This Bang Bang Sauce is creamy, savory, sweet, and a little spicy. It's ready in just 5 minutes and perfect for chicken, seafood, fish, or veggies! The recipe also includes a lighter version.
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What's Bang Bang Sauce?
Bang bang sauce is a mayonnaise-based sauce or dip. It's made with mayo, sweet red chili sauce, sriracha, honey, and rice vinegar. It's super simple and really delicious. You can also make a lighter version with Greek yogurt.
Lots of uses - It's a great sauce for drizzling over rice bowls with roasted veggies, shrimp, fish, chicken, or tofu. It's also delicious served as a dip for coconut shrimp or chicken tenders.
Easy and simple - This sauce can be made and ready to eat in just 5 minutes and it uses simple, easy-to-find ingredients.
A ton of flavor - You only need 5 ingredients to make it but it's packed with flavor. It's savory, sweet, tangy, spicy, and extra creamy. Most of the flavor comes from the sweet red chili sauce which is made with pickled red chili peppers, cane sugar, garlic, rice vinegar, sea salt, and tapioca starch. It's available at most grocery stores but you can also make your own if you prefer.
Ingredients
- Mayonnaise - I prefer using organic mayonnaise made with 100% avocado oil but you can use any mayo you prefer.
- Thai sweet red chili sauce - This is an all-purpose sweet and savory sauce with mild chili notes. Because it's not overly spicy, you can add much more of it to recipes than you would hot sauce. It can be served as a dip by itself or added to sauces like this one. It's perfect for fish, seafood, veggies, or stir-fries.
- Sriracha - Sriracha isn't crazy spicy but it adds a nice heat to the sauce which is perfect for this recipe.
- Honey - The heat is balanced with sweetness and although the sweet chili sauce already has cane sugar, the recipe also calls for honey. This sauce is meant to be distinctly sweet and spicy and honey adds a nice flavor.
- Rice vinegar - All the sweetness and heat needs to be balanced with acid and I highly recommend using rice vinegar as it goes really well with all the other flavors.
Variations and Substitutions
- Vegan mayonnaise - To keep this sauce vegan, use vegan mayonnaise instead of regular one.
- Agave - Agave is a great vegan option instead of honey if you prefer.
- Different hot sauce - If you don't have sriracha, you can add any similar hot sauce you have on hand.
- Lime juice - Freshly squeezed lime juice can be used if you don't have rice vinegar.
- Greek yogurt - If you don't want to use mayonnaise, you can use full fat Greek yogurt instead. Keep in mind this will change the texture flavor making it more tangy. You could also use half mayo and half yogurt.
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Step-by-Step Instructions
Making this sauce is incredibly easy, it can be ready in as little as five minutes!
- Add all ingredients into a bowl or a jar.
- Use a small whisk or a spoon to whisk everything together until smooth.
Serving Suggestions
- Dip - You can serve this sauce as a dip for dipping coconut shrimp or chicken tenders, veggies, or even fries! It would also be delicious for dipping rice paper rolls or spring rolls.
- Fish and seafood - This sauce is perfect for drizzling over rice bowls with fish like salmon or shrimp but it goes well with practically any fish or seafood (roasted, sauteed, or fried). Try it on this Teriyaki Salmon Bowl instead of the classic spicy mayo.
- Chicken - You can drizzle this sauce over roasted or fried chicken and grain or salad bowls with chicken. You toss your sauteed chicken with the bang bang sauce or even use it in your marinade before you cook it!
- Veggies - You can coat or drizzle roasted veggies with this sauce and served them with a side of rice and your favorite protein like chicken, fish, or tofu. It's delicious on roasted broccoli or crispy cauliflower.
- Tofu - If you like making coated crispy tofu in a pan or in the oven and then tossing it with various sauces, try it with this bang bang sauce! It's absolutely amazing served over rice and roasted or steamed veggies.
- Tacos, burgers, or sandwiches - You can drizzle the sauce on tacos or add it to sandwiches and burgers instead of mayo or other sauces!
Storing
You can store leftover sauce in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 5 days. I often make the sauce in the same jar I'll store it in to save extra dishes. I don't recommend freezing the sauce.
FAQs
Spicy mayo often only has mayonnaise and hot sauce. Bang bang sauce also has sweet chili sauce, rice vinegar, and honey.
They're a little similar in flavor but yum yum sauce has tomato paste or ketchup and paprika and it doesn't have sweet chili sauce.
Bang bang sauce was originally created for a chicken dish and bang bang is literally the sound of the baton that's used to tenderize the chicken.
Similar Sauce Recipes
If you're looking for other savory sauces or dips to drizzle over rice bowls or add to burgers and wraps, try the three sauces linked below! They're all amazing in their own way. To see all the latest ones, head over to Dips, Dressings, and Spreads.
Print📖 Recipe
Bang Bang Sauce
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 4-8 1x
- Category: Sauce
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: Chinese
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This Bang Bang Sauce is creamy, savory, sweet, and a little spicy. It's ready in just 5 minutes and perfect for chicken, seafood, fish, or veggies!
Ingredients
- ½ cup mayonnaise (I use 100% avocado oil mayonnaise)
- ¼ cup Thai sweet red chili sauce
- 1-2 tablespoon sriracha (or other hot sauce to taste)
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar or freshly squeezed lime juice
Instructions
- Add all ingredients into a bowl or a jar.
- Use a small whisk or a spoon to whisk everything together until smooth.
- Store in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
Vegan alternatives: Use vegan mayonnaise and agave instead of honey to make this recipe vegan.
Lighter version: Use full-fat Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise in the recipe. Keep in mind this will change the texture slightly as well as the flavor making it more tangy.
Storing: I often put sauces into a squeeze bottle but this one has chili flakes from the Thai chili sauce so only use a squeeze bottle with a bigger opening so it’s easy to squeeze out.
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Gloria says
I have everything I need to make this sauce. The perfect topping for our fish tacos for dinner. Homemade sauces are the best!!
Katie Crenshaw says
I made this Bang Bang sauce to go over my shrimp and rice. It was fantastic and so easy to make.
Ana says
This sauce is insanely addictive! It added a perfect kick to everything I tried it with—definitely going to be a staple in my kitchen.
Meg says
Nice to have a healthier version of everyone's favorite sauce!! I love the avocado oil based mayo instead of the usual. Thank you!
Amy Liu Dong says
Oh my goodness, this is a super easy and delicious dip sauce to make. It has simple available ingredients that are available in your pantry. This is perfect for fried fish, grilled shrimp, and fried chicken wings!