SPOILER ALERT: this post is going to reveal exactly what is in the Halal Guys White Sauce. If you aren’t ready to know that, continue reading all the fanciful hoo-hah on the internet. You have been warned.
We assembled quite an arsenal of ingredients in anticipation of a vigorous assault on the never-before-revealed recipe for the white sauce served at the Halal Guys carts in NYC and, more recently, in packets at their strip mall restaurants. Mayo was at the ready, of course, but also “salad dressing” (a generic version of Miracle Whip, suggested by Kenji on this reddit), full fat Greek yogurt and sour cream… plus olive oil, white vinegar and lemon juice. The spices? We’ll get to those in a minute.
A fellow food blogger for whom I have the profoundest respect insists that the butterfat of sour cream is a valuable component in a Halal Guys-type sauce, but a single taste (in a flavorful but off-target recipe we tried initially) proved its richness was inappropriate. Greek yogurt we’d keep in our back pocket, on the theory that it’s not in the Halal Guys original but perhaps it’s needed to get the same effect without professional food processing equipment.
As to the spices, we figured we should focus on spices that might be common in a halal kitchen. We considered baharat, a multi-spice mixture that literally translates as “spice”, but its warm notes of cinnamon and clove were obviously out of place. More promising was ground sumac, which lends a desirable tart note. We noted that some copycat recipes use dill weed, which would go well with the yogurt-based tsadziki that inspired this sauce, but it’s easy to identify dill weed in sauce and we knew it wasn’t there.
How, exactly, did we know? Because we had a packet of official Halal Guys white sauce from one of the Guys’ strip mall locations. With trembling hands, we now slit the packet open and squeezed a small amount into a dish for sampling.
The first taste cut right to the chase for us: this is mayonnaise! Yes, it’s got some add-ins, but it’s unquestionably a mayo base and very little else. We opened the jar of Hellmans/Best Foods and tasted the sauce and the mayo repeatedly. No question. In a blindfold test, the average person would probably say they were the same. The Halal Guys sauce did have just a bit more tartness, so we added a little white vinegar. Nailed it. (Other brands of mayo might require more vinegar, or less.)
We still had to account for the spices in the Halal Guys, which didn’t contribute a lot to taste but showed up as tiny specks. We added small amounts of ground sumac and black pepper until our distribution of specks was similar to the original. We also added a little water, noting that the original was looser than our mix (to make it easier to squirt from a dispenser bottle). And then we waited.
An hour of aging disqualified sumac, which had been our insider pick as the secret ingredient. Here’s why: it turns the sauce pink. So we repeated the mix with the same amount of spice, using all pepper this time.
Halal Guys White Sauce, smeared on a paper towel so spices are visible
Ground black pepper in our copycat sauce.
The two photos above were taken with an AMIR macro lens on an iPhone 6. TAKE A LOOK. The upper image is the original Halal Guys sauce, spread out on a paper towel so we can see the individual flecks of spice. The other image? It’s just ground black pepper, in our copycat sauce. Notice any similarity? Both have irregular shaped pieces, dots or not, due to the grinding process. (Our grind is coarser because that’s what we had on hand.) The specks are mostly black, but with some orange-y bits that are probably from the husk of the pepper berry. And NO other components such as flecks of another color (sorry, dill and sumac) or uniformly shaped tiny seeds (which might be nigella).
Is it possible there is something else beyond the ground pepper seasoning the mayo? Perhaps, but it’s so inconsequential it does not register either for taste or appearance. We’re calling this, so our testers can get back to their families.
I can see the Halal Guys stifling a chortle as seekers repeatedly asked for their “secret recipe” which is nothing more than mayo with a dash of black pepper. Anthony Bourdain would have loved (and probably was in on) this conspiracy of food elites and street smart entrepreneurs which have bedeviled earnest home bloggers for so long. It’s almost sad to see the movie come to an end.
P.S. The exact proportions of ingredients in our copycat sauce will be revealed in an upcoming post can be found right here.
You just confirmed what I always thought! the sauce is necessary but not exceptional!
Stay tuned for the actual recipe, coming soon.
I see with my naked eye that Halal Guys white Sauce is slightly yellowish tint, while your’s is white in color.
Anyways waiting for the close outcome.
