Yum Yum Sauce is so easy to make and just as good as your favorite Japanese hibachi restaurant!  You’ll love this tangy, savory, sweet sauce on any meat!

yum yum sauce in bowl

YUM YUM SAUCE!  To go along with our Hibachi Chicken post from earlier this week of course!  We can’t have hibachi without this stuff, it is so good!  This sauce is made with super simple ingredients and you probably have most all of them in your pantry!  It took several tries and experimenting, but I am happy to say this tastes just as good as the restaurant!  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!  You could easily also serve this over London Broil or any chicken at all like Baked Chicken Breast or even Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs!

This might be the shortest post I’ve ever made on this blog!  But, the recipe is really self explanatory.  You’ll just grab a bowl, or a jar and whisk everything together!  As far as vinegar goes, I like rice vinegar best so use it if you can.  If not, apple cider vinegar will absolutely do just fine.  I like to thin our sauce out quite a bit and typically use about 3 Tablespoons of water.  I do this so we can drizzle it over the meat.  You can also keep it thicker and use it as more of a dipping sauce.  Once everything is mixed up, it really is best to let this sauce chill for several hours to let the flavors combine.  I’d say at least an hour, and really up to 24 if you can.  Yum yum sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

hibachi chicken with yum yum sauce

Enjoy!

~Nichole

5 from 266 votes

Yum Yum Sauce

Yum Yum Sauce is so easy to make and just as good as your favorite Japanese hibachi restaurant!  You'll love this tangy, savory, sweet sauce on any meat!
Prep 5 minutes
Chill Time 1 hour
Servings 8

Ingredients 

Instructions 

  • Whisk all ingredients together in a medium bowl until smooth, using only 1 Tablespoon of water to start, and adding more as needed for desired consistency.
  • Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving for best flavor.
  • Store leftover sauce in a tightly sealed container or jar for up to 5 days.

Nutrition

Serving: 2TBSP, Calories: 200kcal

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Japanese
Like this? Rate & review this recipe below!

Hey! Nice to meet you! I'm Nichole!

Welcome to The Salty Marshmallow! I'm a mom, animal lover, photographer, & kitchen mess-maker. Here you will find the result of my decades-long passion for chasing the best flavors in the kitchen, all meant to be cooked by regular people with busy lives just like you and me.

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81 Comments

  1. 4 stars
    Excellent! I added a little sriracha because I like the kick. The first time I made this, I used rice vinegar, and it was perfect. The second time, I used Apple cider vinegar. I definitely prefer and would recommend rice vinegar.

  2. 5 stars
    Excellent recipe. Just what I’ve wanted. Thank you for taking the time to figure this out. You did well!

  3. Made with apple cider vinegar because I was in a bind and didn’t have rice vinegar. Not too bad. Definitely rice vinegar next time.

    Has anyone made it with regular vinegar? Or omit the vinegar all together?

    1. I too would like to omit the vinegar, I feel as if I never taste it in Hibachi restaurants. All the store bought Yum Yum sauces definitely go overboard and all I taste is vinegar.

  4. Should we use natural (mild) rice wine, or seasoned? I’m looking at the Nakano brand and I’m not sure if it matters.