McDonald's Thailand Has A Sweet And Savory Plum Dipping Sauce

Out of all the McDonald's dipping sauces you can enjoy with classic nuggets and fries, fans of the Golden Arches are bound to have a go-to condiment that never fails them. If you're an adventurous eater, maybe you love them all equally and choose yours based on whatever flavor you fancy that day. The options for zesting up your bite-sized chicken could involve a splash of salty, sweet, or spicy flavors, but for McDonald's in Thailand, savory is king. Along with its crispy fried chicken and Samurai Pork Burger, the plum sauce is something we really wish we could try. 

It is the lighter-tasting star ingredient of McDonald's Thailand's lineup of condiments, infusing every bite of chicken with a complementary sweetness. Many hungry globetrotters who end up feasting on chicken tenders or McNuggets there give its plum sauce a high rating after experiencing a mouthful of its sweet savoriness. One TikTok creator called plum sauce "one of the better McDonald's sauces, 100%." "Plum sauce is the best sauce for chicken, period," another commenter affirmed (That brings to mind the sweet kick of Mumbo sauce, a comparable condiment that's known to pair perfectly with fried chicken.) Others gave it a solid 10 out of 10, using it to enhance the flavors of other menu items said to have been a bit mediocre-tasting. Plum sauce is used in Asian cuisine to infuse deep-fried dishes with a light sweetness, and it's not difficult to make if you want to try it at home.

You're likely already familiar with McDonald's Sweet 'N Sour sauce, which blends the sweetness of apricots and peaches with spices like dried chili peppers, garlic, and onion powder. The fast food chain's website describes this sauce flavor as "slightly sweet with a touch of heat". Thailand's McDonald's plum sauce is similarly fruity, but it emphasizes the sweetness instead of a tangy kick. A condiment that's extremely similar to plum sauce actually goes by another name in the States at most Chinese chain restaurants: duck sauce. While some people consider the sauces identical, duck sauce can also be made from other fruits like apricots and pineapples and is by some accounts sweeter than plum sauce. Both are used for fried foods like spring rolls and poultry-based meals, hence why plum sauce seems to work so well with nuggets at McDonald's Thailand.

To concoct your own plum sauce, you can find salted Japanese plums, called umeboshi plums, at Whole Foods or H Mart if you'd rather not use common European plums, as those could over-sweeten it. You'll notice when Asian plums (which are more like apricots) are part of a recipe when the sauce is a yellowish brown color compared to the deep purples of common plums. Even without them, you can still create a similar Thai plum sauce to drizzle onto your McNuggets using a cup of plum jam, along with some rice vinegar, onion powder, ginger, salt, and sugar.