• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Free Email Series!

5 Time and Stress Saving Cooking Secrets

Free email series of my best tips!

Visit my other Site: Pancake Recipes
  • About
  • Contact
  • Free Email Series!

    5 Time and Stress Saving Cooking Secrets

    Free email series of my best tips!

  • Visit my other Site: Pancake Recipes

Rachel Cooks®

Easy Healthy-ish Recipes

  • Recipe Index
  • The Basics
  • Free Meal Plans

Dinner Made Easy:

Slow Cooker

5 Ingredients

Grilling

Make Ahead

Sheet Pan

Tacos

Pizza

Home Recipes by Type Salads Salad Dressings & Toppings
GF Gluten-Free DF Dairy-Free VG Vegetarian

Honey Mustard Dressing

5
/5
10 minutes mins
Leave a comment
Jump to Recipe Video
By: Rachel GurkPosted: 03/29/2023Updated: 03/29/2023

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.

Dressing and salad, text reads "amazing honey mustard dressing."
Dressing and salad, text reads "honey mustard dressing - can also be used as a dip!."
Dressing and salad, text reads "amazing honey mustard dressing."
Dressing and salad, text reads "honey mustard dressing - so good."

Rich and creamy, homemade honey mustard dressing is so good on salads or as a dip for chicken strips or nuggets.

Recipe Overview

Why you’ll love it: The dressing is easy to make and free of artificial ingredients.

How long it takes: 10 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: measuring cup, small whisk
Servings: makes a little less than 1 cup

Honey mustard dressing being poured on a salad.
Table of Contents
open
  • 1 Recipe Overview
  • 2 About This Recipe
  • 3 What You’ll Need
  • 4 How To Make It
  • 5 FAQs
  • 6 Make It Your Own
  • 7 Make-Ahead Ideas
  • 8 Storage Tips
  • 9 More Homemade Dressings
  • 10 Get the Recipe: Honey Mustard Dressing Recipe

Who doesn’t love the combination of honey and mustard? Tangy and sweet, it’s a just what you need to dip those yummy chicken tenders into.

Do you have someone in your family who is a honey mustard fan? When I was a kid, I always ordered chicken nuggets with honey mustard dipping sauce at my favorite fast food restaurant. Sometimes I just ordered plain honey to dip them into.

I still crave that combination once in awhile. Now that air fryers are a thing, I love to make homemade air fryer chicken nuggets (my kids love them too!). They turn out crispy and so yummy, and of course, I dip them in my homemade honey mustard dressing.

Honey mustard dressing is delicious on salads, too, especially warm salads with roasted vegetables.

About This Recipe

It’s super easy to make your own honey mustard dressing. It’s made with simple ingredients like real honey, your favorite mustard, and mayonnaise.

Many commercial brands use more high fructose corn syrup than honey. One brand I looked at listed water as the first ingredient. Really, water? Why put water in your dressing?

Recently I posted a recipe for honey mustard vinaigrette. Maybe you’re wondering how honey mustard dressing and honey mustard vinaigrette are different. The dressing is creamier and works well as a dip or salad dressing. The vinaigrette is not creamy and wouldn’t make a good dip. It’s best for salads.

So let’s take a look at honey mustard dressing. I’ll get you started here but as always, you’ll find the recipe card below with specifics.

Chicken tender being dipped in honey mustard dressing.

What You’ll Need

  • Mayonnaise: Choose your favorite brand of mayonnaise. You can select light or regular mayonnaise. I prefer olive oil mayonnaise.
  • Honey: Be sure your honey has a spreadable consistency. If it’s too thick or crystallized, it won’t blend into the dressing as well. If that’s the case, warm the honey in your microwave. Use a low setting in 10 second increments. Honey heats up very quickly!
  • Dijon Mustard & Yellow Mustard: A combination of these two types of mustard makes the best tasting dressing. They are very different but work well together in this recipe.
  • Brown Sugar: Just a dash of brown sugar enhances the flavor of the dressing.
  • White Vinegar: Use ordinary white vinegar. You’ll need just one teaspoon, only a small amount to balance the sweetness of the honey. Mustard also contains vinegar.
  • Paprika: This bright red spice doesn’t have a lot of flavor. It’s made from mild red peppers that have been dried and ground into a powder. It adds a nice color to the dressing.
  • Garlic Powder: A hint of garlic is all you need, just ¼ teaspoon.
Overhead view of ingredients needed for recipe.

How To Make It

It’s so easy! Use a glass liquid measuring cup or a bowl that holds one or two cups.

Add all the ingredients.

Unblended ingredients in white bowl.

Give everything a good stir or use a small whisk to mix the ingredients thoroughly.

Ingredients being whisked together.

That’s it! It’s ready to serve.

Dressing ingredients combined in white bowl.

FAQs

Is there a difference between honey mustard dressing and honey mustard sauce?

My recipe for honey mustard dressing is similar to a honey mustard sauce. It’s pretty confusing when you look at recipes for honey mustard dressing vs. sauce vs. vinaigrette. There’s a lot of overlap.
Generally, a dressing or sauce is thicker, creamier, and often made with mayo, so you can use it as a dip as well as a salad dressing. A vinaigrette is not as thick and works best for salads.

What does honey mustard go with?

