Quick tomato chutney burger sauce

To accompany today’s cheeseburger recipe, here’s a tomato chutney designed especially to be a burger sauce. Having said that, I’ve been using it as an all-rounder condiment for everything from sandwiches to scrambled eggs, pork chops to chargrilled skirt steak! I especially like that it’s not as sweet as traditional tomato chutney.

Need a fast sauce for your hamburger? Try my Special Burger Sauce!

Double cheeseburger with tomato chutney sauce

Tomato chutney burger sauce

This is a tomato burger sauce which is pretty much a tomato chutney. The main differences being that traditional tomato chutney is usually sweeter, and typically includes a good amount of onion plus spices like ginger, chilli and sometimes cardamom. Not really natural pairings with beefy burgers!

Instead, I’ve gone with more savoury flavourings such as Worcestershire sauce, paprika, onion and garlic powder.

Different in flavouring it may be, but this burger sauce is just as versatile as traditional tomato chutney. See the section below for suggestions for use!

Best sauce for burgers

Special burger sauce for hamburgers in a mixing bowl ready for use — Special Burger Sauce

With the rise of gourmet burgers, you see all sorts of sauces and relishes on hamburgers these days! But here’s a core list of burger sauces I use:

Ketchup (or Aussie tomato sauce) – straight out of the bottle, just as it is!
Mayonnaise – plain, or flavoured like this Special Burger Sauce recipe.
Yellow mustard – I’m talking the bright yellow stuff, sometimes labelled “American mustard”. (Caution: Don’t accidentally get the bright yellow Hot English Mustard which is spicy!)
Creamy burger sauce (recipe here) – A mayonnaise based savoury burger sauce, usually with little bits of gherkins in it.
Tomato burger sauce (chutney/relish, this recipe) – A slightly chunky style sauce that’s similar to tomato chutney except not as sweet and less earthy spices like cardamom, ginger etc.
Thousand island sauce – A creamy pink sauce made with mayonnaise and ketchup that’s popular with seafood (Aussie favourite prawn dipping sauce!). Recipe here.
Barbecue sauce – See my Barbecue Pork Ribs recipe for a classic homemade Barbecue Sauce recipe.

What goes in tomato chutney sauce for burgers

Here’s what you need for this tomato chutney sauce for burgers:

What goes in Quick tomato chutney burger sauce

Canned tomato – I like to use crushed as I think it’s got the best texture for the intended use. But diced will work too, though the sauce will look a little chunkier.
Worcestershire sauce – A good hit of savoury flavour.
Brown sugar – For sweetness, though you’ll find that this sauce is much less sweet than typical tomato chutney.
Apple cider vinegar – This brings the tang to this sauce which works well together with all the rich juicy meatiness and cheesiness in burgers.
Spices – These are the seasonings for this tomato burger sauce. We can be a bit flexible here:
- Garlic powder – substitute with 1/2 garlic clove, finely minced, or more onion powder
- Onion powder – substitute with more garlic powder
- Smoked paprika – substitute with ordinary paprika
- Mustard powder – use ordinary mustard spread instead (not a spicy one like Hot English Mustard, unless you’re intentionally trying to make it spicy!)
- Celery salt – substitute with plain salt

How to make tomato burger sauce

Nice and easy – just place everything in a saucepan, stir to combine then simmer for 25 minutes on medium low until it reduces down enough so you can draw a path across the base of the saucepan.

How to make Quick tomato chutney burger sauce

Lovely concentrated tomato flavour going on here! Just what we want.

Quick tomato chutney burger sauce in a saucepan

Batch size and storing

This recipe makes around 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) which is enough for 5 to 6 burgers. Not a big batch recipe like you’d ordinarily do for chutneys as I am sharing this recipe to be the sauce for Cheeseburgers which I also published today.

Storing – Store in sterilised jars for up to 6 weeks, or 1 week in normal containers, or 3 months in the freezer.

Quick tomato chutney burger sauce in a jar ready to be refrigerated

Hamburger with quick tomato chutney burger sauce

Ways to use this tomato chutney

As I mentioned at the beginning – and in fact, in the title (!) – this is a tomato chutney that was created specifically to be a sauce for slathering onto juicy burgers. Specifically, the big, juicy Cheeseburgers I also published today though you could also have a leisurely browse through my burger collection!

Having said that, as I also mentioned at the start, I’ve really enjoyed using this as a condiment much like any tomato chutney. In fact, possibly more because it’s got a fraction of the sweetness of traditional tomato chutney!

Here are the other ways to use this:

In sandwiches (exceptional with Meatloaf sandwiches!)
Dipping sauce – for things like beer battered fish, crumbed chicken tenders, beef kabobs
Dolloping on – pretty much any roast, egg white or normal omelettes, plain poached or baked chicken breast, grilled sausages (yes!), a simple piece of pan fried fish or grilled steak (try skirt steak!).
Crostini or any toasted bread – Either smear with something like ricotta then dollop over this tomato chutney, or smear with this chutney then scatter over crumbled marinated feta or goats cheese. YUM.