The One McDonald's Dipping Sauce That's Perfect In Our Eyes

It's not controversial to say that McDonald's has one of the most iconic lineups of dipping sauces in the fast food world. And while the chain's Sweet 'N Sour Sauce leaves a fair bit to be desired, you'd be hard pressed to find a sauce as delicious as McDonald's Tangy BBQ, which is the best dip that the fast food juggernaut has to offer. And this isn't just because it's the one McDonald's seemingly prides itself on — oftentimes treating it as the default sauce to go along with McNuggets. Instead, we ranked Tangy BBQ Sauce very highly on our list of the best McDonald's sauces due to both its immaculate taste and underrated versatility.

The Tangy BBQ sauce — which gets its unique taste from the tomato paste, vinegar, and spices that make up its ingredients list — has proven to be the absolute best addition to McDonald's McNuggets ever since it debuted alongside the staple dish in the early 1980s. The titular tangy flavor of the sauce is likely the result of the vinegar, which is a present taste without being overwhelming whatsoever. Furthermore, the sauce has a hint of sweetness that balances the otherwise savory flavors. This tangy, balanced flavor profile provides the perfect match for the rich foods it can be served with.

While the Tangy BBQ Sauce is best known for being used with McNuggets, one of its greatest strengths is how well it goes with various other McDonald's menu items. The most obvious of these is undoubtedly the chain's fries, which some customers online have expressed are at their very best when dipped in the signature BBQ sauce. However, even beyond just dippable items, McDonald's array of cheeseburgers — save for maybe the Big Mac, which has its own iconic sauce — also benefits from the addition of the Tangy BBQ Sauce, as it mixes incredibly well with (or in place of) ketchup to upgrade your dish.

Plus, McDonald's is far from a one-trick pony when it comes to BBQ sauces; the bolder version of the sauce that was included on the BBQ Bacon Quarter Pounder with Cheese — AKA The Angel Reese Special — was a great sauce in its own right. While this sauce wasn't included in our aforementioned dipping sauce rankings, it proves that McDonald's knows what it's doing when it comes to the incredibly popular style of sauce.