Honey mustard is a pretty versatile flavor. It can be used for salads, sandwiches, and dips. It goes well with chicken: chicken nuggets (or air fryer chicken nuggets) and chicken tenders.
Think outside of the box a little and drizzle honey mustard on sautéed Brussels sprouts or roasted sweet potatoes or air fryer beets. Honey mustard dressing mixed with a bag of coleslaw blend makes an awesome salad. Try honey mustard as a dip with fried goat cheese appetizers.

Make It Your Own

  • If you’re not a fan of mayo, substitute plain yogurt.
  • Only have one kind of mustard in the fridge? That’s just fine, use what you have. A whole grain mustard will work too, if you don’t mind a little more texture in your dressing. Keep in mind that each of these substitutions will slightly change the flavor.
  • Rather have a vinaigrette for your salads? Try my honey mustard vinaigrette or red wine vinaigrette.
  • If you love the honey mustard combination, be sure to try my honey mustard chicken marinade or baked honey mustard chicken (you’ll love the sauce!).
Honey mustard sauce, chicken tenders, salad.

Make-Ahead Ideas

Go ahead and make the honey mustard dressing ahead of time. It keeps well.

Storage Tips

Homemade honey mustard dressing will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge. Store it in a tightly covered container. It may thicken slightly. If the dressing separates, give it a good stir before using. Always discard dressing if it has a bad odor or looks moldy.

More Homemade Dressings

Healthy Green Goddess Dressing

Sweet BBQ Salad Dressing with Lime

Blue Cheese Dressing or Dip

Healthy Ranch Dressing

Browse All

Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @rachelcooksblog on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!

Honey mustard dressing being poured on a salad.
Recipe

Get the Recipe: Honey Mustard Dressing Recipe

5 from 1 vote
Prep Time: 10 minutes mins
Total Time: 10 minutes mins
6 servings
Print Rate Recipe
Prevent your screen from going dark
Rich and creamy, homemade honey mustard dressing is so good on salads or as a dip for chicken strips or nuggets.

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup mayonnaise
  • ¼ cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon white vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

  • Mix all ingredients together in a bowl or measuring cup, whisking to combine.
  • Use immediately or refrigerate until ready to use.

Notes

  • Makes 7 oz., or just under 1 cup.
  • Refrigerate honey mustard dressing in a tightly covered container or jar. It will keep for up to 2 weeks. 
  • If you prefer to make the dressing without mayonnaise, substitute plain Greek yogurt for the mayo. 

Nutrition Information

Serving: 2tablespoons, Calories: 121kcal, Carbohydrates: 14g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Trans Fat: 0.02g, Cholesterol: 4mg, Sodium: 171mg, Potassium: 29mg, Fiber: 0.5g, Sugar: 14g, Vitamin A: 26IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 10mg, Iron: 0.3mg

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.

© Author: Rachel Gurk
Did You Make This?Be sure to upload a photo & tag me at @RachelCooksBlog. I love seeing what you made!
Share A Photo! Tag on Insta Rate It
Free email series

5 Time & Stress Saving Cooking Secrets

Free email series of my best tips!

FREE BONUS!

You May Also Like...

  • Image of Grilled Chicken Breasts with parsley sprinkled on top
    Honey Mustard Chicken Marinade
  • Slice of chicken on a fork with honey mustard sauce.
    Baked Honey Mustard Chicken - super easy!
  • Honey mustard vinaigrette with a spoon.
    Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
  • Air fryer chicken nuggets in a basket, shot from above. BBQ sauce also pictured.
    Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets
Four images, text reads "10+ delicious smoothie recipes."
Previous Post
10 Delicious Smoothie Recipes
Meal plan #11 graphic.
Next Post
Meal Plan (#11)

Reader Interactions

Leave a Review Cancel reply

Recipe Rating




The maximum upload file size: 1 MB. You can upload: image. Drop files here

Primary Sidebar

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Rachel! Life can be complicated, cooking shouldn't be! I believe that you can put a delicious meal on the table without stressing. It's possible, and I'm here to help. Have a seat at my table...let's chat, eat, and have fun! Read more...

Air Fryer Instant Pot 30 Minutes One Pan Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Slow Cooker Vegetarian 5 Ingredients

Trending

Cooked salmon fillet on a grey-toned plate with cooked asparagus spears. The salmon is being flaked with a fork.

Air Fryer Salmon Recipe

Pizza pasta being scooped from a pan with a wooden spoon.

Pizza Pasta – 1 pan, 20 minutes

Image of a giant bowl of spaghetti with turkey meatballs.

Baked Turkey Meatballs

Asparagus Panzanella Salad

Seasonal

Cilantro lime rice in a bowl garnished with a lime wedge.

Cilantro Lime Rice

Round white bowl filled with guacamole, one chip dipped in.

How to Make Guacamole

Pico de gallo in a white bowl.

The Best Pico de Gallo

Overhead view of jar of taco seasoning with a wooden spoon in it.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

Opens in a new window Opens an external site Opens an external site in a new window
Free Bonus!

5 Cooking Secrets to Save Time & Stress

Free email series of my best tips and recipes!

Featured On:

Back to Top
  • About
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Work with Me
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility
© 2023 Rachel Cooks®
Site Credits Designed by Melissa Rose Design Developed by Once Coupled