This copycat Big Mac Sauce recipe is so close to the McDonald's special sauce, you won't be able to taste the difference! Use it to recreate your own homemade Big Macs, or as a topping and sauce for your favorite foods.
What is it?
Big Mac Sauce has wonderfully creamy, tangy, and sweet. This flavor combination stands cuts through the richness of a fatty cheeseburger, making it a perfect burger topping. It is said to taste very similar to Thousand Island dressing, despite not being tomato-based.
Created by Jim Delligatti 1967, the original Big Mac wasn't actually called a Big Mac. It first went by different names - "The Aristocrat" and the "Blue Ribbon Burger", neither of which caught on with customers. The third name, "Big Mac" was created by Esther Glickstein Rose, a young corporate McDonald's employee. This sandwich went on to worldwide fame, popularizing the iconic special sauce.
The earliest McDonald's advertisements didn't refer to Big Mac Sauce as we now know it, but rather, called it "secret sauce". However, in 1974 a new advertising campaign came up with the famous jingle "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – on a sesame seed bun." It has been known as "special sauce" ever since!
What are the Ingredients?
How do I know there are no tomatoes in McDonald's Special Sauce? Because, I looked up the ingredient list. This is what is in McDonald's Big Mac Sauce:
Soybean Oil, Pickle Relish (Diced Pickles, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Vinegar, Corn Syrup, Salt, Calcium Chloride, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Spice Extractives, Polysorbate 80), Distilled Vinegar, Water, Egg Yolks, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Onion Powder, Mustard Seed, Salt, Spices, Propylene Glycol Alginate, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Mustard Bran, Sugar, Garlic Powder, Vegetable Protein (Hydrolyzed Corn, Soy and Wheat), Caramel Colour, Extractives of Paprika, Soy Lecithin, Turmeric (Colour), Calcium Disodium EDTA (Protect Flavour)
How to make it
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you don't have a pantry full of preservatives and chemical binders, and neither does your grocery store. So let me break this down into simple ingredients you'll understand. Based on McDonald's ingredient list, you will need sweet relish (not dill pickle relish), mayo, vinegar, American yellow mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika to make homemade Big Mac sauce. That sounds a lot more reasonable, doesn't it?
Make this famous sauce simply by mixing the ingredients together in a small bowl, then store it in the refrigerator overnight in an airtight container to allow the flavors to meld. You can enjoy it immediately if you are impatient, but letting it meld makes a big difference.
FAQs
Store your homemade sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator. As a mayo-based sauce, Big Mac sauce will spoil at room temperature if left outside of the fridge. It will also develop off-flavors if it is not sealed properly in a covered container. I do not recommend freezing it. For best flavor, any leftover sauce will keep for about a week in the fridge.
Big Mac Sauce is not Thousand Island dressing. Thousand Island dressing requires tomatoes, which aren't an ingredient in authentic Big Mac Sauce.
For this same reason, I firmly believe the best Big Mac Sauce recipe you'll find will always exclude French dressing. Unfortunately, it seems 95% of the Big Mac Sauce recipes on the web call for French dressing but don't be fooled. Although I will admit the flavor is in the right ballpark as the real thing, *spoiler alert*, it still tastes like French dressing.
How to Use This Sauce
Serving McDonald's Special Sauce on savory homemade burgers isn't the only way it can be enjoyed. Try these new ideas as well:
- Homemade Big Macs - To make McDonald's Big Mac, lightly toast a sesame seed bun, and grab an extra bottom bun to use as the middle piece. Spread the special sauce on the bottom bun, sprinkle with diced onion, shredded lettuce, and top with a slice of American cheese. Place one thin burger patty on the cheese, then add the middle bun, top with more sauce, lettuce, and add pickles. Finally add the second burger patty, top with the crown of the bun and enjoy!
- Chicken sandwich - In India, Mcdonald's sells a Chicken Maharaja Mac, which is essentially a chicken Big Mac. Use this creamy condiment on your own chicken burger, or even chicken patties.
- Burger bowls - Skip the sesame seed bun, this condiment is a great way to whip up some delicious low-carb creations.
- Salads - This makes a delicious salad dressing to enjoy your own Big Mac Salad.
- Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes - These sloppy Joes are great without sauce, but can certainly be enjoyed with it as well!
- Fries - Use this as a dipping sauce for French fries, onion rings, and steak fries
- Potato Salad - This is the perfect sauce to add an exciting twist to any potato salad!
Big Mac Sauce
Equipment
- Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 cup Mayo
- ¼ cup Sweet Pickle Relish
- 1 ½ tablespoons Prepared Yellow Mustard
- 1 teaspoon White Wine Vinegar
- ½ teaspoon Paprika
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Onion Powder
Instructions
- Place all ingredients together in a small bowl and whisk to combine.
- Can be enjoyed immediately, but the flavor is best when allowed to sit in the refrigerator overnight. Store in an air-tight container.
Lenny
Thumbs up from a McD’s employee!! This is the first recipe we tried and the one and only Big Mac sauce we will make. Awesome taste without all those additives. Thank you very much!
rml
Its a little thick with my Dukes and the paprika did not color it properly. We will see how it blends after a while.
