Craving that signature Arby’s sauce flavor? Look no further than this spot-on copycat recipe! Tangy, sweet, and with a subtle kick, this versatile sauce is perfect for elevating your favorite sandwiches, dipping fries, or adding zing to any dish. Best of all, you can whip it up at home in just 30 minutes!
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Why you’ll love this recipe
- Better than the original: Customize the tang, sweetness, and heat to your liking
- Versatile: Enjoy on sandwiches, burgers, fries, chicken tenders, and more
- Quick and easy: Just 30 minutes and basic pantry ingredients
- Make-ahead friendly: Stores well in the fridge for up to 2 weeks
What is Arby’s sauce?
If you have never had Arby’s sauce, it has a sweet, tangy, and spicy flavor. It is a marriage made in heaven when it comes to flavor. You can make your own version of their signature sandwich at home with this easy recipe. It’s so much more than a tangy barbecue sauce!
Homemade Arby’s Sauce
Buying something to get some sauce can be expensive, but you can make Arby’s tangy sauce just like they do at home. Mix this sauce up and make the family smile. Make a batch and store it in a covered container in the refrigerator so it’s always on hand.
Ingredients
Here’s what you need for this copycat Arby’s sauce recipe:
- Ketchup – Provides the tomato base and initial sweetness
- Brown sugar – Adds depth of sweetness and helps balance the acidity
- White vinegar – Creates the signature tang and helps preserve the sauce
- Onion powder – Adds savory depth without texture
- Garlic powder – Provides essential savory notes
- Paprika – Contributes color and a subtle sweet pepper flavor
- Worcestershire sauce (Lea and Perrins) – Adds umami and complex flavor
- Salt – Enhances all other flavors
- Cayenne pepper – Provides the subtle heat kick
- Water – Helps achieve proper consistency
- Corn starch -Thickens the sauce to the perfect consistency
How to Make Arby’s Sauce
- Place all sauce ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed for 15-20 seconds.
- Pour ingredients into a small saucepan, and heat on medium-low. Simmer gently for twenty minutes, stirring several times.
- After twenty minutes, add the cornstarch mixture and stir well.
- When the sauce begins to thicken, let it simmer at a very low temperature for ten minutes.
- Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. The sauce will be similar in thickness to the steak sauce.
- Store in a covered container in the refrigerator.
Troubleshooting Tips
Sauce Too Thin?
- Simmer longer to reduce
- Make an additional cornstarch slurry
- Add 1/2 teaspoon at a time
Sauce Too Thick?
- Add water gradually
- Whisk while warming
- Adjust 1 tablespoon at a time
Lumpy Sauce?
- Strain through a fine-mesh strainer
- Blend again until smooth
- Ensure cornstarch is fully dissolved before adding
Variations and Substitutions
Make It Your Own
- Spicier Version: Double the cayenne pepper
- Sweeter Version: Add an extra tablespoon of brown sugar
- Lower Sugar: Use sugar-free ketchup and brown sugar substitute
- Gluten-Free: Ensure Worcestershire sauce is gluten-free certified
How to Use Arby’s Sauce
Of course, you’ll want to use this on your own shaved roast beef sandwich. This sauce has the perfect balance of flavor, so you can use it on other foods like:
- Pour a little on your favorite burgers for a change.
- Dip the French fries into this sauce.
- Use as a sauce for chicken tenders.
- Dip mozzarella sticks into this sauce!
- Make sloppy joes using this sauce. This is one of my family’s favorite dinners!
How to Store Arby’s Sauce
- Transfer the cooled sauce to an airtight container or jar.
- Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
- Give the sauce a good stir before using, as some separation is normal.
- Freeze in ice cube trays for easy portion control, then transfer frozen cubes to a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before using.
Frequently Asked Questions About Arby’s Sauce
No, Arby’s serves the red ranch sauce on their beef ‘n’ cheddar. The regular Arby’s sauce is used on their classic sandwich and is available in packets upon request.
This classic sauce may be considered a barbecue sauce, but it has a broader range of spices to give it more flavor. This sauce is also thinner than most traditional barbecue sauces.
Arby’s sauce tastes like a BBQ sauce that has been leveled up. It packs a kick of garlic, onion, paprika, and so much more.
Want more copycat Arby’s recipes? Try these!
