5 Minute Yum Yum Sauce (2024)

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Yum Yum Sauce is the most creamy and delicious sauce found in Japanese hibachi restaurants and is so easy to make yourself. It’s mayonnaise-based and goes perfectly with hibachi shrimp, hibachi chicken, hibachi vegetables, or even drizzled over fried rice or noodles.

Hibachi dinners are just incomplete without yum yum sauce. Whether at my favorite Japanese steakhouse or homemade, I love dousing my hibachi in yum yum sauce. Trust me, once you discover this yummy sauce, you won’t ever be the same!

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Need more homemade sauces in your life? Check out my 5 Minute Spicy Mayo, Homemade Chick-Fil-A Sauce, Healthy BBQ Sauce, or my 5 Minute Garlic Butter Sauce!

What is yum yum sauce?

Yum yum sauce is the famous Japanese steakhouse sauce. It actually became famous in Japanese restaurants and hibachi grills in the United States and is not really found in Japan.

It’s a light, slightly sweet, and ultra-savory hibachi sauce. It’s mayo and tomato based and includes melted butter and other spices. The best part? This popular sauce is so easy to make!

Yum yum sauce is a versatile sauce, as you can use it in a variety of ways besides hibachi. It makes a great salad dressing, a fantastic dipping sauce for onion rings, air fryer tofu, french fries, or zucchini chips. I’d even go as far as to slather it on all over a burger. It’s honestly super addicting!

Want more Asian inspired recipes? Give my Air Fryer Miso Glazed Chilean Sea Bass a try. I promise it does not disappoint!

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There’s nothing better than Yum Yum Hibachi Sauce

This delicious yum yum sauce is such a creamy sauce – it’s addicting and actually life changing. I go out for hibachi regularly – I have done so since high school and I have to order extra sauce every single time. It’s an essential part of my hibachi dinner, and I’ve been making my own homemade yum yum sauce recently because I love it so much.

You can buy it at your local grocery store, but homemade is so much better. It’s made with mostly simple ingredients and so easy to make, so you’ll never need to buy it again. Making it at home is also a fraction of the cost.

The main ingredients are mayonnaise and tomato paste, but you’ll also need a few pantry staples seasonings to complete this tasty and tangy sauce.

Homemade Yum Yum Sauce Ingredients

Kewpie mayonnaise: the creaminess of the sauce comes from kewpie mayonnaise. It has a slightly sweeter taste than American mayonnaise.

Seasonings: smoked paprika and cayenne pepper give the sauce a nice kick, while garlic powder and onion powder accentuate the flavors.

The zing: rice vinegar adds a tasty zing to the sauce.

Tomato paste: this adds a creamy tomato base and rich flavor, and should not be substituted for plain tomato sauce..

If you do want to substitute tomato paste, you can use ketchup or sweet chili sauce but make sure to omit the sugar or it will be too sweet.

Extras: you’ll need melted butter to add richness, sugar to counteract the acidity of the tomato paste, and water to thin out the sauce a bit. These help create the perfect balance between all of the ingredients.

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What is kewpie mayo?

At this point, you may be wondering what exactly kewpie mayo is. Kewpie is a Japanese brand that makes a type of mayo that is made with only egg yolks, a blend of several types of vinegar, and a small amount of MSG.

The taste and texture of this Japanese mayonnaise are wildly different from regular mayo, so yes, it’s essential to use kewpie mayo and not regular mayo for this recipe.

I do keep both types of mayonnaise in my house, but I use Kewpie the most.

Kewpie mayo vs regular mayo

The biggest difference between kewpie mayo and regular mayo is that kewpie mayo is made with only egg yolks, while American mayonnaise is made with whole eggs. Because of that, kewpie is slightly more yellow in color and has a silky, creamy texture with rich flavor.

How to make yum yum sauce

It’s made in two easy steps!

1. Combine the dry ingredients. In a small bowl, combine smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and sugar.

2. Combine the wet ingredients. In a medium bowl, combine kewpie mayonnaise, tomato paste, melted butter, rice vinegar, and water in a medium bowl.

3. Whisk together and serve. Add the dry ingredients to the mayonnaise mixture and whisk until well combined. Serve with your favorite hibachi shrimp, chicken, or fresh vegetables.

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Ways to use this Yum Yum Sauce Recipe

I like to keep a jar of this in the fridge for takeout sushi,hibachi shrimp,air fryer vegetables, and even for when I makefrozen burgers in the air fryer!

How to store Hibachi Yum Yum Sauce

This sauce tastes better when it is made a day or two ahead of time, so it allows all of the flavors to blend together and allows the sauce to thicken. Be sure to store the sauce in an airtight container and pop it in the fridge. It will last in the fridge for about 10 days.

