The Ultimate Ranking Of McDonald's Dipping Sauces

Condiments have long played a key role in making McDonald's food oh so delicious. Ketchup was once the only option at hand, but the introduction of the McNugget changed everything. Those oblong golden brown beauties made from actual chickens were developed in the test kitchen, and then given a trial run in test markets starting in 1980, before being sold nationwide by 1983. The chef leading the McNugget charge was René Arend, from Luxembourg, who had cooked for the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, Cary Grant, and Sophia Loren. He knew the McNuggets couldn't stand alone, so Arend also whipped up dipping sauces to accompany them. He told The Morning Call in 1984, "'La sauce c'est tout,' which means the sauce is everything. It enhances and diversifies the food. It adds the cook's personal touch to food."

The original sauces included Sweet and Sour, Hot Mustard, and Barbecue, which remain on the menu to this day. Over 25 different sauces have come and gone since, with limited edition ones popping up throughout each year. As of 2024, there are six permanent dipping sauces on McDonald's roster. While everyone has their personal favorite, which one is truly the best of the best? And, which should we perhaps give a rest? The Takeout has peeled back the label on all six, with a fresh set of eyes, nostrils, and wide open mouth to answer this conundrum, and create the ultimate ranking of McDonald's dipping sauces.

Sweet and sour sauce has been used in Chinese cooking for hundreds of years, before being introduced in the United States in the 19th century. As one of the original McDonald's dipping sauces, Sweet 'N Sour Sauce has proven to have quite the staying power. Chef René Arend's take on the sauce employed a secret weapon – apricot concentrate. It also happened to be his favorite. To achieve its namesake balance of flavor, apricot is joined by peach purée, distilled vinegar, soy sauce, sherry wine powder, garlic powder, onion powder, dried chile peppers, and paprika.

After peeling back its Granny Smith apple-green label, in the white dip tub lies an unattractive pool of greenish-brown jelly. It kind of resembles the amber resin in "Jurassic Park" that a mosquito and dino-DNA got stuck in to unleash future terror. I leaned in for a whiff, and its smell wasn't discernible or all that appealing.

Taking a direct taste with a spoon, neither sweetness nor sourness could be gleaned. When dipped in fries and nuggets, the sweetness comes a bit more to the forefront, but this concoction remains an odd mixture, and hard to classify its taste. It seems better suited for an egg roll than McDonald's fare, and out of the six sauces, it seems to require an acquired taste. Kind of wish this one was swapped out and replaced by the more fun, and pungent Asian-inspired sauces McDonald's has dropped liked the infamous Szechuan or WcDonald's.

Chef René Arend actually tried over 199 iterations of a Hot Mustard sauce before settling on the final version. While Hot Mustard is another Chinese food condiment staple, chef Arend clarified that his was only related in name only. The key to Arend's original Hot Mustard sauce is a mayonnaise-mustard combination, which comes together with the help of distilled vinegar, soybean oil, mustard seeds, salt, turmeric, unspecified spices, egg yolks, and paprika.

With a banana yellow label, one would assume the sauce would match in color. Instead, it resembled the "Tennessee Orange" one sees draped on the fans of the Southern University. I don't remember this sauce always looking so orange, but it looks ready to coat a wall. McDonald's had a faint yellow mustard smell to it. What it didn't seem to have, was any sense of "hot." It did have a delayed kick to it, but certainly not one that warrants its name. This sauce tastes like brown mustard with a dash of horseradish. When dipped in fries, it almost nullified the taste of the salty potato. It fared better when dipped with a McNugget, but overall it didn't have a winning taste to make it worth ordering. No wonder it's often disappeared from stores over the last decade. Skip this mustard and instead order up a cup of a much better mustard sauce on the roster.

Sweetening mustard with the aid of honey has been in the history (cook)books since the ancient Roman times. The sauce truly came into its own in the 20th century, as a side dip for chicken fingers and nuggets. McDonald's didn't even bother getting into the honey mustard game until around 2002, with the introduction of its all white meat Chicken Select Strips. These Chicken Strips were geared for adults, with sauces to supposedly match. It took nine more years for its Honey Mustard to officially join the sauce lineup, for its more kid-friendly McNuggets.

After pulling back the sandy yellowish-brown label, the sauce's color within actually matched up pretty closely. However, this golden pool is decked out with rusty flecks of seasoning. Naturally this one shares similar attributes to the Hot Mustard, utilizing ingredients such as distilled vinegar, egg yolks, soybean oil, and mustard seeds. The differences here start obviously with honey, but the surprise inclusion of white wine. Wonder how many cups of McDonald's Honey Mustard would constitute a full glass?

