Sriracha mayo is mayonnaise loosened with sriracha chili sauce and a squeeze of lime, whisked smooth in about three minutes with no cooking at all. The classic starting point is one cup of mayo to two tablespoons of sriracha, then you taste it and decide whether it needs more heat, more acid, or more body.
It earns its place on a burger because the lime does something mayo alone cannot: it cuts through the fat. You get a sauce that stays creamy at room temperature, holds up to a hot griddle, and pours cleanly from a squeeze bottle.
Everything below is adjustable by design. Nobody’s burger wants the exact same sauce mine does.
What You Need to Make Sriracha Mayo
Three ingredients make a small batch that covers roughly eight burger servings or a decent pile of fries.
- 1 cup mayonnaise (about 240 g)
- 2 tablespoons sriracha chili sauce, plus more to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice or lemon juice
- 1 small garlic clove, grated, or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, then adjust
For the tools, a bowl and a fork do the whole job. A small whisk works if you have one, and a rubber spatula for scraping down the sides saves sriracha you would otherwise wash down the drain.
Here is how the ratio changes the result, starting from one cup of mayonnaise:
- Mild: 1 to 2 tablespoons of sriracha. Mostly creamy with a warm finish. Good for kids and for people who claim they do not like spice.
- Medium: 3 tablespoons. Balanced, with the chili garlic actually tasting like something. This is the number most burger recipes land on.
- Hot: 4 to 5 tablespoons. Real heat, still creamy. Expect sriracha’s vinegar and sugar to come through louder.
A few optional upgrades change the sauce more than you’d expect. A quarter teaspoon of toasted sesame oil adds a roasted nuttiness, a teaspoon of soy sauce adds savory depth, and a teaspoon of honey or sugar softens the heat so kids will eat it.
Step-by-Step
Mix the mayonnaise and sriracha
Scoop one cup of mayonnaise into a small bowl, then add two tablespoons of sriracha. Stir with a fork or whisk until the red streaks disappear completely and the color settles into an even orange-pink.
You are looking for one uniform color with no dark streaks pooling at the bottom. If you still see streaks, keep going; a partially mixed sauce tastes hot in one bite and flat in the next.
Add lime juice and seasoning
Add one tablespoon of fresh lime juice, the grated garlic, and the salt. Stir again, then let it sit for a minute before tasting so the salt and acid register properly.
Lime is more about brightness than flavor, and a tablespoon is plenty. If you are out, rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar works, and lemon juice does too. Resist the urge to add more acid than the recipe calls for; sriracha already brings vinegar with it, and an over-acid sauce goes thin and tangy fast.
Thin or thicken the sauce
A good burger sauce should ribbon off the spoon and hold a slight mound for a second before settling. If it sits in a stiff lump, beat in another tablespoon of mayo. If it runs off the spoon like milk, stir in a teaspoon of water at a time.
Extra lime juice also loosens the sauce, but it flattens the flavor, so reach for mayo or water when consistency is the only problem.
Taste and adjust the heat
Dip a clean spoon in and wait a few seconds before deciding. Sriracha heat arrives late, and judging it in the first second is how you end up with a sauce that is dull when you make it and searing an hour later.
Want more heat? Add sriracha a teaspoon at a time. Want less? Fold in another tablespoon of mayo. Want more depth instead of more heat? A quarter teaspoon of toasted sesame oil and a small splash of soy sauce do more for a flat sauce than tripling the chili.
Chill and store the sriracha mayo
Spoon the finished sauce into a clean jar or a squeeze bottle and get it into the refrigerator within two hours of mixing. Because it is homemade mayonnaise with no preservatives, treat it the same way you would any homemade mayo sauce: use it within about three to four days, and toss anything that sits out past two hours.
Cold thickens the sauce noticeably. Pull the jar out about ten minutes before serving and stir again; it loosens back to where it was. If you are cooking a batch of patties for the freezer ahead of a cookout, our guide to freezing burgers for meal prep keeps the schedule straight so the sauce is ready when you are.
