Boom Boom Sauce is a sweet and spicy sauce made of mayonnaise, chili sauce, ketchup, and in this recipe, fresh garlic. It sounds too simple to be delicious, but trust me, this is an addictively sweet, spicy and garlicky sauce that's perfect for french fries, shrimp, burgers, chicken and more.
If you like Boom Boom Sauce you'll also want to try my recipe for another homemade dipping sauce, Bang Bang Sauce. Both sauces are creamy with a sweet spicy kick. If you want straight up spicy and garlicky, then go for Sriracha aioli.
You'll also love horseradish aioli, which is a creamy dip with a spicy kick of horseradish and garlic.
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Ingredients
Mayonnaise: This ingredient gives the sauce its creamy base. You can use your favorite brand of regular or vegan mayo.
Ketchup: This is an easy way to add tomato flavor that's zesty and just slightly sweet.
Sweet chili sauce: You can find jars of this ingredient in most grocery stores, usually in the aisle that has Asian sauces and condiments. Sweet chili sauce is quite sweet and also spicy. It is made of sugar, chili pepper, vinegar, garlic and other ingredients. Sweet chili sauce is an essential ingredient of Boom Boom Sauce and gives the sauce its signature sweet-spicy flavor.
Sriracha sauce: Sriracha is a popular chili sauce (pronounced SIR-rotch-ah) that was created by Huy Fong Foods in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. The sauce is inspired by Thai sriracha, but has its own unique flavor and ingredients. It's made from chilies ground into a smooth paste and blended with vinegar, sugar, salt and garlic. It is tangy, spicy and just slightly sweet.
Garlic: I use fresh garlic in this recipe. I prefer the freshness of real garlic over powdered garlic, and I think you will too!
Flavor Tip: If you'd like the sauce to have a brighter, tangier flavor, add ½ teaspoon or more of rice vinegar.
Substitutions
Homemade Boom Boom sauce needs 3 key ingredients that you can't substitute: Mayonnaise, sweet chili sauce and ketchup.
Sriracha can be slightly harder to find in grocery stores and is added in small amounts to this recipe, so you can substitute another type of hot sauce. Evergreen Kitchen has a good list of best sriracha substitutes.
Garlic is usually added to Boom Boom Sauce in the form of garlic powder. Instead of fresh garlic, you can add ½ teaspoon of garlic powder. Many recipes for this sauce also add ½ teaspoon of onion powder.
How to Make Boom Boom Sauce
Making homemade Boom Boom Sauce is really easy. You don't even need step-by-step instructions that show how to make it. You just pour ingredients from bottles and mix the sauce together! For exact ingredient measurements, see the recipe card at the end of the blog post.
Whisk together mayonnaise, ketchup, sweet chili sauce, hot sauce and fresh garlic.
Adjust the flavor to your liking, adding more chili sauce for sweetness, more hot sauce for heat and more ketchup to cut the mayo flavor.
If you'd like to thin out the sauce to make it pourable, just whisk in a few tablespoons of water.
A teaspoon a rice vinegar will give the sauce tangy, zippy flavor.
What to Serve with Boom Boom Sauce
French fries: This is definitely a fry sauce for lovers of mayo and ketchup who also love a kick of spiciness. This sauce makes veggie fries (like zucchini or carrot fries) taste more indulgent.
Sweet potato fries: The slightly sweet flavor of sweet potato fries is perfect with this sweet and spicy sauce.
Onion rings: You might notice a pattern...this is a go-to dipping sauce for any type of fried food!
Shrimp: You can dip any type of shrimp into Boom Boom Sauce. Serve this sauce instead of cocktail sauce with raw or pan-seared shrimp. Use it as a dipping sauce for Boom boom shrimp, coconut shrimp, or grilled shrimp skewers.
Chicken: This sauce pairs best with fried chicken or chicken tenders. It's delicious on a chicken sandwich.
Burgers: Use this as burger sauce for beef burgers, turkey burgers and salmon burgers.