The yellow noted by Nish could come from the mayo, or mayo equivalent, that the Halal Guys use. There’s no difference in taste. As to the results of the close outcome, clicking the recipe link will reveal it.
I was curious about this a year or two ago, so I did some research and Epicurious had a pretty good recipe, though it’s still mostly mayo.
I saw that recipe (it’s at https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/halal-cart-style-white-sauce )) and it looks pretty good. But it contains sugar and dill weed, two items that are definitely not in the Halal Guys sauce.
It is SO nice to read your blog validating my experience. I obsessively tried so, so many white sauce recipes (including using miracle whip, greek yogurt, etc) and couldn’t find a close similarity to all the white sauces at the random halal carts I’ve been to- then i just started putting mayo (i mixed in dill too and sometimes a little vinegar) on meats – mixed with hot sauce. I didn’t add water but that’s a great suggestion to make it less thick. Anyway, BAM! Happiest outcome and appealing to my lazy self. I was like “was it really this simple the whole time?”
Your article delighted me. Correction though – your sentence within the article says, I can see the Halal Guys stifling a chortle as seekers repeatedly asked for their “secret recipe” which is nothing more than mayo with a dash of black pepper.” shouldn’t it say, “nothing more than mayo with a dash of vinegar, black pepper, and water.” dill takes it to the next level for me 🙂 Thanks so much for this article, I can’t tell you how happy I was to find it. I can stop obsessing now and enjoy my food 🙂 For some reason seeing that you’ve had the same experience gives me more confidence that we’ve got it right.
Yes, you can stop obsessing and enjoy your food! Re the vinegar issue, I did add it in this recipe https://burntmyfingers.com/2018/06/26/recipe-halal-guys-white-sauce/ which I hope you’ll take a look at. Did not include in the sentence you reference in this post because mayonnaises are variable and some are more tart than others.
And. I’m fine with dill. It’s just not an ingredient of the Halal Guys sauce… their loss maybe?
Oh wow, thanks for the clarification about the vinegar, I did not think of that point that mayos aren’t all exactly the same, but it’s true! I did check out both recipes on the page you mention and am going to try them both (i never measure my own version, so am interested to see what yours tastes like as well as the second recipe!) Also will try making my own mayo. It’s cool that you can add whatever spices you’re into white sauce to make it your own. I just had tabil for the first time in North Africa (in tomato sauce, not white sauce) and I’m hooked, it may be good in white sauce too. I am rambling. Anyway thanks for the response, and cool blog!
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Just wanted to say that the original white sauce by Halal Guys is quite different and much better tasting than after they started franchising and creating those sauce packets.
I remember this as I used to eat at their carts at least once a month, and when I tried their food at their first brick and mortar in NYC… I was quite disappointed in how much the sauce changed. It seemed bland vs the addictive-never-have-enough original sauce I loved.
Well, that’s a good thought. The people who come up with copycat recipes that taste nothing like the packeted stuff may be recalling an earlier era. Do they still serve sauce out of a squeeze bottle at the original location at 53rd and 6th Ave? I recall having it that way once, many years ago, but I’m pretty sure last time I ate there I picked up a handful of packets.
I am from the UK and Halal Guys opened up over here in London a couple of years ago. I live near their branch so i go there quite a lot. It was quite interesting reading this blog as i have just looked at the UK packets of the White Sauce that they give to you and the ingredients seems to confirm everything you have said.
“INGREDIENTS: Mayonnaise (Rapeseed Oil (80%), Spirit Vinegar (8%), Pasteurised Chicken Egg (8%), Salt, Sugar, Calcium Disodium Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid (E385)), Water, Ground Black Peppercorn, Ground White Peppercorn, Guar Gum (E412), Xanthan Gum (E415).”
But it is interesting to see that here in the UK there is no “Natural Flavouring” or “Spices” and that they list the full ingredients of it. I think we have stricter food laws and labelling laws so it is harder to hide things. But it does confirm pretty much what you have said about what the White Sauce contains. Maybe the UK and USA versions are slightly different to each other (as they are probably made by different manufacturers) but they both taste identical to me (i have been to New York City and eaten at Halal Guys there) so the White Sauce really is much simpler than what most people think.
Great research, thank you!
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