This sauce has a real sharp, and sweetened mustardy smell. Taking as a standalone taste, this Honey Mustard has a nice eggy zip to it. The wine also adds a nice touch, giving it a light Dijon twist. Dipping fries into this sauce helped to bring out its zestiness. While I assumed the same would happen with McNuggets, its winning appeal didn't come through as well. Still, this is your best mustard dipping option for McNuggets available.

For a long time, McDonald's was not known for spicy food. The chain gave it a go in 1984 with a limited run of Jalapeño, and Louisiana Style Hot dipping sauces. Things wouldn't really heat up until 2002 with the introduction of its Spicy Buffalo Sauce, alongside Honey Mustard, for the line of Chicken Select Strips . In 2011, Spicy Buffalo permanently joined the lineup, helping to kick things up a notch for McNuggets, and paving the way for launch of Spicy McNuggets nine years later.

Out of the six current sauces, this is the one where the label's hue exactly matches the contents inside — a beautiful Texas Longhorn burnt orange. Moving in for a smell, the familiar essence of Buffalo makes itself known. The actual taste of the sauce backs up the smell. Its spiciness resembles dashes of Frank's Red Hot Sauce drowning in a creamy ranch base. That profile is created by McDonald's cane pepper sauce, which features cayenne red peppers, distilled vinegar, water, salt, and garlic powder.

The heat of this sauce is more potent than standard Buffalo sauces. Despite one's gums flaring up, and perhaps breaking out with a case of the head sweats, it's hard to keep away from its fine potency. It works really well with both McNuggets and fries, although its taste is all encompassing. Those two items act as delivery mechanisms for this great sauce, but in turn take away what makes them delicious in the first place.

Ranch dressing was created as a low-calorie substitute for blue cheese by Steven Henson in the 1950s at his ranch in Santa Barbara, California. It has since gone on to become one of the most popular salad dressings and dips in the United States. Ranch saddled up as a dipping sauce for McDonald's when the chain launched its Chicken Selects nationwide in 2004. McDonald's blend for its own Ranch Sauce leans on such ingredients as oil, water, cultures low fat buttermilk, distilled vinegar, sugar, sea salt, garlic purée, black pepper, onion powder, salt, and parsley.

The aqua blue label gives a sense of serenity, before it's peeled back and reveals a seasoned pool of egg-white sauce, outfitted with flecks of seasoning. It kind of looks like a snowbank that caught bits and pieces of remaining fallen autumn leaves.

Right off the bat, a taste reveals a super appealing creaminess, which is followed-up by a snappy aftertaste. Even though it is not stored in a refrigerator, this awesome sauce excludes a coolness to it. Any warmed up food item that encounters it creates a juxtaposition in the mind, and the mouth, where two temperatures happily meet. Like with the Buffalo Sauce, McDonald's Ranch is an all encompassing sauce, almost eclipsing whatever it's supposed to complement as a condiment. In this case, I'm willing to make an exception because it's that good. For even further enjoyment, try actually refrigerating it.

It's actually hard to imagine a meat sauce more American today than barbecue sauce. The recipe that chef René Arend drummed up was actually a variation of the steak sauce he created for his Chopped Beefsteak Sandwich. That sauce started its brief life in 1978, alongside the forerunner to the McNugget — Onion Nuggets. Even in the test market run for McNuggets, the Barbecue Sauce was quickly becoming a favorite among customers.

It's hard to imagine any sauce more closely associated with the McNugget than the Tangy BBQ one. Peeling back the warm red label, there's not much to look at from this darkened maroon gel that occupies the white cup it sits in. It has a nice rich barbecue smell to it.

When the sauce hits the tongue, the mouth can't really do anything but smile at its greatness. While there are endless variations of BBQ sauce in America, this one is thankfully not smoky, mesquite, overly vinegary, or sugary. To me, it tastes like an upgrade of McDonald's beloved ketchup. Apparently the talents of red wine vinegar, distilled vinegar, salty soy sauce, natural smoke flavor, garlic powder, chile peppers, onion powder, and sherry wine powder unite to create something truly special and unique — the perfect McNugget dipping sauce. If there was a hall of fame of condiments, McDonald's Tangy BBQ Sauce would be a part of the inaugural class of inductees.

This dipping sauce ranking took into consideration all of the dipping sauces that exist in McDonald's menu, as of November 2024. They were ordered at a McDonald's in New York City.

The initial taste test of the sauces occurred in alphabetical order. First the sauce was tasted by itself with the help of a spoon. Then each sauce was taste tested by dunking a McNugget in them. The final test was dipping fries into each.

Each sauce was graded on its flavor, smell, and how it tasted on its own merits, and how it worked in conjunction with fries and McNuggets. The final ranking was picked by me, based on overall lovability, and likelihood to order it in the future.