How to Make Yum Yum Sauce

One of the easiest condiments you will ever make is this Yum Yum Sauce Recipe. It is quickly gaining momentum as one of the most popular sauces that you can make from scratch.

Shrimp bring dipped into Yum Yum Sauce


 

Made famous by hibachi grills, it is actually quite verstile and not at all of Japanese nature- nearly any dinner idea can benefit from a little yum yum, which is basically just an aioli or remoulade sauce (mayo based). Don’t bother buying it in grocery stores, make your own in minutes.

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

Some refer to it as Yum Yum Sauce, others the seafood sauce and sometimes just the Japanese vegetable sauce, steakhouse sauce, yummy sauce, pink sauce, Sakura sauce or hibachi shrimp sauce.

red pepper strip dipping into pink sauce

Whatever you call it, this hibachi sauce is served in many Japanese restaurants and hibachi grills can be quite addictive and end up on much more of your food than just seafood. I happen to like it on hibachi chicken, crab cakes and also as a salad dressing.

In fact, some folks swear by it, blending it with fried rice and dipping everything on their dish in it. Honestly, I think some people crave the sauce, more than the actual meal. 

bowl of fried rice

Homemade Yum Yum Sauce Ingredients

This tangy sauce is made from simple ingredients.

  • Mayonnaise (a blend of egg yolks and oil)– One of the main ingredients, this is the creamy base of the sauce.
  • Tomato paste or tomato sauce– gives it the pink hue, but do not use ketchup, which is sweetened.
  • Butter– Adds a velvety texture.
  • Garlic powder & Onion Powder- For flavor, adjust according to personal preference. I happen to go heavy on these…
  • Smoked paprika– Also gives the rosy appearance, but a faint sweet and smoky element. Use plain sweet paprika, but stay away from the hot and spicy ones.
  • Sugar – Balances the acidity.
  • Hot sauce or Sriracha Sauce- Gives our sauce a little zing and an edge. If you don’t want any heat, just swap for white vinegar, rice wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar.

The base of this popular sauce is almost always mayonnaise. For this, I highly suggest using a crappy mayo. Yep. I just said it.

DO NOT USE GOOD MAYONNAISE. Good mayo has too much tang and pizzazz by itself. For this homemade yum yum sauce recipe, you need a bland mayo. A blank slate, if you will.

How to Make Yum Yum Sauce

The truth is, it is so simple to make at home that now you can eat it on everything you want.

There are many imitation sauces out there and depending on which hibachi steakhouse you go to, ingredients will vary slightly, so keep that in mind and try playing with our base recipe until you reach YOUR perfect sauce.

  1. Mix the Ingredients. Combine all ingredients into a small food processor and blend until fully incorporated. You can do this by hand with a whisk, but a food processor is much more efficient.
  2. Let the Flavors Mix. Place into an airtight container and chill for at least 2-3 hours, or overnight. The flavors need time to marry and combine before it reaches fully flavor perfection.
whisk in bowl of yum yum sauce

Variations

We want you to make it yummy for YOU and we also appreciate that every restaurant tends to make it different. Here is a jumping off point to make yours the best!

