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19 Must-try Fast Food Dipping Sauces

There’s something incredibly satisfying about eating fast food. While it’s not always the healthiest option, it’s quick, delicious, and cheap. 

an assortment of various dipping sauces

One of my, and millions of others’, favorite things about eating at fast food joints are the dipping sauces. There’s just something about dipping your french friends, burgers, or chicken nuggets into a sauce that makes your meal that much better. 

If you’re thinking about popping into your favorite fast food restaurant for a quick bite, you don’t want to forget the dipping sauce. Next time you’re ordering, here are 19 of the best fast food dipping sauces to pair with your meal. 


Chick-fil-A Sauce

By far, one of the best and most popular fast food condiments is Chick-fil-A sauce. Chick-fil-A sauce is named after the restaurant and is the perfect combination of tangy and smoky.

They make the sauce with mustard, honey, barbecue sauce, garlic, tomato paste, and a variety of seasonings to ensure a truly unique sauce that works well with everything on their menu. 

That’s right. This sauce is the perfect addition to almost everything on their menu, besides the desserts and sodas, of course. From dipping chicken nuggets and French fries into the sauce to slathering your chicken sandwich with it, you can’t go wrong with Chick-fil-A sauce


Arby’s Horsey Sauce 

It’s hard to find an excellent fast food sauce containing horseradish, but Arby’s doesn’t disappoint. Arby’s Horsey sauce looks almost identical to mayonnaise, which may be off-putting to some, but the tangy horseradish taste is out of this world.

The ingredients are relatively simple, with just mayonnaise, vinegar, horseradish, and other seasonings. 

You may not be the biggest fan of horseradish, but next time you’re at Arby’s, you have to order a side of their Horsey sauce to put on your beef or chicken sandwiches and even dip your French fries in. Most people prefer a different sauce for their fries, but it’s the best sauce for their sandwiches and chicken. 


Wendy’s Creamy Sriracha 

The way to my heart is with a creamy dipping sauce that also has some heat behind it. Wendy’s creamy sriracha sauce satisfies both of these requirements.

The creamy sriracha sauce is precisely what it sounds like. The sauce has a mayo base for the creaminess and then the famous Vietnamese hot sauce to give it the heat you’re looking for. Like other popular fast food dipping sauces, you can use the creamy sriracha on a variety of their menu items.

If you ask me, the best way to use this sauce is for any of their chicken items. Whether it’s chicken nuggets, a chicken sandwich, or you’re looking for even more spice, their spicy chicken nuggets. 


Whataburger Spicy Ketchup

What’s better than traditional ketchup? Whataburger’s spicy ketchup. For those who love ketchup but could use a little kick, this spicy ketchup is perfect. It’s made with similar ingredients to regular ketchup like tomato paste, vinegar, onion powder, and other seasonings, but they add in jalapeno puree to give it the spice everyone loves. 

The best part about this condiment is that it’s perfect for everything. While you can surely use cream-based sauces on plenty of dishes at other fast food joints, most people opt for ketchup. Next time you order a burger, switch the traditional ketchup for their spicy version. 

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Popeyes Mardi Gras Mustard 

Popeyes Mardi Gras mustard isn’t your average mustard, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Their Mardi Gras mustard is made with mayo, horseradish, plenty of Cajun seasonings, brown sugar, a blend of other herbs, grain mustard, and spicy brown mustard. 

Most mustard has a little tang to it, but with the Cajun seasoning and spicy brown mustard, you’re in for a real treat. People love dipping their chicken tenders into the sauce, and trust me on this; you’ll need more than one container of it. It’s that good.  


Raising Cane’s Cane Sauce 

Raising Cane has its own signature sauce, similar to Chick-fil-A. While they both have a sauce named after their restaurant, the sauces are quite different from one another. This Louisiana-based fast food joint specializes in chicken, so they came up with a perfect sauce for all the chicken they sell. 

Cane sauce combines ketchup, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. The taste is a little peppery but also tangy from the ketchup. While it’s delicious on their chicken, it’s even better when you dip your fries in it. 


Wendy’s S’Awesome Sauce 

Wendy’s originally created their S’Awesome sauce as the perfect addition to their chicken tenders and nuggets. Customers loved the sauce so much that they started adding it to their signature burgers and other menu items.

