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.

 

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), not just a remoulade for crab cakes! 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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

• White Sauce– Tomato 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. 

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.

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!

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

More Homemade Sauces

Homemade sauce recipes can make a meal so much more special and elevate it. Yum yum sauce can be used for so many things past hibachi, just give it your own special sauce name and no one will be the wiser; they’ll just think you are a fabulously brillant chef!