Make your own homemade Yum Yum Sauce when you’re cooking up a stir fry or yummy fried rice at home. This is it, folks! THE sauce that they serve at the Japanese Steakhouse restaurants!
Sometimes called Japanese shrimp sauce, Benihana Yum Yum sauce, or hibachi shrimp sauce, this is the authentic yum yum sauce you’ve been looking for ever since enjoying it at your local Japanese steak house! This post was updated in 2020 to include a step by step video.
Watch our step by step video!
Every time we go to our favorite restaurant I take notes on how they fry up the rice, meat, veggies, etc. They keep the pan HOT, use only soy sauce to season, and cook everything quickly to sear the outside and keep the inside tender. Got it. But they don’t divulge the ingredients for the Yum Yum sauce which really makes the meal.
Have you tried Yum Yum sauce before? It is also called Japanese White Sauce at some restaurants.
Our favorite place that we go to they serves it like ranch. You can use it on your salad, you can dip shrimp in it and you can also pour it over your fried rice. That’s our favorite way to enjoy it. In fact, we can’t even eat fried rice without it so it was imperative that I find a copycat recipe to use at home, haha!
I found this homemade yum yum sauce recipe several years ago and IT. IS. SPOT. ON. And while we miss the show of our chef dicing veggies at a ridiculous speed, stacking onions and lighting them on fire, and the other fun elements of the table show, it is nice to have a more affordable option to enjoy at home.
Scroll down for some FAQ on making yum yum sauce.
Homemade Yum Yum Sauce
Make your own homemade Yum Yum Sauce when you’re cooking up a stir fry or yummy fried rice at home. This is it, folks! THE sauce that they serve at the Japanese Steakhouse restaurants!
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Servings: 24 Tablespoons
Calories: 88kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon ketchup or tomato paste
- 1 Tbsp. melted butter
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Mix ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- *Do not use light mayo.
- *Make sure to refrigerate at least 8 hours.
Notes
Drizzle over chicken, shrimp or fried rice.
Nutrition
Calories: 88kcal
Can I use light mayonnaise in this Yum Yum sauce recipe?
You can, but it won’t taste as good. We’ve had it both ways and it is definitely better with regular mayonnaise.
How long should I wait before using the Yum Yum sauce?
6 hours or overnight. The flavors need time to really meld before using.
How long will the Yum Yum sauce keep in the refrigerator?
5-7 days.
What can I dip in Yum Yum sauce?
Dipping shrimp, drizzled over salad, as a dipping sauce for French fries. You name it!
You might also like these homemade Chinese Food Recipes…
I absolutely love making Chinese food at home and finally took the time to write down my recipes! Below you will find my favorites!
Oh yummmm! Would you share how you make the chicken and rice, too? I’d heart you forever. 😉
Ooooh yum! That sauce looks so good!
thank you thank you! This is my family’s favorite part of the meal 🙂
Wow! Thank you!
You’ve solved the mystery! My husband and I love the Yum Yum sauce at the local hibachi restaurant and I’ve been meaning to try to recreate it at home. Thanks for this – he’ll be thrilled!
Great, thanks for sharing, I could put this in a cup and drink it! Gonna pin it
I was just telling my husband the other day that I wondered how they made this! Thanks for the recipe!
YUM! This might become a requirement for all meals {minus breakfast of course…maybe}. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for posting this! I found it on Pintrest. I lightened it up by using fat free mayo and smart balance butter spread. This makes it only 2 Weight Watchers points!
Actually, many times it’s something a lot more simple –> Mayo + Srirachi Sauce. 🙂
Oh, I’ll have to try this and hope its the same as the one I love. I find most have their own variations. I love the mayo sauce though!
You could probably use greek yogurt instead of mayo if you wanted to cut out some calories and fat. Thanks for posting the seasonings! I loooove this sauce!
How much does this make? just enough for 2 people/1 meal? thanks for this! plan to try it soon!