If you ask me, it’s not nearly as delicious as their creamy sriracha, but it’s perfect for those who don’t like spicy stuff. 

At first glance, it looks almost identical to Chick-fil-A sauce, and they do have similarities. The S’Awesome sauce is made from barbecue sauce, honey mustard, Worcestershire, ranch dressing, and a combination of spices. 


McDonald’s Honey Mustard

Who doesn’t love McDonald’s chicken nuggets? Probably not a whole lot of people. Their honey mustard is one of the best sauces McDonald’s has that you can dip your nuggets in. Honey mustard is a popular choice for a variety of chicken meals, but there’s just something about McDonald’s version that’s extra delicious. 

Their honey mustard combines zesty dijon mustard and plenty of honey for sweetness. Plus, a handful of other essential ingredients give it that special flavor, like white wine, egg yolk, vinegar, and mustard seed. Next time you order that ten-piece chicken nugget meal and fries, don’t forget the honey mustard for dipping. 


Sonic Drive-In BBQ Sauce 

Generally, when choosing the best fast food sauces, people look at sauces that are versatile and can be used on a variety of menu items. At Sonic, their menu has everything from burgers, hot dogs, chicken, sides, and plenty of sauces. The thing about Sonic is that their best sauce is their Drive-In BBQ sauce. 

While it’s not the best for using on multiple menu items, you can’t miss out on trying this sauce. It’s one of the best sauces for burgers, which is the majority of their menu. Plus, the first few ingredients are white vinegar and water, which is more than other fast food joints can say for their sauces. 


In-N-Out Burger Spread

If you’ve ever been to an In-N-Out, you’ve noticed that their menu is fairly limited. There are not a thousand different dipping sauce options, and most of their items stand alone on flavor. But this wouldn’t be a list of the best sauces without mentioning their burger spread. Now their burger spread isn’t technically a dipping sauce, but it tastes like one. 

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The best way to describe their burger spread is Thousand Island dressing on a delicious burger or cheeseburger. It’s not the most show-stopping sauce, but it definitely has earned its place on the list of best fast food sauces. 


Burger King Ranch 

There’s something about ranch dressing that can satisfy almost everyone. While almost all fast food restaurants have ranch on the menu as a dipping sauce, Burger King’s ranch really stands out as one of the best. It’s hard to find a fast food restaurant that offers a genuinely creamy ranch, but Burger King does. 

The second ingredient in their ranch is buttermilk, making this ranch one of the creamiest I’ve had the pleasure of ordering at a fast food joint. Two sauce packets are never enough because this ranch tastes fantastic on everything. Their chicken fries are a fan favorite to dip into their ranch. 


Taco Bell Nacho Cheese Sauce 

Taco Bell isn’t known for its large selection of dipping sauces since it’s a Mexican joint, but there is one sauce on its menu specifically designed for dipping. It’s their nacho cheese sauce. If you’re wondering why their hot sauces aren’t mentioned, it’s because they come in pourable packets and aren’t the best for dipping. 

The nacho cheese sauce is creamy, cheesy, and hot. It’s perfect for dipping chips in, and even tacos, burritos, and their beloved nacho fries. How the sauce is made isn’t 100% known, but it does use cheese whiz, which may be off-putting. However, once you taste it, there’s no going back.


McDonald’s Hot Mustard

It’s a no-brainer that McDonald’s honey mustard is a fan favorite, but for those who love a little spice in their dipping sauce, their hot mustard is the way to go. This slightly spicy sauce is perfect for those who love mustard with a bit of spice without it being overly spicy. The sauce includes mustard seed, a combination of spices, vinegar, mustard, and other ingredients. 

While this is a great sauce to dip pieces of your cheeseburger in, this sauce really shines with chicken nuggets or tenders. Their French fries are delicious with this sauce too, but if you are going to try it, chicken nuggets are the way to go.


Chick-fil-A Honey Roasted BBQ Sauce 

Chick-fil-A has another show-stopping dipping sauce that Chick-fil-A brought on to pair perfectly with their grilled chicken nuggets. Some say that the honey-roasted BBQ sauce isn’t technically a dipping sauce since it comes in a squeezable packet, but you’ll want to try their chicken with this sauce. 