More homemade sauce recipes to try

  • Fish Taco Sauce
  • Coconut Curry Sauce
  • Big Mac Sauce
  • Avocado Crema

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5 from 9 votes

Yum Yum Hibachi Sauce

Yum Yum Sauce is the most creamy and delicious sauce found in Japanese hibachi restaurants and is so easy to make yourself. It’s mayonnaise-based and goes perfectly with hibachi shrimp, hibachi chicken, hibachi vegetables, or even drizzled over fried rice or noodles.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time0 minutes mins

Total Time5 minutes mins

Course: Condiment

Cuisine: Asian American, Japanese

Keyword: yum yum sauce

Servings: 16 tablespoons

Calories: 107kcal

Author: Jordan

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Combine smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and sugar in a small bowl.

  • In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine kewpie mayonnaise, tomato paste, melted butter, rice vinegar, and water.

  • Add the dry ingredients to the mayonnaise mixture and whisk until well combined. Serve with shrimp, chicken, or vegetables.

Nutrition

Calories: 107kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 0.3g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 103mg | Potassium: 20mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 121IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 0.1mg

Nutrition information is approximate and was calculated using a recipe nutrition label generator.

Tried this recipe?I’d love to see your dish, mention @jzeats or tag #jzeats!

5 Minute Yum Yum Sauce (2024)

FAQs

Is yum yum sauce just sriracha and mayo? ›

So, is yum yum sauce spicy mayo? Kind of. It is a mayo-based sauce but spicy mayo is usually just mayo and sriracha. Yum yum sauce includes more spices and flavorings.

What is yum yum sauce made of? ›

Yum Yum Sauce is made of mayonnaise, ketchup, vinegar, garlic, sugar, paprika and water to thin the sauce out. That's it! It's really just a matter of the right ratios of ingredients to get the flavor you want!

Does yum yum sauce go bad if left out? ›

Yes. Yumm! Sauce is a natural product made without preservatives, so refrigeration is required.

Why is yum yum sauce so good? ›

It's the perfect amount of sweet and tangy (almost like a deviled egg) and it is so thick and creamy. It coats shrimp like a dream. But it also has a bit of a Thousand Island dressing quality, so you can and should also use it on a burger or to dress a salad.

What is the same as yum yum sauce? ›

Almost every teppanyaki restaurant will serve it, though its name differs depending on whom you talk to. White sauce (a deceptive moniker), shrimp sauce, yummy sauce, yum yum sauce — are all used interchangeably.

What does Chinese yum yum sauce taste like? ›

An all-purpose sauce for everyday pleasure, yum yum sauce should taste balanced with savoriness, sweetness and a touch of acid and gosoham, the Korean word often used to describe the nuttiness of sesame oil.

What is Guy Fieri's donkey sauce? ›

"It's aioli." Yup, that's right. Fieri's most famous ingredient is just your average blend of garlic, mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire, salt, and pepper. "I called it Donkey Sauce because you have to make fun of it.

Why is it called a Yum Yum? ›

Roughly 50 years later (although no exact date is known), the “fried cakes” were brought to Scotland, where they were embraced by locals, who started making their own version, which they nicknamed “yum yums”.

What does yum yum sauce mean in Japanese? ›

Yum Yum Sauce (also known as White Sauce, Sakura Sauce, or Japanese Steakhouse Shrimp Sauce) has been commonly found in Japanese steakhouses for years. More recently, people have started to notice this sauce appearing in sushi restaurants as well.

Is sriracha and yum yum sauce the same? ›

Sriracha mayo is delicious (we use it on our Spicy Tuna Bowls and Banh Mi Burgers), but it's just that-Sriracha and mayo. Yum yum sauce has the additions of vinegar and mirin, which make it a much more complex and sweeter sauce.

Is yum yum sauce the same as mayo? ›

Because Yum Yum sauce is mayonnaise-based, it does share some flavor profiles with mayonnaise as a light, vaguely eggy dipping sauce. The combination of ketchup and mayonnaise means it does share some mild similarities to fry sauce (a mixture of ketchup and mayo popular as a DIY condiment).

Is yum yum sauce made of mayo? ›

What is Yum Yum Sauce? It is a Japanese Steakhouse Shrimp Sauce with a mayo base, melted butter, tomato and other spices. If you have ever been to Japanese hibachi restaurants, you've had the pale pink sauce, or as some call it white sauce and others just plain Japanese sauce.

Does yum yum sauce contain mayo? ›

INGREDIENTS: MAYONNAISE (soybean oil, distilled vinegar, egg yolk, high fructose corn syrup, contains less than 2% of salt, water, mustard seed, calcium disodium edta (to protect flavor.)

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