  • Sweeter Sauce– While I don’t suggest it, you can use ketchup, tomato paste or even sweet chili sauce. Ketchup will give you the sweetest flavor. You can also add a small amount of sugar to tomato paste. Chili sauce will be zingy.
shrimp with chopsticks dipping into sauce
Shrimp Dipping into Pink Sauce
  • White SauceTomato paste and smoked paprika are what take this from white sauce to pink sauce. If your dream yum yum sauce is on the whiter end, chances are that your restaurant doesn’t use as much of these ingredients. Omit the paprika and use a small amount of tomato based ingredients.
  • Spicy Sauce– Some recipes call for cayenne pepper, but I prefer mine to be smoky and sweet, not spicy. If you like the heat, go ahead and add it! Also taste it and season to your preference for salt and pepper. 
  • Thick or Thin– I like my sauce creamy, so it really sticks to my shrimp, rice or steak. To watery and it just drips right off. Others might be a little more runny and that is usually because of the addition of rice vinegar, which also adds flavor. Like I said previously, every restaurant has their own version, so you might have a little trial and error before getting yours right. But you prefer a looser version, by all means add more water or rice vinegar! Some folks want theirs to be a pourable. Just go slow until you get your desired consistency.
  • Add Fats- Some also use more oil, like olive oil, but I find there is enough in the mayo and it is overkill with the butter. If you don’t have butter, use olive oil as a substitute. You can also use margarine, but remember that is just vegetable oil with butter flavoring. A good European butter will give you more bang for your buck than a low grade American butter.
  • Spice it Up- Other folks will even double the amount of spices so it really packs a punch. My advice is to make the basic dipping sauce recipe and then modify from there to match your ideal Homemade Yum Yum Sauce or to match your local hibachi style grill. 
wooden bowl of yum yum sauce
Hibachi Sauce in a Serving Bowl

How to use Homemade Yum Yum Sauce

Don’t just serve it with Japanese food, this is a fantastic dipping sauce or slathering sauce for so many things. Here are a few of our favorites.

overhead of bowl of yum yum sauce

Yum Yum storage & make ahead instructions

Make Ahead: Please, please make this ahead of time! The flavors will be so much better if they have time to sit and mingle with each other. You can make it and eat it right away, but it won’t have the same impact. Store in an airtight container or a an airtight jar.

Leftovers: Store leftover sauce, covered, in the fridge for up to a week. Give it a good stir before using.

Freezing: I do not recommend freezing any mayonnaise based sauces. But I’ve also never heard of anyone having leftovers… even when they made a double batch!

Homemade Yum Yum Sauce pinterest pin
Homemade Yum Yum

Yum Yum Sauce Recipe Easy tips

  • My Yum Yum Sauce Doesn’t Taste Right. What Did I Do Wrong? You probably did nothing wrong! Every single Japanese Hibachi joint has its own recipe for their white sauce, seafood sauce or yum yum sauce depending on what they call it.
    Yours is probably just a little different than mine. Play with the amounts of ingredients to get the right flavor.
  • The sauce I want is whiter… Cut back on the tomato paste, tomato sauce or paprika.
  • The sauce I want is spicer… Add hot paprika or more hot sauce.
  • The sauce I want is sweeter….Double the sugar and omit the hot sauce. Also option to add crushed red pepper flakes.
  • I want to make mine fancy, how do I do that? I would garnish with a few sesame seeds, either regular or black and serve your dipping sauce as a duo with either a good quality soy sauce or tonkatsu sauce.

Yum Yum Sauce FAQs

Is yum yum sauce gluten free?

Yum yum sauce is generally gluten free. I am not a gluten free expert, nor a trained professional, however to my knowledge, all of these ingredients are gluten free. 

Does yum yum sauce have dairy?

Yes. Butter is dairy unless you use clarified butter (ghee) with milk solids removed.

Does yum yum sauce have raw eggs?

The majority of yum yum sauce, including my recipe, has mayonnaise, which is made with raw egg. If you are cool with mayonnaise, you’ll be cool with yum yum sauce. 

Is Yum Yum Sauce Japanese?

Lastly, I want everyone to know that Japanese seafood sauce is not really all that Japanese. 
You will not find it in Japan. It is a very Americanized “Japanese” recipe. I’ve been there. There is NO Yum Yum sauce in Japanese cuisine, it is not authentic.

Is yum yum sauce just sriracha mayo?

No. While they are both mayo based, yum yum sauce doesn’t have any sriracha in it and also has a blend of others spices.

Shrimp dipping into yum yum sauce

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Listen, this yum yum sauce might not be exactly like the one you are dreaming of, but over 100,000 people love it and use it regularly. You should be one of them!

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whisking ingredients for yum yum sauce

Yum Yum Sauce Recipe (Easy!)

