9 Fast Food Sauce Copycats Available At Walmart

For many fast food fans, the secret's in the sauce. Whether it's the tangy and sweet Big Mac sauce, the warm and sweet honey and cinnamon butter at Texas Roadhouse, or the chicken dipping sauce at Chick-Fil-A, there's bound to be at least one specialty sauce that tickles your taste buds. The problem, of course, is that most of these sauces come attached to an order at the local fast food eatery. In order to gain access to the good stuff, you must first order a burger or some fries, and as a reward, you get a little of your favorite sauce on the side to make the transaction worth your while. That is, unless you know that Walmart has a bazillion dupe sauces for many of your favorites, in which case, you just go there instead. No burger purchase required.

In this list of famous Walmart copycats, we look at some of the tastiest and most famous dupes put out by the Walmart test kitchens. Most of them taste close enough to the real thing that they can satisfy even the most ardent fast food fans like you. Others of them are such dead ringers, you'll swear that you've been transported to a booth at your favorite fast food eatery and are sitting with a plate of goodies and the sauce to dip it in.

If you grew accustomed to ordering McDonald's hot mustard sauce when you splurged on a McNuggets meal, you probably felt like the rug was pulled out from underneath your feet when the sauce was discontinued. Apparently, you can still find it occasionally in places like Wisconsin and Alaska at the time of writing, but travel nationally and you may be out of luck. Unless, of course, you also happen to be near a Walmart. If that's the case, there's no need to do without your beloved hot mustard sauce. Just look for Great Value brand's Southwest hot mustard.

While this dupe isn't exactly the same, with more heat and less sweetness than the original, by all accounts on Reddit, it's pretty close. It's a savory blend of mustard seed, green and red bell pepper, turmeric, paprika, and salt, mostly. If you keep some in the fridge, it's ready to dress up those McDonald's Nuggets you just brought home from the drive-thru. It's also a pretty tasty addition to those steak cut or crinkle fries, a veggie burger, or if you'd like to use mustard instead of mayo in your favorite moist and flaky baked fish recipe.

For Texas Roadhouse fans, dinner out is often an excuse to have a little steak with their sweetness. In this case, we refer to those dinner rolls that are slathered to the edges with the chain's sweet, hot cinnamon and honey butter. But you don't have to blow your budget on a steak when all you really want are some dinner rolls with that butter. Thanks to the knock-off experts in the hallowed halls of Walmart's test kitchens, the flavor of cinnamon honey butter can be found in the butter and dairy aisle under the name of bettergoods cinnamon honey butter. It's a blend of real butter, confectioner's sugar, cinnamon, honey, and a little molasses to ensure that it's good and sweet. And it's the real deal.

You might rightly be asking why you should buy the bettergoods brand when Walmart actually sells the Texas Roadhouse brand of this buttery treat. In a word, price. At the time of writing, the former is almost a dollar cheaper than the latter, making it kinder on your budget than the Texas Roadhouse brand. And for those who are wary of all the extra additives in food these days, the bettergoods brand has none, while the butter spread under the restaurant's label boasts ingredients like monoglycerides and potassium sorbate. In other words, it's better for you and probably tastier to boot.

If you believe that Raising Cane's dipping sauce is just about the most supreme thing you'll ever put on your taste buds, it's likely that you try to stuff as many of the containers of the sauce into your backpack as you can each and every visit. Bad luck, though, if you're hankering for some of that sauce and some of those Raising Cane's fast food chicken tenders to go with it, and you don't actually live near a Raising Cane's restaurant. Bad luck, indeed. However, a trip to Walmart will convince you that your luck is changing, particularly if you stumble upon a bottle of Great Value chicken finger dipping sauce. 

It's so much like the real thing that the bottle even features piles of chicken fingers and latticework french fries to confirm that, yep, this is the Raising Cane dupe you've been waiting for. The sauce has hints of both mustard and ketchup, thanks to ingredients like mustard seed and tomato paste. Smoke flavor, garlic powder, distilled vinegar, salt, and turmeric up the umami essence that's a key marker in the original sauce. Also, it's just the right kind of sweet. That is, not so sweet that your lips pucker and yet sweet enough to make bites of salty fries and chicken fingers sing a much, much sweeter tune. 

Imagine creating a honey mustard dupe sauce that it could be the mimic for the sauce served by not one but three famous food chains. If you've picked up a bottle of Great Value honey mustard in recent months, you probably noticed that it tasted like Raising Cane's honey mustard delicacy. That is, unless you've never eaten at Raising Cane's. In that case, maybe it's the honey mustard sauce you've tasted at either Applebee's or Chili's. Depending on your fast food repertoire, you may find that it could be served at any and all of those famous restaurants.

Regardless of where the bout of sense memory came from, you're bound to notice that this dupe is more than respectable as far as honey mustards go. A lot of its tastiness comes from its straight-forward ingredients list. Mustard seed, honey, vinegar, sugar, garlic powder, and spices all land on the list. What is absent is a plethora of unpronounceable words that signify the bottle is filled with artificial flavors –- flavors that can't hold a candle to the real deal. This is why this dupe is so great, regardless of whether it reminds you of Raising Cane's, Applebee's, or Chili's.