James
It is a wonderful recipe. Thanks. Best regards!
Bill J.
These are basically the correct ingredients except that you cannot get the color without the paprika extract.
Suggestion: back off the pickle relish a little bit. Four tablespoons is a little too much. And use dehydrated onion flakes rehydrated by soaking them in the pickle relish. For 1 cup mayo, I might go as high as 2 tablespoons French's yellow mustard.
A
Don't listen to Bill J, he clearly did not let the sauce marinate. This is better than the restaurant version. We already know about the onions noob.
Elizabeth
This is sooooo delicious!!! This is very close to the Mac Sauce! Definitely recommending this to everyone of my family and friends!
Love this recipe!
Making this again!
Elizabeth
This is sooooo delicious!!! This is very close to the Mac Sauce! Definitely recommending this to everyone of my family and friends!
Love this recipe!
Inger P Anderson
This was so good! It tastes like the Big Mac special sauce. Good job!
Nojam
Tastes just like it
Jeanne Wise
THIS is the sauce you want to make that's the CLOSEST to McDonald's Big Mac sauce. I've made SOOOO many and they don't come close to this. NO ketchup or dressing or BBQ sauce - just that taste that you want on your Big Mac Salad! Awesome. Thank you!
Simon Howes
Sweet Pickle relish. Is this a specific one? I’m in the UK awash with relishes and chutneys but they’re very different to those in the US… help!
Dave J.
Any relish made from sweet pickles will do.
Courtney
This came out awesome! I like that I didn’t have to use any French/thousand island dressing in it. Def will be making this sauce often. Honestly I think it’s better than McDs and there isn’t a bunch of chemicals in it.
Mike
In the UK I use “Shaws Mighty American Style Relish” from Morrisons and “American Inspired Mustard” by Tesco. It’s tastes great and the closest I’ve ever managed. So thanks for posting.
Abigail
I know this is late, but I just saw it. Throw that "American Inspired" mustard in the trash. As an American (and avid mustard fan) never in my life have I found yellow mustard on the shelf with sugar and all those ingredients in it. Tesco is full of BS on that. IF Tesco sells French's Yellow mustard, use that. I don't know why European retailers try to make it seem Americans (and thus slapping "American Style" on anything with a ton of sugar) eat sugar by the spoonful every meal. Sugar in yellow mustard sounds disgusting!
brenda
Very good. It tastes very close to McD's
Nancy
Made this to pair with Cheeseburger bites for a party. It was great! There was none leftover!
Ray
I have tried several recipes for BM sauce and none were close until I found this one. I left out the relish as I don't eat pickles and relish but though maybe something about the relish was all the difference so next batch I put relish in it. It still was not quite right and after looking at the ingredients and seeing spice extractives and later, spices, with no spices actually shown in this recipe so I tried various ones but only made it worse.
Yesterday, I made another batch but had forgot to get another jar of Mayo as I only had it for this recipe, not using it for anything else so I figured try the Miracle Whip. Bingo!! It tasted pretty close to my memory.
Today, I went out and bought a Big Mac, scraped off the sauce, tasted some and then tasted mine with the only real noticeable difference was the warmth of the BM sauce compared to the cool of my home made.
I removed the pickles, added the sauce back onto half of the BM with my sauce on the other half, closed my eyes and kept turning the burger around until there was no way for me to know where each sauce was. I ate the burger and couldn't tell the difference.
On checking online for diff in Mayo MW, the noticeable difference was that MW had spicing and Mayo did not so I believe the spicing in the Mw is what made the difference. Side benefit is that MW is about half the calories of Mayo.
David
You can literally see the pickles/relish in Big Mac sauce and you’re complaining other recipes aren’t close when you’re leaving out a literal key ingredient
Lori
This was very good. No longer need ketchup and mustard on the burger. Used Romaine lettuce as the bun. Will never make a burger another way.
Jason
Now do the Papa Burger patty seasoning (Lawry's Seasoned Salt) with the secret sauce and tell me what you think of that. By far the best tasting homemade burger EVER!!
Vinlander
what do you think is diced pickles?
Annah
My husband and I LOVE this recipe so much we actually double it for our smash burgers. We use diced pickles instead of sweet relish as I’m not huge on sweet pickles and still cannot taste the difference between the OG and this. Side question, what is the recommended serving size for the calories?
Rob
Not close.
Kate
How long can you keep it in the refrigerator?
Michele
Did you ever get a response on how long it will keep in the fridge?
Kirk Davis
I followed the recipe to a T and it taste nothing like Mac sauce.
Wesley
I agree 100%. I used half teaspoon of vinegar and that was to much. I added alot of 1000 island to keep from just throwing it away
Lt
Needs some ketchup!
Matt
Niiiiiiice! This is as good or better than the franchise sauce. Thank you for this!
Ginette Reynolds
I love Big Mac Sauce. This is pretty bang on, but less runny. And if you put it on both top and bottom buns its just as messy as a Big Mac. My picky eater also approves.