The 7 Best Substitutes For Big Mac Sauce

What can I use instead of Big Mac Sauce? The best substitutes for Big Mac sauce are DIY Big Mac and Thousand Island sauce. You can also use commercial burger sauce equivalents made by Todd Wilbur, Walmart, Trader Joe, Hellmans, and Sir Kensington’s.

McDonald’s Big Mac burgers are slathered in a unique sauce that has come to define Golden Arches’ flavor. Developed in 1968 by Jim Delligatti, Big Mac’s Special Sauce is sweet, tangy, and delicious – and the recipe is a closely guarded secret. It’s also tricky to get your hands on a bottle of the sauce.

Here are the seven best substitutes for Big Mac sauce if you’re making burgers at home.

The Best Big Mac Sauce Substitutes

DIY Big Mac Sauce

The best substitute for Big Mac sauce is a homemade burger sauce.

Although no official recipe is available for this famous sauce, you can create a reasonably similar burger topping at home using common pantry ingredients.

Combine 3/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon yellow mustard, 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish, 2 teaspoons sugar, ½ teaspoon vinegar, and ¼ teaspoon each of garlic and onion powder.

Add ½ teaspoon paprika to create the characteristic pink color – Big Mac sauce uses this ingredient, not ketchup.

Some recipes add French dressing instead of mustard, vinegar, and spices.

Whisk the ingredients together and store airtight in the fridge for a week.

Use DIY Big Mac sauce on burgers and sandwiches and as a dipping sauce for fries, chicken tenders, crab cakes, and shrimp.

Thousand Island Sauce

A convenient substitute for Big Mac sauce is Thousand Island sauce.

Thousand Island sauce or dressing has been around for over 100 years and originated between the US and Canada in the Thousand Islands area.

The tasty sauce was a forerunner of today’s cocktail, special and secret burger sauces.

The simplest Thousand Island sauce combines mayonnaise and ketchup. However, you can make this sauce from scratch: ingredients include mayonnaise, olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, vinegar, eggs, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, cream, chili sauce, tomato paste, and ketchup.

Other additions range from minced onions and pickles to sour cream and yogurt.

Big Mac sauce may be part of the Thousand Island family, but it doesn’t contain tomato or ketchup and always has the addition of pickle relish.

Enjoy homemade or store-bought Thousand Island sauce instead of Big Mac sauce on sandwiches (especially Reubens), burgers, seafood salads, wedge salads, vegetables, and fries.

Todd Wilbur’s Top Secret Recipes Burger Special Sauce

The best store-bought substitute for Big Mac sauce is Todd Wilbur’s Special Sauce.

Todd Wilbur is well-known for recreating “top-secret” recipes from famous restaurants. He began by exploring why restaurant food tastes better than homemade and reverse-engineering popular dishes.

After producing several best-selling cookbooks containing copy-cat recipes, Wilbur has created a range of bottled sauces.

The Burger Secret Sauce was devised as a substitute for Big Mac sauce, and fans agree it tastes just like the original.

Todd Wilbur’s “secret recipe” contains soybean and sunflower oil, cucumbers, sugar and corn syrup, water, vinegar, lemon juice, eggs, and spices, including salt, mustard seed, onions, garlic, turmeric, and paprika.

The sauce also includes preservatives, flavorings, and colorants.

Enjoy Todd Wilbur’s Secret Sauce as a Big Mac Sauce alternative on hamburgers, sandwiches, wraps, and over fries.

Walmart’s Great Value Secret Sauce

Another excellent substitute for Big Mac sauce is Walmart’s Secret Sauce.

The sauce looks like Big Mac sauce and contains the characteristic flavors of pickle relish, mayonnaise (egg yolks and soybean oil), vinegar, and spices.

Like most commercially produced sauces, Walmart’s Secret Sauce also contains high fructose corn syrup, flavoring agents, emulsifiers, colorants, and preservatives.

Many fans of Mcdonald’s use this zesty topping as their go-to alternative to Big Mac sauce.

Use Walmart’s Secret Sauce instead of Big Mac sauce on hamburgers, chicken sandos, hot dogs, and fried fish.

It’s delicious for dipping tater tots, fries, shrimp, and fried pickles (as per Walmart’s suggestion).

Trader Joe’s Magnifisauce

Trader Joe’s Magnifisauce is a tasty alternative to Big Mac sauce.

Billed as “a tangy sauce of secret proportions,” Magnifisauce is seen as a clone of In-n-Out burger sauce rather than Big Mac sauce. However, the ingredients and flavor suggest the typical special sauce.

Magnifisauce’s ingredients include canola oil, pickle relish, sugar, vinegar, egg yolks, flour, and spices (salt, mustard, garlic, onion, rosemary, cloves, and paprika).

This is a similar list to most other burger sauces, although with a couple of more robust spices and more sugar.

Trader Joe’s Magnifisauce is a cross-over between burger sauce and Thousand Island sauce. The significant ingredient is tomato paste. This colorful sauce has the thin consistency of the dressing.

Magnifisauce is a handy replacement for Big Mac sauce on burgers and po’boys. It makes an excellent dipping sauce for onion rings, chicken nuggets, shrimp, and fries.

Hellman’s Classic Burger Sauce

A classic alternative to Big Mac sauce is Hellman’s Classic Burger Sauce.

Hellman’s has been producing mayonnaise since the 1920s, so the company is well-placed to create a burger sauce to rival Big Mac sauce.

With a rich-tasting mayonnaise basis, this burger sauce has a distinct pickle relish flavor and texture, with crunchy cucumber, mustard seeds, onion, garlic, and red bell pepper.

It contains only natural flavorings and preservatives, with paprika for color.

Choose from Hellman’s classic burger sauce or the chunky burger sauce, depending on your level of crunch.

The sweet and flavorful sauce is an excellent substitute for Big Mac sauce on the usual burger, fries, and hotdogs.

Still, it is versatile enough to replace mayonnaise in many recipes: potato salad, slaw, devilled eggs, chicken bakes, and a dip for raw vegetables.

Sir Kensington’s Special Sauce

Sir Kensington’s Special Sauce is a mouth-watering alternative to Big Mac sauce.

This condiment is mayonnaise-based, like Hellman’s, using sunflower oil and free-range eggs. It has the pickle relish crunch and flavor from cucumbers, vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, mustard, garlic, and pepper.

However, Sir Kensington’s sauce also contains paprika, tomato paste, jalapenos, and dill weed. These ingredients create its bright orange color and zingy flavor, distinguishing it from other similar sauces.

Sir Kensington’s products are all produced humanely, are non-GMO, and contain no artificial flavorings, colorings, or preservatives. They choose organic ingredients where possible.

Use Sir Kensington’s Special Sauce as a Big Mac sauce alternative on burgers, sandwiches, and wraps and as a dipping sauce.