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Yum Yum Sauce is an easy sauce for seafood and vegetables.  Now you can make your favorite pink sauce at home!
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Refrigeration Time: 12 hours
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 6

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Combine mayonnaise, tomato paste, melted butter, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, water, sugar and hot sauce in a small food processor. Blend well.
  • For best results, allow sauce to chill and flavors to marry for at least 1 hour.
  • If you've tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the comments or ratings.

Video

Notes

Yum Yum Sauce taste and ingredients changes from restaurant to restaurant. Some are pink, others white, some sweet and others spicy. Feel free to modify this recipe so it tastes like YOUR yum yum sauce. 
Use bottled ketchup or our homemade ketchup recipe!

Nutrition

Calories: 578 kcal, Carbohydrates: 9 g, Protein: 1 g, Fat: 59 g, Saturated Fat: 11 g, Cholesterol: 41 mg, Sodium: 552 mg, Potassium: 118 mg, Sugar: 8 g, Vitamin A: 820 IU, Vitamin C: 1.3 mg, Calcium: 13 mg, Iron: 0.6 mg
Author: Jessica Formicola
Calories: 578
Course: Condiment
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: hibachi sauce, japanese shrimp sauce, pink sauce, Yum yum sauce
Did you make this recipe?I’d love to see your recipes – snap a picture and mention @savoryexperiments or tag #savoryexperiments!
Jessica Formicola in her ktichen

About the Author

Jessica Formicola

Jessica the mom, wife and food lover behind Savory Experiments. She is obsessed with butter, salt and bacon and spends all her time in the kitchen and behind a camera. Jessica is a contributor to PopKitchen by Parade, Better Homes & Gardens, The Daily Meal Food + Travel and more!

Read More About Jessica

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Recipe Rating




Questions and Reviews

  1. 5 stars
    I just wanted to say this sounds amazing! I have been looking for a good yum yum sauce recipe and can’t wait to try this! I wanted to ask if you knew how long this keeps if you put it in a sealed bottle?

  2. 5 stars
    I’m going to make this asap I love yum yum sauce but always bought it from the grocery store me loving foods sauces etc know when it’s homemade it’s always better thanks I’ll let you know how I enjoyed it

  3. 5 stars
    This recipe has been a staple for me for the past 3 years. Tried my hand at homemade hibachi and this was 1 of 4 recipes I tried out and is by far THE best!!!! I use Hellmann’s Mayo, added Sriracha, and 4 T of sugar because I like it sweet and tangy, but I thank you tremendously for the groundwork lol

  4. I don’t use mayonnaise, so I don’t want to buy something because a recipe calls for it, can I use Miracle Whip salad dressing for the yummy sauce?

    1. Sure- it might have a little tang to it, but you can use it. You can also swap with plain greek yogurt or sour cream. Full fat though so it is thick and creamy.

  5. 5 stars
    I made this and added a little ground ginger – you are also missing the mirin and rice vinegar I have seen in other recipes. I didn’t have mirin so I used Marsala instead. For your recipe to would be 2 tbsp mirin and 4 tsp rice vinegar. Also I didn’t add salt and pepper – doesn’t need extra salt with those ingredients – pepper would be ok but I think white pepper imho – I also did not add water – consistency should be thick like mayo

    1. Thanks for the feedback- I think it depends on the restaurant and the sauce, they vary greatly from place to place. But I love variations!

  6. 5 stars
    This easy and quick Yum Yum sauce will be made often in my house. I’ve never tried it with boiled shrimp like you show in your video. Will be trying that ASAP!

  7. 5 stars
    I can never get enough yum yum sauce! There’s no wonder why it has the name that it does. This version is so good and so easy!

  8. 5 stars
    I am too a food lover. I really appreciate the effort you have placed in this post. Just like the military has taught me over the years, “If you have a problem, come to the table with a solution”, in which you already answered within your post. I am making this recipe tonight. I did not realize it would be this easy. Thank you for the dedication you input to this post.

  9. 5 stars
    Very good sauce. Used on homemade hibachi. Made half recipe as I did not need a full batch. Would recommend please providing volume of sauce the recipe will make instead of servings for recipes like this.