- Arby’s Horsey Sauce
- Pecan Chicken Salad
- Chocolate Turnovers
- Cherry Turnovers
- A Guide to Arby’s Sauces
Easy Sandwich and Dipping Sauce Recipes
- McDonald’s Dipping Sauces – Hot Mustard
- Chick-fil-A Sauces – Honey Mustard
- Big Mac Special Sauce Recipe
- Swiss Chalet Sauce – BBQ
- Outback Tiger Dill Sauce
- BK Sauce
- Red Robin Campfire Sauce
- Smashburger Smashsauce
- Tartar Sauce
Be sure to check out more of my popular fast food copycat recipes and the best dips and sauces.
Arby’s Sauce Copycat Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 3 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients except the cornstarch into a blender with 1 cup of water and blend on high speed for 15 to 20 seconds.
- Pour the mixture into a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring several times.
- Mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water. Add the cornstarch slurry to the sauce and mix well.
- When sauce begins to thicken, let it simmer on a very low temperature for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool. The sauce should be similar in thickness to steak sauce.
- Store in a covered container in the refrigerator and serve with hamburgers, pastrami, or hot wings.
I had added a bit of clove to it and that brought this sauce to the next level and much closer to the actual Arby’s sauce. Give it a try. Either a satchel with a couple of whole cloves or just use ground cloves. Thank you for this since it’s one of my favorites!!
So true Peter – I wasn’t sure if it was clove or nutmeg, but the original sauce has one of those warming spices.
Actual Arbys Sauce, to ME, tastes like nothing more than Western salad dressing and something else — perhaps more garlic?
Well it’s not Arby’s sauce, but it’s a good sauce nevertheless, possibly better, even, than Arby’s. It’s darker in color because of the brown sugar and Wocestershire. Next time I might sub white sugar and lemon juice for brown sugar and vinegar. Other than that, make it as is, too! It’s cheap and it’s good!
I haven’t had Arby’s in years! This would be good to try and make!
Although I’ve never had Arby’s before I’m a huge fan of making homemade sauces and dips. I feel like the store-bought ones have a lot of preservatives and making your own is super simple. This had a wonderful tang to it and just a tiny bit of heat. Such a nice change to have on hand for burgers or fries. Thank you, Stephanie!
Never actually had Arby’s sauce haha but somebody made a cheddar sandwich from there on TikTok and it looked good so I made it and they also made the Arby’s sauce so looked this up. Not sure how it compares to actual Arby’s sauce but either way this recipe is soooo good. I put just a tad but more Cayenne and just a sprinkle extra of the sugar. Bomb!
Arby’s beef and cheddar does not actually have Arby’s sauce in it. It has something called red ranch. It looks like Arby’s sauce but is a completely different flavor profile. Arby’s sauce is tangy with a zip and red ranch is sweet and savory.
How long does it keep in the fridge?
This should last for between 7 to 10 days.
Just a question…..is it possible to use freeze-dried onions? I don’t have any onion powder, and I just wondered if I could use the dried onions instead. I figured that since you buzz the ingredients in the blender they just might get turned to powder.
Sure, I think that would work just fine. If you could I would definitely blend them up in your blender first. It should work just fine!
Arby’s Sauce is Heinz bbq sauce. I don’t know if Heinz makes that sauce for retail any more..
I haven’t seen it in the grocery stores for years. I used to buy a bottle once in a while to have the “Arby’s Sauce” on hand and not have to deal with those little squeeze packs.
This recipe was great had to look twice I thought I opened an Arby’s packet 👍
Bob
This is perfect, thank you. I love Arby’s sauce.
So it is basically watery bbq sauce. Huh. The more you know.
I think you can prob just adjust the water for the right consistency and blend until everything is dissolved especially the sugar.
You don’t have to do the cornstarch and cooking step. It will meld in the fridge just fine. This just overcomplicates it.
The cornstarch helps thicken it a little and the cooking step not only breaks down the sugar but the dry seasoning components as well. Blending can only do so much, but it cannot break down the fine granules of sugar completely which will leave you with a gritty sauce.
Or save yourself the work and just combine ketchup and worcestershire sauce to taste.
I think that will get you pretty far, but I think there is a little more going on in there.
very good recipe – i didn’t have cornstarch, so i just reduced the amount of water a little bit and cooked it down until the texture seemed right. i also went a bit heavy on the garlic, onion, and worschtershire, just because i like them. it’s darn close to the real deal and much cheaper too! i’ll be using this on everything from now on!
So glad you liked this.