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My Raising Cane’s sauce recipe uses a few simple ingredients to make the perfect copy of this Southern chain’s sauce. Enjoy it with chicken tenders, fries, burgers, and more!
For those not in the know, Raising Cane’s is an American fast-food restaurant chain that started in Louisiana. It sells chicken tenders, among many other southern staples. It takes particular pride in its Raising Canes sauce, which is made in-house. We might never know the secret Raising Cane’s sauce ingredients, but by making an educated guess, I’ve created a homemade Cane’s sauce that tastes just as good.
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Watch the Raising Cane’s sauce video
What is Raising Cane’s sauce
To the untrained eye, Raising Cane’s dipping sauce looks similar to Thousand Island dressing. This creamy, tangy sauce uses similar base ingredients (ketchup and mayonnaise) and produces the same salmon color. The restaurant describes it as “tangy with a little bit of spice,” which largely comes from the tomatoes and extra spices.
Whether served with spicy fried chicken or garlic-infused Texas Toast, Canes sauce’s mild flavor can complement basically anything.
Cane’s sauce ingredients
For my copycat recipe, you’ll need a few simple ingredients:
- Ketchup: You can use store-bought or homemade; they both work fine.
- Mayonnaise: You can use store-bought or homemade. It’s best to use regular, not flavored, mayo.
- Worcestershire sauce: This can be found at most grocery stores. You can use balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, or fish sauce in a pinch.
- Spices: I use garlic powder, salt, and black pepper. You can also add cayenne pepper, onion powder, Cajun spice, creole seasoning, or even a few drops of lemon juice.
How to make Cane’s sauce
Place all the ingredients into a small bowl and whisk to combine. Once fully mixed, it will have turned salmon-colored. Place it in an airtight container and refrigerate for a few hours before serving. That way, the flavors will have time to meld together and give the Cane’s sauce a greater depth of flavor.
Why does Cane’s sauce taste better overnight?
It’s perfectly fine to enjoy the sauce after just 6 hours, but giving it up to 24 hours allows the flavors to meld for that irresistible taste of Cane’s sauce. So, I recommend making it the day before you plan to serve it for a better overall experience.
How to use
There are plenty of ways how to make Cane’s sauce a staple of your condiment rotation:
- Serve with chicken: As is most popular, you can dip homemade chicken tenders (from scratch or from frozen) into Cane’s sauce. This is one of my favorite ways to enjoy chicken fingers or chicken nuggets.
- Enjoy as a dipping sauce: Cane’s sauce is great for dipping. Try it with French fries, sweet potato fries, zucchini fries, eggplant fries, and even rounds of crispy fried squash.
- Use as a condiment: Add it to your favorite recipes for burgers, sandwiches, and dishes with chicken, beef, fish, and more. Just use it in place of the traditional mayo and/or ketchup.
Traditionally, southern fried food is always served with some sweet tea. So, whatever you’re serving my Raising Canes sauce recipe with, I suggest washing it down with a peach iced tea, my blackberry Earl Grey iced tea, or even a glass of cold brew tea from your own favorite blend.
More yummy sauce recipes
If you try this copycat Raising Cane’s sauce recipe, let me know how it goes in the comments below. I’d appreciate a recipe card rating and would love to see your recipe recreations – tag me on Instagram @Alphafoodie!
Raising Cane’s Sauce (Copycat)
Ingredients
- 4.4 oz mayonnaise 1/2 cup
- 2.6 oz ketchup 3 Tbsp
- 1.5 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce in a pinch, use balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, or fish sauce
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp black pepper coarse
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine.
- Once fully mixed, leave in the refrigerator for 6 hours before serving. The flavors meld together over time, so prepare the sauce a day before serving it for the best overall flavor.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This was pretty good but i didnt have any ketchup so i added some bbq instead and woahh It wasnt canes but it was delicious thanks so much for this recipe, even if i didnt have all the ingredients
Thank you for your comment, Caylee. BBQ sauce is indeed quite different from ketchup so it’s normal that the sauce tasted different. Glad you enjoyed it though.
Not bad at all. I really enjoyed making it with my girlfriend and we both think it’s the best recipe yet. Thank you!
Glad you both liked it. Thanks for commenting, Jose!
I tried the recipe. It is a good start but not the same as Cane’s sauce. The amount of ketchup makes it sweeter than Cane’s sauce. I halved the ketchup to make the sweetness closer. Mine came out too salty when adding salt so I omitted it. I halved the black pepper since it had visibly more pepper than cane’s sauce.
Hi Thomas,
Thank you so much for your comment and tips!
FYI—Cane’s was founded in Baton Rouge at the gates of LSU, not New Orleans.
Hi Danielle,
Thank you so much! 🙂
Great. I also added 1/2 teaspoon of horseradish, and some hot sauce. I’ll try the lemon as seen in another comment. Thank you for posting.
Glad you liked it, Vincent. Thank you for your comment!
Raising Canes started in Baton Rouge LA not New Orleans.
Hi Emily,
Thank you so much for letting me know 🙂
You’re missing lemon juice from this recipe. If you taste canes sauce you can taste an element of sour to it. Without it the ingredients fall flat.
Thanks for letting me know, Tabi!
Amazing recipe! I did add like 5 drops of lemon juice from a lemon wedge. It really did bring out the flavor profile similar to how Cane’s sauce tastes! Savory!
Glad you liked it, Alisha 🙂
Raising Canes actually started in Baton Rouge on LSU’s campus! 🙂 Great recipe.
Thanks for letting me know 🙂
What?!? I did not know that…that’s actually pretty interesting.
I can’t fairly leave any honest rating just yet because I haven’t let the sauce rest since I juuuust made it and obviously the flavors haven’t developed yet. (for other readers, this is NOT a criticism of the recipe, as it’s clearly stated you have to let it sit for awhile!) However I’m leaving 4 stars because even though it’s not ready yet, it’s still pretty tasty and I’d feel bad leaving anything less. I’ll come back later to adjust my rating once it’s ready.
My question is that the color is off and I’m wondering why. It’s not nearly as orangey as the actual sauce or the one in you video. Yours looks spot on whereas mine is more beige-brown. I’ve used decent quality ingredients as listed, with the exception of the pepper. I used decent quality, but it’s ground pepper rather than course. Would that change the color? And more importantly, will the off color have an effect on the finished flavor? Is there anything I can do to fix it?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Michelle,
Indeed, the ground pepper may have affected the color but it should not affect the flavor much. To change the color a bit, you can add a bit more paprika. I hope you give the recipe another try 🙂
Just so readers know, Cane’s originated in Baton Rouge, LA, not New Orleans. Baton Rouge is about 80 miles west of New Orleans.
Thanks for pointing this out, Rainell!
Awesome, my boyfriend said it was better than canes
Glad you both liked it, Samantha 🙂