MrsKosmo, this makes about 1 c. of sauce. Now I’m not sure how much you SHOULD consider a serving…probably just a tablespoon or two, but I usually use 1/4 cup on my rice. So one recipe could serve 2-4 people easily. At Genji’s (the restaurant that I first had this sauce at), they give you small cups of it that have about 1/4 c. in them.
This is similar to the one I make at home. Mine is mayo, ketchup, garlic powder, worcestershire sauce and cayenne.
I’m gonna try this variation!
Thanks for the recipe but I have to ask… on the page that the link sends us to, did you at least “Buy (the guy) a beer!” via Paypal??? LOL I did!
This was very good.. I added horseradish to mine to give it extra kick.
This is definitely an American or stateside version because I had never heard of it nor had it until recently. No where near as good as the Asian ones which are definitely more authentic & better tasting. This is too heavy for real hibachi.
I have actually perfected this recipe with a couple of adjustments:
I use only 1/8 c. of water and 2.5 tspns. of ketchup instead of tomato paste as it is readily available. I think it helped to lighten up the taste a little (I agreed with Mabani).
Do you have a recipe for the brown sauce that is served at most Japanese steakhouses. I love it.
It’s got a pretty strong mayo after taste. I may try using less mayo next time.
This was amazing thank you for the yum yum sauce!!! Recipe was right on point
Great! We love it too. Fried rice isn’t the same without it 🙂 Take care!
Brandy
I love Chinese, but I have never had any luck cooking it. Your recipes really sound great.
Thanks Michele, I hope you have better luck with these if you decide to try one!
Calories per serving??
Hi Brandy,
Is there a particular reason why you say not to use light mayo for this recipe? I have a bunch that I need to use up, so I figured this sauce would be a good way to do it.
-M
P.S. Any other good ideas to use up a lot of light mayo? (Besides the obvious potato/macaroni salad options)
Hi -M!
We used light mayo once (because it seemed like a better idea!) and it affected the flavor. It was still good, but did not taste like the yum yum sauce from Genji (our favorite Japanese steak house). It seemed like a watered down version. If you need to use it up anyway, go ahead and try it! It doesn’t take a lot of ingredients so if you don’t care for it as much you aren’t wasting much. We just both agreed (my husband and I) that the truly copycat version needed regular mayo. Hope that helps! 🙂
Yum bloody yum. DELISH…..
My family and I love this stuff! We make it all the time. Beats the store bought stuff hands down.
It totally does!
I will be trying this recipe tonight! My daughter and I love hibachi chicken 🙂
Fantastic!!!!
I add a little more garlic and paprika.
I also add about a TBS or to taste of sriracha sauce. It really makes a difference!!!!!!!!!
Thank you!!!
Sriracha sauce is GENIUS! That little kick of heat would be perfect!
Why does it only last 5 days in fridge???
I’ve only had it last that long before we’ve used it up. It started to separate, but I gave it a good stir and it was still delicious. I can’t vouch for longer than that since we always use it faster.
Thanks!
I’ve had some in the fridfe for a little over a month before it really started to separate. Didn’t “go bad” but the texture really changes (very liquidy) and it kinds of goes flat flavor-wise. Best to make smaller batches more often
Oh my gosh!! This recipe is wonderful, just wonderful. Thank you for cracking the code! Made steak stir fried rice tonight and added your yum yum sauce as a side and my wife and kids were so happy with it! I even forgot to add butter, but that’s between us… hehe
You didn’t add butter and it was still delicious? Brilliant—gonna try that. That makes it healthy, right? Haha!
Thank you Thank you Thank you for making this recipe!!! This sauce is goal in my family! Anytime we have hibachi this is our sauce on everything. This tastes just like in the restaurant.
Yay! We simply can’t eat fried rice without it!
What brand of Mayo did you use ??
I usually just grab a store brand, whatever is cheapest.
My taste buds thank you and my waste line does not, cause you nailed it!
Yum!!!
Awesome! Fried rice will never be the same, haha!
Any thoughts on making this with the Japanese Kewpie Mayo? Instead of regular “American style mayo”?
I’m not sure what the difference is between the two. Might be worth a shot!