Vegan Chick-fil-Aint Sauce (Without Barbecue)

This vegan chick-fil-aint sauce comes with all the same great taste, but without the egg or the homophobia. It’s also made without BBQ sauce for those who can’t do it. Plus, you can make a gigantic batch to eat with a spoon!

White bowl full of creamy light orange sauce in a bed of waffle fries

Why make your own Chick-Fil-Aint sauce?

First of all, the original is absolutely delicious.

I’m not kidding — at the time of this writing, people are literally fighting over it in the stores because there’s a shortage.

It’s delicious on nuggets (of which there is a plethora of vegan options, now!), on fries, on sandwiches, or with a spoon.

For those who’ve never had it, it’s sweet and tangy and savory and smoky and creamy and just a little bit spicy – but barely.

Dipping a vegan nugget into a creamy light orange sauce

There are a few problems with the sauce from the restaurant, though:

  1. It isn’t vegan. The original sauce is made with regular mayonnaise, which contains egg. This is a problem for vegans and the egg-allergic.
  2. Not everyone has access to a Chick-fil-A or a grocery store where they sell the bottled version to get the sauce.
  3. Some of the ingredients might be problematic to people with different food allergies.
  4. Chick-fil-A has a long history of less-than-savory ethics and actions which have been hugely hurtful and destructive to minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ community. You can google that stuff if you don’t know about it.

So I broke down the ingredients to at least get rid of the barbecue sauce and help folks get a taste of this amazing dipping sauce without the problems in sourcing it from the restaurant chain.

Breaking down the original Chick-Fil-A Sauce

The original sauce is a blend of egg mayonnaise, hickory barbecue sauce, mustard, lemon juice, and some spices, preservatives, and thickeners/texture enhancers.

The ingredients list on the top of a chick-fil-a sauce packet

Most recipes out there for a homemade version mix mayo, barbecue, mustard, and a their own spin of flavors and spices with that.

I couldn’t find a barbecue sauce that fit the bill for the flavor profile I wanted, so I broke that down until I got the perfect match: ketchup, liquid hickory smoke, and garlic. It’s perfect.

And I’m guessing the reason that I didn’t like the pre-made barbecue sauces in this iteration is that they had too many other flavors going on that overpowered the simplicity of the CFA sauce.

My ingredients for Chick-Fil-Aint sauce

That leaves me with five ingredients:

Bottles of vegan mayo, yellow mustard, ketchup, garlic powder, and liquid smoke with a red and white napkin
  • Vegan Mayonnaise – My favorite is Hellmann’s vegan mayo. It would be Just Mayo, but apparently it disappeared into the ether and no longer exists. Big sad. Use whatever your favorite is, though – even if it’s homemade!
  • Mustard – You’re going to want to use plain ole yellow mustard here (we use French’s). If you decide to go fancy and use brown mustard or Grey Poupon or deli mustard or whatever, it’s not gonna taste like the original CFA sauce. It might be good, but it won’t be the same.
  • Ketchup – Use your favorite ketchup. My family refuses to use anything but Heinz. We have a bottle of the sugar-free and it tastes good in this too, but if you’re using an unsweetened ketchup you might need to add a bit of your favorite sweetener to this sauce to bring it back up.
  • Liquid Hickory Smoke – This is a really inexpensive, and pretty easy to find ingredient that most people don’t have in their pantry. There are lots of “flavors” of smoke out there; applewood, mesquite, oak, etc. But the CFA sauce uses hickory. So get that if you want authenticity. πŸ™‚
    If you absolutely cannot find liquid smoke or you’re unable to use it, you can try smoked paprika instead.
  • Garlic – You can use either garlic powder or my favorite – the liquid from my jar of minced garlic. If you can’t do garlic, feel free to use onion powder instead. If you’re Jain you can try just a bit of ground white pepper for spice.
Mayo, mustard, ketchup, garlic powder, and liquid smoke in a glass bowl with a red and white napkin behind it

Making the vegan Chick-Fil-Aint sauce

Just.. Mix all of the ingredients together. Use a spoon or a spatula. Use a whisk. Use a fork. Use your fingers. Whatever you can use to mix things together, use that. In a bowl large enough to fit everything without spilling. Lol.

Storing the sauce

All of the ingredients are pretty long-term in terms of expiry dates. So just take whatever is the earliest date on any of the ingredients, and use that for the sauce. Store it in the fridge in an air-tight container and toss it once it reaches that date or if it dries out.

Enjoy!

Enjoy your Chick-Fil-Aint sauce as a dip for fries, nuggets, or veggies (it’s actually super delicious on my Gochujang Brussels Sprouts). It’s also great as a spread for sandwiches. I’m sure you’ll find ways to finish it up in no time. πŸ™‚

dipping a waffle fry into a creamy light orange sauce

Thanks for stopping by, and may you and your coffee both be strong,

Meggan

Pin it for later:

Pinterest pin with a photo of the sauce and waffle fries

Recipe:

Yield: About 3/4 cup

Vegan Chick-Fil-Aint Sauce (Without Barbecue)

A bowl of chick fil aint sauce in a plate full of waffle fries

This vegan chick-fil-aint sauce comes with all the same great taste, but without the egg or the homophobia. It’s also made without BBQ sauce.

Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (115g) vegan mayonnaise
  • 3 tbsp ketchup
  • 1.5 tbsp yellow mustard
  • 1.5 - 2 tsp liquid hickory smoke
  • 1/8 tsp garlic powder

Instructions

  1. Stir all of the ingredients together and enjoy!

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