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 famous Japanese steakhouse sauce that they serve at hibachi restaurants! Your fried rice, chicken, hibachi vegetables, and shrimp will never be the same!
As an added bonus, here is the best fried rice recipe to go with the sauce!
What is Yum Yum Sauce?
Watch our step by step video!
Have you tried Yum Yum sauce before?
It is also called Japanese White Sauce at some restaurants. Our favorite place serves it in a small bowl like ranch salad dressing. They have a ginger-type vinaigrette dressing and yum yum sauce which has a creamy base. You can use it on your salad, you can dip seafood and sushi into it and you can also pour it over fried rice and hibachi chicken. That’s our favorite way to enjoy it. In fact, we can’t even eat fried rice without this yummy sauce so it was imperative that I find a copycat recipe to use at home. It’s addictive, you’ve been warned.
The Best Yum Yum Sauce
(scroll down for printable recipe)
Homemade Yum yum Sauce Ingredients
- 1 cup mayonnaise: full-fat mayonnaise, not low-fat. I’ve tried both and it DOES make a difference.
- 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
Directions
At Home Chinese TAKE-OUT Recipes
I love making take-out-style dishes for my family at home. Our favorites are our homemade chicken chow Mein, hibachi-style fried rice, and our homemade egg rolls. We even have a recipe for fortune cookies, too!
Scroll down for some FAQ on making yum yum sauce.
Homemade Yum Yum Sauce
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
Nutrition
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 (mayo).
How long should I wait before using the Yum Yum sauce?
6 hours or overnight. The flavors need time to really meld before use. The longer you chill it the better.
How long will the Yum Yum sauce keep in the refrigerator?
It will stay fresh in the fridge for 5-7 days in an airtight container. Store-bought yum yum sauce lasts longer because of the added preservatives but tastes nothing like the real deal.
What can I dip in Yum Yum sauce?
Dipping shrimp, drizzled over salad or noodles, as a dipping sauce for French fries and sweet potato. It would be delicious on burgers too!
Not sure what I did wrong, but when I followed the recipe, it didn’t taste quite right. I ended up having to add an extra tsp each of sugar and ketchup to get that familiar taste. Also you can substitute butter with margarine if you want.
Hi! Did you let it chill for 8 hours? If you eat it right away it won’t taste right, but if it’s chilled for 8 hours it allows the flavors to set up!
Love it! Than you for sharing this recipe!! Denise
I made this last night to go with shrimp fried rice. It was delicious! I halved the recipe and added a couple of shakes of ground mustard. My husband declared it was “freaking amazing” and something that needed to be made every time we have shrimp or fried rice.
Haha! It’s true! You won’t be able to eat fried rice without it! Thanks for commenting!
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!
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!
What brand of Mayo did you use ??
I usually just grab a store brand, whatever is cheapest.
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!
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!
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
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!
I will be trying this recipe tonight! My daughter and I love hibachi chicken 🙂
My family and I love this stuff! We make it all the time. Beats the store bought stuff hands down.
It totally does!
Yum bloody yum. DELISH…..
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! 🙂
Calories per serving??
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!
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
It’s got a pretty strong mayo after taste. I may try using less mayo next time.
Do you have a recipe for the brown sauce that is served at most Japanese steakhouses. I love it.
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).
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.
This was very good.. I added horseradish to mine to give it extra kick.
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!
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.
How much does this make? just enough for 2 people/1 meal? thanks for this! plan to try it soon!
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!
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!
Actually, many times it’s something a lot more simple –> Mayo + Srirachi Sauce. 🙂
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!
YUM! This might become a requirement for all meals {minus breakfast of course…maybe}. Thanks for the recipe!
It would be great on cheesy scrambled eggs!!
I was just telling my husband the other day that I wondered how they made this! Thanks for the recipe!
Great, thanks for sharing, I could put this in a cup and drink it! Gonna pin it
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!
Wow! Thank you!
thank you thank you! This is my family’s favorite part of the meal 🙂
Ooooh yum! That sauce looks so good!
Oh yummmm! Would you share how you make the chicken and rice, too? I’d heart you forever. 😉