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    Home » Recipes » Snacks & Drinks

    Published: Sep 7, 2021 by Misty · This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see our privacy policy.

    The BEST Red Robin Campfire Sauce (Perfect Copycat!)

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    Overhead platter of fries with bowl of campfire sauce and text overlay.
    Fry dipping in bowl of Red Robin onion ring sauce with text overlay.

    This Red Robin Campfire Sauce recipe is a spot-on copycat of the one served at Red Robin! Made with just 2 ingredients and in less than 5 minutes, 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! 

    Bowl of Red Robin dipping sauce surrounded by fries and chicken tenders.
    This Red Robin fry sauce is easy, flavorful, and addicting - just like the original!
    Skip to:
    • 🏅 Why this is the BEST Campfire Sauce recipe
    • 🍟 Ingredients
    • 🥣 How to make campfire sauce
    • 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 For a crowd
    • 🙋 Questions and Answers
    • 👨🏼‍🍳 Tips & Tricks
    • 📖 More recipes with few ingredients
    • 👋🏻 Connect with us!
    • 📋 Recipe
    • 💬 Comments

    This may be the most perfect dipping sauce on the planet.

    I know that’s a big claim, but this Red Robin Campfire Sauce copycat recipe won’t take long to win you over. 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 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. Here are some highlights of the final recipe

    • 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 😜)
    Bottles of Thousand Island dressing and barbecue sauce on counter.
    This recipe only needs 2 simple ingredients - Thousand Island dressing and barbecue sauce.

    🍟 Ingredients

    This recipe is made with just 2 ingredients. 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.

    🥣 How to make campfire sauce

    You can’t get much easier than this fry sauce. Just measure and mix! Depending on what brands you use, you may need to add a bit of water to thin the sauce to your desired consistency. 

    Glass bowl with whisk resting in mixed fry sauce.
    Literally just mix the sauces together and viola! Less than 5 minutes until the best fry sauce ever.

    👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 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. 

    Overhead view of platter of french fries and bowl of Red Robin onion ring sauce.
    Red Robin dipping sauces are amazing in general, but campfire sauce (aka onion ring sauce) beats them all!

    🙋 Questions and Answers

    What is Red Robin’s Campfire Sauce made of? 

    To get the same taste as the original, you make this sauce with a mixture of Thousand Island dressing and hickory brown sugar barbecue sauce. Easy!

    Is campfire sauce vegan?

    No, campfire sauce isn’t vegan because the dressing is mayonnaise based, which contains eggs. 

    Does it matter what brands of ingredients I use? 

    Yes! Technically you can use any brand you like and you will get a similar sauce, but we found that the specific brands listed in the recipe card gave us the closest taste to the original Red Robin Campfire Sauce. We recommend trying it with the listed brands first!

    What should I serve with campfire sauce? 

    This makes a killer sauce for french fries, burgers, onion rings, or chicken nuggets. 

    👨🏼‍🍳 Tips & Tricks

    • Try it with the brands listed in the recipe card for the closest taste to the true Red Robin onion ring sauce. 
    • Store the campfire sauce in an airtight container for up to 1 week for best results. 
    • 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.
    Close view of french fry being dipped into fry sauce.
    Whether you eat it with french fries, chicken nuggets, or slathered on burgers, this fry sauce will leave you craving more!

    📖 More recipes with few ingredients

    • 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.

    👋🏻 Connect with us!

    If you try this recipe, please leave a comment and star rating to let us know how it is! We’d also love to connect with you on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Tag @borrowedbites or hashtag #borrowedbites to show us your food!

    📋 Recipe

    Fry dipping into bowl of Red Robin Campfire Sauce copycat recipe.

    The BEST Red Robin Campfire Sauce (Perfect Copycat!)

    This Red Robin Campfire Sauce recipe is a spot-on copycat of the one served at Red Robin! Made with just 2 ingredients and in less than 5 minutes, 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!
    5 from 8 votes
    Print Pin Save Saved! Rate
    Course: Condiment, Dipping Sauce
    Cuisine: American
    Cook Time: 5 minutes
    Total Time: 5 minutes
    Servings: 1.25 cups
    Calories: 94kcal
    Author: Borrowed Bites

    Ingredients

    • ¾ cup thousand island dressing (We prefer Ken's Steakhouse Thousand Island Dressing)
    • ½ cup barbecue sauce (We prefer Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory and Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce)
    • Water if needed
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • In a medium bowl, combine the thousand island dressing and barbecue sauce.
    • If too thick, add water ½ teaspoon at a time until sauce is desired consistency.
    • We love comments! Please come back and leave us one after you’ve tried this recipe.

    Notes

    Tips & Tricks
    • Try it with the brands listed in the recipe card for the closest taste to the true Red Robin onion ring sauce. 
    • Store the campfire sauce in an airtight container for up to 1 week for best results. 
    • 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.

    Add Your Own Notes

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    Nutrition

    Serving: 2tablespoon | Calories: 94kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 309mg | Potassium: 53mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 72IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 1mg

    All nutrition information is provided by a third party and is an estimate only. Use your own nutritional calculator for more specific measurements.

    Tried this recipe?Leave a rating or pin it for later!

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Lynn says

      February 16, 2023 at 12:29 pm

      5 stars
      Local stores stopped carrying this sauce. So i decided to see if i could find a recipe online because Amazon’s prices were quite high. Almost every recipe I found calls for jalapeños and mayonnaise and I don’t care for either. Then I found your recipe and thought I’d give it a try because I already had the ingredients. It’s seemed to taste pretty good but it was missing something. I read the label from an empty Campfire sauce bottle I had, and one of the ingredients listed was Whiskey. I added 1/2 once and that put the taste way over the top, now it tastes exactly like the real deal. If someone is worried about the alcohol, you can remedy that by simmering it for 10 minutes to remove the alcohol but leaving the whiskey taste

      Reply
      • Misty says

        February 16, 2023 at 6:06 pm

        Great idea! You can also use a barbecue sauce that has whisky in it for that added flavor. Thanks for sharing!

        Reply
    2. Kimberly says

      November 30, 2022 at 2:58 pm

      I’ve never found a campfire sauce so close to the original! This is spot on. If my kids are looking for me don’t tell them I’m hiding in the closet eating fries and campfire sauce thank you

      Reply
      • Misty says

        November 30, 2022 at 6:50 pm

        I am so glad you thought so! We sure did a lot of testing to find the right ingredients to make it as close as possible to the original. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.

        Reply
    3. Laura says

      October 27, 2021 at 6:53 am

      5 stars
      My most favorite sauces and I never put them together. Thank you.

      Reply
      • Danielle says

        October 27, 2021 at 2:33 pm

        Hope you love it!

        Reply
    4. Spensa says

      September 15, 2021 at 10:04 pm

      5 stars
      I can’t believe this sauce… it’s tastes EXACTLY like Red Robin’s. Guilty admission here… I’ve been cutting up russet potatoes and making French fries just so I can eat this sauce. Ha! Seriously so good. And stupidly easy. It’s this good and only 2 ingredients? Mind blown! Thank you for figuring this recipe out!

      Reply
      • Danielle says

        September 18, 2021 at 12:34 pm

        Thanks for your feedback! We think so too!

        Reply

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