This Best Burger Sauce Recipe is truly the best sauce to add to your burgers.  It’s very much like a Thousand Island dressing, and it’s the perfect pairing for hamburgers!  Watch the video in the post showing you how to make the Best Burger Sauce Recipe, then scroll to the very bottom of this post and print out the recipe so you can make it at home.

Best Burger Sauce Recipe in a Jar

The Best Burger Sauce:

It has been 3 years since my cookbook- The Recipe Girl Cookbook– was published, and I’m still picking it up and making the recipes.  Since I packed the book full of 195 of my favorites, my family has things that they request again and again. This Best Burger Sauce Recipe is one of the recipes in my cookbook that my family asks me to make again and again.  There’s a big story behind it.

Penguin Drive In - Carson City, Nevada

When I was 15, I talked my way into a job at a little mom and pop ice cream and fast food shack called The Penguin. It was one of those places where you stop when you’re driving through a small town on a long road trip, flashing frostie sign luring you in.  It was also a place that was very popular with the locals.

The malts, dipped cones, and finger-sized French fries were among the favorite menu items.  Even the Penguin tacos were a big hit!  But the burgers were what kept people coming back.

Burger with Best Burger Sauce Recipe on it

The Penguin Burger was by far the best burger the town of Carson City, Nevada has ever seen.  I grilled up my share of Penguin Burgers working there as a young high school student, and I topped them all with a secret, special sauce that made them so delicious. The sauce was so good that people often asked for a side of the sauce to dip their French fries in it!

Is this Best Burger Sauce Recipe the same thing as Thousand Island Dressing?

Pretty much!  That’s something McDonald’s did right back in the day with the creation of their “special sauce.”  That special sauce turned out to be very similar to Thousand Island Salad Dressing, and it turns out to be a delicious addition to hamburgers!  I don’t keep Thousand Island Salad Dressing in my refrigerator, so it’s nice to have this recipe to whip it up for burgers when I’m grilling.

Best Burger Sauce Recipe in a jar

The Penguin was torn down several years ago to make room for a gas station conglomerate, but my Penguin Burgers’ special sauce recipe is a nod to what those burgers were all about.

The full recipe for the actual Penguin “Burgers” is in my cookbook, but I’m sharing the special sauce with you today so you can add it to your own burgers!

Jar of Best Burger Sauce Recipe

You may want to add the Best Burger Sauce to my Turkey Garden Burgers or these Blue Cheese Burgers. It’s such a great addition to a burger!  And be sure to serve your burgers with either my Old Fashioned Macaroni Salad or my favorite All American Potato Salad.

Here are a few more burger-themed recipes you might enjoy:

4.72 from 14 votes

Best Burger Sauce Recipe

This burger sauce is the absolute best addition to your grilled hamburgers!
Prep: 6 minutes
Total: 6 minutes
Servings: 6 servings
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Ingredients

  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
  • ½ to 1 teaspoon granulated white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated onion
  • teaspoon salt
  • dash of freshly ground black pepper
  • dash of ground cayenne pepper

Instructions 

  • In a small bowl, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients. If you tend to like a sweeter sauce, add 1 full teaspoon of sugar. Add ½ teaspoon to cut the sweetness.
  • Refrigerate the sauce until your burgers are ready to assemble. This may be may up to 1 day ahead.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 136kcal, Carbohydrates: 2g, Fat: 13g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 7mg, Sodium: 225mg, Potassium: 15mg, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 60IU, Vitamin C: 0.2mg

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

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4.72 from 14 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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50 Comments

  1. Jen says:

    5 stars
    I see us not only using this on burgers but to dip our fries in! It’s sounds so delicious and super easy to make. Love it!

  2. Laura says:

    5 stars
    This sauce works!! Wow!

  3. Leah N says:

    5 stars
    Really good! Thanks for the easy recipe. I made exactly as-is (1/2 tsp of sugar) and it was perfect. I may add more than just a dash of cayenne pepper next time, i like a little heat. Thanks for the recipe!

  4. Aman says:

    I could not find any sweet pickle relish in my country. Do you have an alternative for sweet pickle relish that i can use ?

    1. Lori Lange says:

      Chopped pickles is a perfectly fine substitute.

  5. Dean says:

    I was looking just to looking for an onion sauce when I came across your recipe. I moved to Carson City in 1976 and The Penguin was the first place I ate. Thanks for the memories and the recipe!

    1. Lori Lange says:

      how fun! Thanks for commenting!

  6. Bryan says:

    I’m on a low carb diet. Do you know what the nutritional values are ???

    1. Lori Lange says:

      I’m not sure, but you can use an online recipe calculator to figure it out 🙂

  7. Peggy Walsh Komadina says:

    Sounds like this could be similar to Artic Circles fry sauce. I’m not a fan of pickle relish, sweet or dill, so I’m going to leave out the relish. I think it would make a great topping on baked potatoes.

  8. Jennifer says:

    That is a homemade thousand island recipe!

    1. Lori Lange says:

      Very similar- yes.

  9. Barbara Pace says:

    I got super excited when I first started reading this. I too worked at a little mom and pop ice cream and burger joint named the Penguin when I was younger. But it was in Turlock CA. They owner maid all the ice cream himself and we had a special burger sauce as well, the recipe is different than this one. When I was a small child we would drive. 45 min. just to get the ice cream and burgers. It was a very popular place to all the local towns around it. Some of my best memories is working there.

    1. Lori Lange says:

      How fun!!!!

  10. Mitchell says:

    Really good, and so effortless. We had it on burgers, and there was still a lot left and l used it on corned beef leftovers from a New England boiled dinner.

    1. Lori Lange says:

      Great idea, thanks for the tip!