memories.
Great with fries, onion rings, tater tots, burgers, chicken nuggets….. I will dip pretty much anything in fry sauce!
I worked for Arctic Circle in the days when each stand made their own fry sauce. I’ve made a LOT of the stuff. This recipe is pretty close–the catsup shouldn’t be quite as heavy..around 4:1..mustard 6:1..til the color is right. Add a sprinkle of chile powder, and a sprinkle of onion powder and..you’ve got it.
I love Arctic Circle fry sauce. Thank you for sharing the inside scoop!!!
What? that isn’t even close to the recipe. Arctic Circles recipe for fry sauce was very simple. Just three ingredient. Buttermilk, mayo and ketchup. 2 cups mayo, 1/2 cup butter milk and just enough ketchup to turn the sauce pink. That is it. Got the recipe from two old ladies that worked at the original stores in Utah, where I’m from. Home of fry of sauce. And fry sauce is never ever just mayo and ketchup. It is always has pickle juice or buttermilk otherwise it isn’t frysauce.
I live in Canada and I have had fry sauce in Maine. I make my own as well but I add a little garlic powder and cayenne pepper to the ketchup and mayo. I try to get others interested in trying it, but I get strange looks when they try it.
Also try putting seasoning salt on your fries instead of regular salt
Yummy!!!!!
I live in Vermont and I went to Utah this summer, (I tend to go every 5 years.) and the one thing I missed was Fry Sauce!!!! that was the ONLY thing I ordered out there when I went to Arctic Circle(another place we don’t have on the east coast.) and when I came back to VT I went to a mcdonals and I asked for fry sauce forgetting that they don’t have it, and they all gave me these strange looks, as if I was going crazy, and then I had to explain to them what it is and they looked all grossed out on me, so I just laughed and explained that it was soooooooo good!
I have yet to meet someone that doesn’t love fry sauce! Fries just aren’t as good without it!
McDonald’s has a fry sauce 20 years ago. That was the first time I had ever had it.
We had it in bottles at Texas Fuddruckers, but covid put them out of business.
I grew up in boise and there was a place called “good times” my favorite place. Well they just shut down there and was wondering if anyone knew how to make thier fry sauce it was the BEST!!
Montana is a fry sauce state too- the Fuddruckers in Missoula has it! I was born in Boston, and I am not sure how I ever lived with it before. The Some Dude’s Fry Sauce isn’t as good, in my opinion… back East, people call mayonnaise and ketchup mixed together french dressing 🙂 maybe because a lot of Europeans ask for both ketchup and mayonnaise and swirl together. I like mine with some BBQ sauce too!
I don't know if Robin will ever see this, but Rocky Mountain Drive In down in Provo still carries Iron Port soda in its fountain…. my husband just tried it last night for the first time.
My dad makes this and he uses a little bit of lemon juice in it. Also he uses it for shrimp, amazing!
Wow, this sauce will be great on tater tots. I thought barbeque and mayonnaise was good.
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