It almost resembles honey mustard, but it has that sweet and smoky taste people love in a barbecue sauce. The main ingredients include honey, mustard, smoke flavoring, vinegar, and several seasoning blends to get the perfect sweet and tangy taste. While most people use it for grilled chicken nuggets, it’s still just as delicious on their traditional nuggets or tenders.  


Dairy Queen Pepper Gravy 

It’s easy to forget that Dairy Queen, one of the best fast food spots for dessert, has meals too. They sell burgers and chicken tenders and their unique pepper gravy dipping sauce. This dipping sauce is standard with their chicken tender baskets. It reminds me of the gravy you get when you order biscuits at brunch. 

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They make the pepper gravy similar to how you would make any white gravy on the stovetop. Ingredients include flour, milk, plenty of pepper, and several other seasonings to ensure it has that delicious gravy taste. Some people also love dipping their French fries into the gravy because it honestly tastes like gravy and hash browns.


Arby’s Spicy Three Pepper

At first glance, Arby’s spicy three pepper sauce looks almost exactly like ketchup, but it’s not. It’s thin enough that you can spread it around on a sandwich if you want and thick enough to thoroughly coat whatever you’re dipping into it. It’s not advertised what three peppers are used to enhance the flavor, but whatever they use, it’s good. 

The other ingredients used are tomato paste or another tomato-based sauce, paprika, cayenne pepper, and a blend of other seasonings to give it that unique taste. Dipping your chicken nuggets and French fries into the sauce is the most popular option, but it can be used on sandwiches too. 


Popeyes Blackened Ranch 

As far as fast food ranch dipping sauces go, Burger King is first, but Popeyes blackened ranch comes in at a very close second. It’s one way to make some of the best fast food chicken tenders taste even better.

It’s hard to make a bad-tasting ranch dressing, in my opinion, but there’s something about the blackened ranch that makes it stick out in my mind. They make it how you would like any other ranch dressing, but they add a substantial amount of paprika to the recipe. 

The paprika in the blackened ranch dipping sauce wakes up your taste buds and adds that bit of spice many people crave when eating a creamy sauce. Obviously, their chicken menu items are the first thought when choosing what to use this sauce on, but the French fries and biscuits aren’t bad either. 


Long John Silver’s Cocktail Sauce 

Long John Silver’s is known for some of the best fried and quick seafood. Seafood doesn’t usually have a lot of dipping sauces that pair well with it, but when you order from Long John Silver’s, the cocktail sauce is the perfect addition to pretty much any meal they offer. From the fried shrimp, cod, chicken, and even hush puppies, the cocktail sauce is great. 

They make their cocktail with a combination of water, horseradish, tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, lemon juice, and other key ingredients to give it that tangy taste you crave with seafood. 


KFC Finger Lickin’ Good Sauce 

When you try KFC’s Finger Lickin’ Good sauce, you may feel the need to lick it off your fingers; it’s that good. Their signature sauce was created to pair with their fried chicken, and it’s pretty good. At first glance, it looks like a light red cream sauce, but it smells a lot like tartar sauce. Don’t be fooled, though. There’s no tartar sauce in the recipe. 

One of the main ingredients to give this sauce its unique flavor is the pickle juice. Other key ingredients include mustard, mayonnaise, and plenty of Worcestershire sauce. It’s definitely one of the more unique signature sauces from a fast food chain, but worth a try even just once. 


Eating at fast food joints brings about plenty of opportunities when it comes to dipping sauces. From creamy sauces, spicy sauces, barbecue sauces, and the restaurant’s signature recipes, the options are almost endless. 

Next time you’re in the mood for a meal from your favorite fast food restaurant, you may want to give one of their best sauces a try. The best part? Even if you don’t like it very much, you can swap it out for a different one since all you’re doing is dipping your food into it.

Chich dipping sauce is your favorite? Leave a comment and let us know so we can check it out!

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Written by Brian Nagele

Brian attended West Virginia University, then started his career in the IT industry before following his passion for marketing and hospitality. He has over 20 years experience in the restaurant and bar industry.

As a former restaurant owner, he knows about running a food business and loves to eat and enjoy cocktails on a regular basis. He constantly travels to new cities tasting and reviewing the most popular spots.

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