Common Mistakes
It tastes like heat and nothing else. This is the most common complaint, and the fix is acid plus umami rather than more chili. A tablespoon of lime, a quarter teaspoon of sesame oil, and a small splash of soy sauce will rescue a batch that is already mixed.
The sauce is watery or splits. You added too much liquid at once. Stir in a tablespoon of mayo to re-thicken, and next time add water a teaspoon at a time.
It tastes flat and dull on the burger. The sauce was mixed too far ahead and went cold and sluggish. Serve it at cool room temperature, not refrigerator cold, and skip the salt since a cold sauce tastes saltier than it is.
It is orange-red but bland. Bottled spicy mayo is often mostly heat with the flavor stripped out. Mixing it fresh with real sriracha and lime gives you the color and the taste in the same spoonful.
It is too hot to serve kids. Start at one tablespoon of sriracha per cup of mayo and a little extra mayo at the end. Heat you add is easier to remove than heat already balanced with acid.
Beyond serving it on burgers, this sauce works well on fried chicken and nuggets, as a drizzle for poke and rice bowls, with fish tacos, alongside roasted vegetables, or as a dip for fries. It also makes a good base for sriracha aioli if you add a small splash of extra vinegar to loosen it toward a drizzle. For a smokier version built the same way, chipotle in adobo does the job, and the chipotle mayo method walks through it step by step. It is also good on a meatless patty, so it pairs well with a portobello mushroom burger where the char and the pepper heat land together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I just mix sriracha and mayo?
Yes, and most people do. Two parts mayo to one part sriracha stirred together is a perfectly good sauce on its own. The lime and salt are what move it from hot to balanced, because the acid brightens the mayo and cuts its richness. Start with the two-ingredient version, taste it, then add the rest a little at a time.
What is the right sriracha to mayo ratio?
Start with one cup of mayonnaise and two tablespoons of sriracha for a mild sauce. Three tablespoons per cup gives a medium heat that most people call well balanced, and four to five tablespoons makes a genuinely hot version. Ratios are a starting point rather than a rule, so taste as you go and add sriracha a teaspoon at a time.
Why does my spicy mayo taste only hot with no flavor?
Heat is the loudest flavor in the bowl and it tends to crowd out everything else. The fix is to add flavor rather than more chili. A tablespoon of lime juice, a quarter teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, and a small splash of soy sauce give the sauce acidity, roasted nuttiness, and savory depth that the heat alone cannot supply.
How long does homemade sriracha mayo last in the fridge?
About three to four days when stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator. It is homemade mayonnaise with no preservatives, so it does not keep like a shelf-stable jar. Get it into the fridge within two hours of mixing, and if it smells off, looks separated in a way stirring will not fix, or sat at room temperature for hours, throw it out.
Can I make it ahead of time for a party?
Yes, a day or two ahead works well. Mix it, refrigerate it in a sealed jar, and give it a good stir the day you serve since it thickens noticeably while cold. If you are serving it on burgers rather than as a dip, mix it the morning of the event and let it come to cool room temperature so it spreads instead of tearing the bun.
What can I use instead of sriracha?
Gochujang adds a sweet, fermented depth and works well for a Korean-style burger. Harissa brings smoky heat with less vinegar. Sambal oelek is chunkier and more chili-forward, while a chili-garlic sauce made with dried chilis tastes closer to sriracha than sambal does. Chipotle mayo, made with chipotle in adobo and mayo, is smoky rather than sharp.
Conclusion
Start with one cup of mayo, two tablespoons of sriracha, and a tablespoon of lime, then taste before you add anything else. That first taste is the whole skill, and once you can hear the difference between hot and balanced you will stop measuring other people’s recipes.
Spoon it onto a burger straight away, or keep it in the fridge for fries, fried chicken, tacos, or roasted vegetables. Expect to use it within three or four days.