🥓 Keto Burger Sauce
Most keto burger sauces are the classic recipe with sugar-free ketchup swapped in, which leaves a sauce spending the whole time chasing a sweetness it is not allowed to have. This one goes the other way and drops tomato altogether. It leans on the two things a keto plate has in abundance — fat and acid — so the mayonnaise gets enriched with warm bacon fat and then cut hard with Dijon, cider vinegar and pickle brine. It sets thick in the fridge, which is exactly what you want on a bunless patty that has nothing to soak it up.
🧾 Keto Burger Sauce — Recipe Card
From I Love Hamburger — ilovehamburger.com
Ingredients
- ½ cup full-fat mayonnaise (115 g)
- 1 tbsp warm rendered bacon fat, strained (15 ml) — melted butter also works — see substitutions
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard (10 ml)
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (10 ml)
- 1 tbsp finely minced dill pickle (no added sugar) (12 g)
- 2 tsp dill pickle brine (10 ml)
- ½ tsp smoked paprika (1 g)
- ¼ tsp garlic powder (0.5 g)
- Plenty of coarse black pepper
Instructions
- Cook a couple of slices of bacon, then strain 1 tablespoon of the fat and let it cool until it is warm rather than hot. Hot fat thins mayonnaise and can split it.
- Whisk the mayonnaise and Dijon together first, then trickle in the warm bacon fat a little at a time while whisking, so it emulsifies instead of pooling on top.
- Stir in the cider vinegar, pickle brine, minced pickle, smoked paprika, and garlic powder. Finish with more black pepper than feels necessary.
- Chill at least 30 minutes. The bacon fat firms as it cools, so this sets noticeably thicker than a plain mayo sauce — let it sit out a few minutes or stir it before spreading.
🫙 Storage
Airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days — shorter than a plain mayo sauce, because it contains cooked bacon fat. It sets firm when cold; stir or rest it briefly at room temperature before serving. Do not freeze.
🔁 Substitutions
- No bacon, or want it vegetarian? Use the same amount of melted butter. You keep the richness and the set, but lose the smoke — bump the smoked paprika to 3/4 tsp to compensate.
- Crumble in 2 tbsp of blue cheese for a sharper, funkier version that stands up to a thick, bunless patty with raw onion.
- If you genuinely miss the sweetness, a few drops of liquid monk fruit or erythritol add it with no carbs. Nothing else in the recipe needs to change.
🍔 What to put it on
Pair it with a lettuce-wrapped patty, sharp cheddar, extra bacon, and raw onion. It especially shines on these burgers:
Burger HQ Picks Handy for sauce-making
Squeeze Bottles & Mixing Bowl Set
Mix a sauce in the bowl, decant into a squeeze bottle, and you get an even stripe on every bun instead of a spoon-blob. Also what keeps a topping bar tidy.
Check price →Small Silicone Whisk & Spatula Set
A small whisk emulsifies a mayo-based sauce properly in seconds; the spatula gets every last bit out of the bowl.
Check price →As an affiliate site, I Love Hamburger may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. This does not affect our recommendations.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no ketchup in this keto burger sauce?
Sugar-free ketchup is perfectly usable, but a sauce built around it spends the whole recipe imitating a sweetness it cannot have. Dropping tomato entirely and leaning on fat (mayonnaise plus bacon fat) and acid (Dijon, cider vinegar, pickle brine) gives you a sauce that tastes finished on its own terms rather than like a substitute for something else. If you do want the classic sweet-tangy profile, our classic burger sauce with a sugar-free ketchup is the honest way to get it.
How many carbs are in it?
There is no added sugar and no tomato, so the only carbs are trace amounts from the mustard and pickle. The actual number depends entirely on the brands you use, so read your labels rather than trusting a figure printed in a recipe.
Can I use bacon fat straight from the pan?
Let it cool until it is just warm first. Hot fat thins mayonnaise and can break the emulsion, leaving you with a greasy, separated sauce. Warm fat whisks in smoothly and then firms the sauce up as it chills.