The BEST Red Robin Campfire Sauce Copycat (2024)

This Red Robin Campfire Sauce recipe is a spot-on copycat of the one served at Red Robin! Made in less than 5 minutes with just 2 ingredients (NO mayo!), this addicting fry sauce has a tangy, smoky, and slightly sweet flavor that you just can’t. stop. eating. Whether served with fries, onion rings, burgers, or chicken nuggets, it’s the BEST dipping sauce!

This may be the most perfect dipping sauce on the planet. Of all the tasty sauces out there, this Red Robin Campfire Sauce copycat recipe is the one that won me over. I'm not ashamed of my obsession.

It’s also known as Red Robin onion ring sauce, campfire mayo, or fry sauce. No matter what you call it, you’ll be serving it on everything from burgers to french fries to hot dogs in no time.

For other copycat recipes, try these Crumbl Peanut Butter Cookie Copycat or this Applebee's White Chocolate Maple Blondies!

🏅 Why this is the best campfire sauce recipe

There are several other copycat recipes out there for Red Robin dipping sauces, but we found that none of them truly had the same addicting flavor and tang as the original campfire sauce. Instead they tasted like best foods brand mayonnaise masked with barbecue sauce and chipotle powder, which left a very flat, disappointing taste in our mouths (and is NOT like the original).

So we went to work! We tested rounds (and more rounds) of this sauce with different ingredients, brands, spices, and ratios until we had the perfect Red Robin Campfire Sauce. You can technically buy Red Robin Campfire Sauce (affiliate), but this homemade version is totally worth it!

• Tastes like the original 👏
• 2 ingredients
• Fast and easy (just 5 minutes including cleanup!)
• Tangy and flavorful without a mayo-y aftertaste
• Amazing on practically everything (well maybe not everything… but close 😜)

🍟 Ingredients you need

Many copycat recipes use mayonnaise, ranch dressing, or sour cream as a base, then add chipotle pepper or chili powder, garlic powder, soy sauce, hot sauce, etc. We switch gears completely, keep it to 2 simple ingredients, and find that the taste is much closer to the original flavor.

Although you can use whatever brands you prefer, we found that the brands below gave us the closest taste to the original Red Robin dipping sauce (This post is not sponsored by these brands. I have included links to view the exact product, but they can be found cheaper at your local grocery store).

• Thousand Island dressing: We used Ken’s Steakhouse Thousand Island Dressing (affiliate). This dressing adds that tang that so many other recipes were missing, along with a hint of sweet.
• Barbecue sauce: Our preferred BBQ sauce is Sweet Baby Rays Hickory and Brown Sugar (affiliate). If you use a different brand, try to choose a smokey bbq sauce with a hickory and brown sugar flavor profile. The original also has a hint of whiskey flavor, which you can find in some BBQ sauces.

🥄 Equipment

You just need a bowl, whisk, and standard measuring cups to make this recipe.

🥣 How to make copycat Red Robin campfire sauce

In a medium bowl, mix together ½ cup barbecue sauce and ¾ cup thousand island. That's it! Depending on what brands you use, you may need to add a tiny bit of water to thin the sauce to your desired consistency.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 For a crowd

This sauce would be AMAZING for a burger bar or grilling party! The recipe makes about 1 ¼ cups. You can easily double, triple, or quadruple the recipe depending on the size of your crowd.

🍔 How to serve

You can dip so many things in this copycat of Red Robin Campfire Sauce! It makes a killer sauce for french fries, onion rings, sweet potato fries, curly fries, or tater tots. You can also serve it with chicken nuggets, as a burger sauce, on hot dogs, on a wrap, or on a crispy chicken sandwich. Yummm!

🧊 Storage

You can store this in the fridge for up to 1 week in an airtight container or jar. I suggest storing it in glass or plastic, but avoid aluminum foil as it may taint the flavor.

It thickens once it is refrigerated, so you may need to loosen the sauce slightly by adding ½ teaspoon of water at a time until it has reached the desired consistency. Be careful not to add too much, since it will water down the flavor.

I have used up every drop of this sauce every time I make it, so I have not had a need to freeze any. Since I haven't tried it, I cannot say how it would hold.

🙋 Questions and answers

👨🏼‍🍳 Tips & tricks

• Try it with the brands listed in the recipe card for the closest taste to the true Red Robin Campfire Sauce.
• Avoid storing this sauce with aluminum foil as it may taint the flavor. I suggest storing it in glass or plastic.
• Try refrigerating it for a few hours to let the flavors deepen before serving.
• After refrigerating, you may need to loosen the sauce by adding ½ teaspoon of water at a time until it has reached the desired consistency.

📖 More simple recipes

• This 4-Ingredient Slow Cooker Potato Soup is one of our most visited recipes. And for good reason! It’s creamy, flavorful, and so easy to make.
• For a simple appetizer, try this 3-Ingredient Cheese Ball with cream cheese, ranch dressing mix, and walnuts. Yum!
• For an easy grilling dinner, make this 4-Ingredient Chicken Marinade. Super easy and tastes like a Cracker Barrel Chicken copycat!
• Another easy but impressive appetizer is Chicken Apple Sausage Bites with maple glaze.
• This Spicy Honey is just a few ingredients and delicious on almost everything.

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Recipe

The products in this recipe may contain ingredients such as sodium benzoate, high fructose corn syrup, egg yolks, soybean oil, lemon juice concentrate, citric acid, potassium sorbate, natural smoke flavor, xanthan gum, caramel coloring, hydrolyzed soy protein, or others. Please check the product labels for full ingredient lists and nutrition information.