You Can Make In-N-Out Sauce at Home with Just 3 Ingredients

Fact: When you live in Southern California, visiting friends and other out-of-town guests will almost always ask to be taken to In-N-Out. Yep, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, you’re going to find yourself idling in an interminable line of cars, blocking traffic near one L.A. landmark or another just so a beloved college roommate or favorite cousin can say they finally got to try that “Animal Style” burger they saw on social media. 

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Additional fact: The big draw is the sauce. In-N-Out is great—I would never trash talk a SoCal institution, mostly because I value my life and kinda hate being called a “stupid f*cking idiot” on the internet—even if we can all agree that their french fries leave something to be desired. But really, without the burger stand’s signature “spread,” a Double Double is just a burger (albeit, a high quality one). 

A lot of people seem to presume that In-N-Out’s burger sauce is just thousand island dressing. I mean, I get it—a lot of burger sauces are thousand island-adjacent, but the salad dressing tends to be thicker and a little more one-note. So what can people do if they want the In-N-Out experience but they aren’t planning on visiting an old friend on the West Coast anytime soon? Make the sauce at home, natch. 

What’s the recipe for an In-N-Out spread dupe?

According to multiple websites and Reddit threads, making an In-N-Out sauce dupe involves eight or nine simple ingredients you probably already have on hand: 

Mayo, ketchup, dill pickle relish (or minced dill pickles), minced onion, sugar, white vinegar, yellow mustard, paprika, and salt. Just combine, adjust measurements to taste, and then slather on the bottom burger bun. That’s important—always the bottom bun.

Okay, but now make it even easier. 

I hear ya. You saw things like vinegar and paprika in that recipe and tuned out. Some folks online insist you can make something dupe-adjacent with just mayo, ketchup, and dill pickle relish—but if you have some yellow mustard around, do add some of that, too. That’ll help contribute some vinegar-y tang to liven up the flavor of a greasy, beefy burger without necessitating actual white vinegar. (Personally, I also think the minced onions are key, for both flavor and texture.)

Hey look, now you can make “Animal Style” fries at home. 

If you’re not versed in In-N-Out menu slang, “Animal Style” means extra spread and grilled onions. Add a mustard-cooked burger patty (literally, grilled with mustard slathered on its surfaces) to some frozen shoestring fries and, voila, Animal Style Fries.