When it comes to enjoying a plate of chicken, it seems that Americans can't get enough of their dipping sauces, a fact which fast food chains like Chick-Fil-A use to their advantage. If you've found yourself addicted to Chick-Fil-A's chicken dipping sauce, then just know that your taste buds have been duped into ordering Chick-Fil-A's chicken just so you can get your hands on that sauce.

But what if you could just go out and buy that sauce without having to go to CFA to get it? Again, Walmart's Great Value brand's got you covered. The big box chain has even made it easy for you to find this saucy dupe by naming it "chicken dipping sauce." As far as the taste goes, it boasts the honey mustard flavor that Chick-Fil-A's sauce is known for, a taste that's enhanced by a slight infusion of smoky barbecue flavor. The balance of flavors in the knock-off brand is slightly reversed, meaning that the barbecue flavor comes in more strongly than the mustard flavor does in the dupe. Still, it's an excellent option when you don't want to make a trip to Chick-Fil-A just for a sauce packet or two.

Classic Buffalo chicken wings have become a party favorite, in large part due to the delish sauce that coats them. Done right, Buffalo chicken wings are tangy and spicy, and when they're cooled down with something like a blue cheese or ranch dressing, they become the sweet/hot treat that your discerning taste buds crave. In light of this, it's no wonder that the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant chain has people lining up to get a little of that wild wing sauce on the regular.

Although the chain sells bottled versions of its different sauces, including its classic chicken wing sauce at Walmart, it's pricier than the Great Value dupe, with the dupe coming in around $2.28 compared to the $3.28 for the fast casual chain's version at the time of writing. Aside from the price difference, the Walmart version happens to be rated higher on the big box store's site than the Buffalo Wild Wings brand version, with a rating of four stars. This beats out the 3.5-star rating that the restaurant chain's brand gets from Walmart shoppers as of this publication. 

As for the flavor, it tastes like the Buffalo wing sauce you've grown accustomed to, though without as much heat. The tanginess you love comes through, thanks to the vinegar in the sauce. Additions like Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, garlic and onion powders, and celery seed bring out the umami taste that most people associate with the dip, making it one dupe you can get behind.

While there's something to be said about a french fry whose flavor can stand on its own without the hindrance of sauce, there's also something to be said for a fry sauce that makes a good fry even better. You know the kind. You taste the fry's crispy crust, the freshness of the potato, and the umami flavor from the seasoning while still getting a big zip of flavor and moisture from the fry sauce. One such sauce that does that with aplomb is the sauce made by Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. It's basically ketchup but with a tasty twist.

You can find it, of course, at Freddy's, but if you want a serving of it that's greater than the little square cup of sauce you get when you're eating at the restaurant chain, you're better off swinging by the local Walmart and picking up a bottle of Great Value french fry dipping sauce. Certainly, it contains ingredients like tomato paste, vinegar, and spices, giving it the flavor foundations of ketchup. However, it's the addition of paprika and mustard seed that gives it a more flavorful nip. 

Like many of the sauces on this list, it is a go-to option when you want to perk up a pile of steak fries. But it's also something that begs for an opportunity to liven up a burger or to even become a substitute for the ketchup you sometimes dip the crispiest grilled cheese you've ever had in.

True enough, you can't get the endless soup, salad, and bread sticks deal that makes so many people return to The Olive Garden again and again unless you visit the fast casual restaurant. However, you can get a pretty good dupe of the chain's dressing so that you can make your own soup and salad bonanza at home. Great Value restaurant style Italian dressing is Walmart's knock-off of the fast casual Italian chain's famous dressing, and it's so good, we're here for it.

While most dupes taste close enough to the real deal that they remind people of the original, this actually tastes like the dressing you get on your big bowl of salad at the Olive Garden. Fortunately, Walmart's knock-off is basically a slightly tangy and creamy vinaigrette with an ingredients list that's nearly identical to the real thing. What makes this dupe a better deal than the bottled dressing that The Olive Garden puts out and sells through Walmart is that it is, indeed, a better deal. As of this publication, the Olive Garden brand at Walmart runs almost $4 a bottle, while the Great Value brand costs a little less than $2. With a price that good, you really can treat yourself to an all-you-can-eat bowl of salad right at home.

You know the schtick: "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun." That the special sauce comes second only to the two all-beef patties on the Big Mac's ingredients list tells you just how much McDonald's values it. It truly is what makes the burger taste unique. Some people think it's just a poor knock-off for Thousand Island dressing, but it's not. Otherwise, why would Mickey D's bother keeping the exact ingredients a secret?

But secret or not, that didn't stop Walmart from making a version of this sauce, and it's a darn good thing, too. Your cravings for the fast food chain's special sauce is now only limited to how long it takes you to get from your couch to the kitchen and your own bottle of dupe McDonald's special sauce you've got stashed in the fridge door.

Like most of Walmart's dupes, this one comes under the Great Value brand, and is pretty easy to find. It looks like secret sauce in the bottle, and just in case you were in doubt, it's even labeled as "secret sauce" on the bottle. The bottle also happens to feature a big double burger. Short of calling it "special sauce" instead of "secret sauce," its source of inspiration couldn't get much clearer.

It's tangy and pickle-y just like McDonald's special sauce is, too, making it the go-to topping for your barbecued burgers. However, it's versatile enough to dress up fries, onion rings, and a slew of other sides. All you're missing when you eat this McDonald's Big Mac sauce at home are the Golden Arches. Ooh la la.