Veggie burgers: A veggie burgers is more flavorful and decadent with Boom Boom sauce!
Steamed or grilled vegetables: Looking for an easy dip for grilled veggie skewers? Craving more flavor on your steamed veggies? Try Boom Boom Sauce!
Fish tacos: Creamy and spicy, this sauce also works well over fish tacos or as a dip for battered fish sticks.
How to Store
Because of the fresh garlic, this sauce tastes best if eaten within 3 to 5 days. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
The sauce thickens when it's in the refrigerator. If you'd like to loosen it up a bit, just whisk in a few tablespoons of water.
FAQ
It's a mayonnaise and tomato-based sauce (ketchup) that is mixed with sweet and tangy chili sauce, hot sauce and garlic. It's most often served with chicken, shrimp, french fries and other types of fried food.
There is a very similar sauce served at Sheetz convenience stores/gas stations. Many restaurants also serve a similar sauce that is sometimes called Boom Boom Sauce and sometimes given a different name.
It tastes like spicy mayonnaise that is also sweet and tangy.
The main ingredients for Boom Boom Sauce are mayonnaise, sweet chili sauce and ketchup. It is also usually made of Sriracha and either fresh garlic or garlic powder and onion powder. It sometimes contains mustard and a squeeze of lime.
You can control the level of heat by adding less chili sauce and hot sauce. Or, you can make the sauce really spicy by adding more hot sauce. It's up to you!
Yum Yum Sauce is similar to Boom Boom Sauce, but has slightly different ingredients. The main difference is that Yum Yum Sauce doesn't add sweet chili sauce. It might also include vinegar, sesame oil, paprika and garlic powder. Water is often added to thin out Yum Yum sauce and make the consistency more pourable.
The two sauces are slightly different. Both are made from mayonnaise and sweet chili sauce. The difference is that Bang Bang Sauce doesn't add ketchup.
Sriracha is a popular chili sauce (pronounced SIR-rotch-ah) that was created by Huy Fong Foods in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. It was created in the early 1980s by Mr. David Tran who is of Chinese heritage but was born in Vietnam. He is quoted by the New York Times as saying he made Sriracha for the Asian community but knew it had multicultural appeal. Sriracha sauce is also known as rooster sauce because there is a rooster on the label.
📖 Recipe
5-Ingredient Boom Boom Sauce Recipe
Boom Boom Sauce is a sweet and spicy sauce made of mayonnaise, chili sauce, ketchup, and in this recipe, fresh garlic. It's creamy, garlicky, sweet and spicy - a perfect dipping sauce for french fries, shrimp, burgers, chicken and more.
- Prep Time: 5
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 ½ cups of sauce
- Category: side dishes
- Method: Mix
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup sweet chili sauce
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 2 to 3 teaspoons Sriracha (or other hot sauce)
- 1 small garlic clove, very finely chopped (I use a garlic press)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients.
- Adjust the flavor to your liking, adding more chili sauce for sweetness, more hot sauce for heat and more ketchup to cut the mayo flavor.
Notes
To add more tanginess to the sauce, add a ½ teaspoon of rice vinegar.
The sauce stays fresh for 3 to 5 days in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
If you'd like less sauce, simply cut the recipe ingredient amounts in half. You don't have to worry too much about adding exact measurements of ketchup and chili sauce, just taste as you go.
Kushigalu says
Love the combination of ingredients in this sauce recipe. So flavorful. Thanks for sharing.
Anjali says
This sauce is so delicious!! We served it on top of veggie burgers for dinner last night and we loved it!
Suja md says
This looks and sounds fabulous! Love this recipe. It's a perfect dish for my family.
Jess says
Love this sauce: I love how versatile sauce the sauce is as it is great for dipping and spreading!
Jacqueline Debono says
This is my new favourite fries dipping sauce. Love the sweet spicy flavour and even the colour!
Jenny says
This sauce is really easy to make and really versatile.