Papa John’s Garlic Sauce on Steaks: The Experiment Nobody Asked For (But Everyone Needed)

TL;DR

• Guga bought 50+ cups of Papa John’s garlic sauce to cook steaks in it
• Three steaks tested: plain control, sauce added after cooking, and basted in the sauce then seared
• The garlic sauce basted steak was the unanimous winner, described as insanely juicy and creamy
• Also includes a homemade Papa John’s sauce clone and chicken parm bites that destroy the Papa John’s version
• Deep frying didn’t work (the sauce foamed over), so basting became the move

The Setup

▶00:00 Guga has a confession: he doesn’t order Papa John’s for the pizza. He orders it for the garlic dipping sauce. And honestly? Fair. That little cup of garlic butter is the real star, and everyone knows it. So naturally, the question becomes: what happens if you cook a steak in this stuff?

▶01:33 But first, Guga reverse engineers the sauce. Turns out it’s not actually butter. The main ingredient is soybean oil, which matches up perfectly with Parkay squeezable butter from the barbecue world. Add some garlic powder and onion powder, and you’ve got a dead-on homemade clone. Good to know, but for this experiment, they’re going with the real deal: over 50 cups of the authentic stuff.

▶02:34 The steaks are three beautiful New York strips, each one and a half inches thick, seasoned simply with salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Three steaks, three methods:

1. 1. Control – cooked normally on the grill
2. 2. Sauce finish – cooked the same way, then topped with garlic sauce at the end
3. 3. Sauce basted – cooked directly in the melted garlic sauce, then seared

The Process

▶04:36 Here’s where things got interesting. Guga poured all 50+ cups into a cast iron skillet and tried to deep fry a steak in it. Problem: the sauce started foaming up like crazy and threatened to boil over. Deep frying was officially off the table.

▶04:52 Plan B: baste the steak by flipping it repeatedly in the sauce. This cooks it evenly while infusing all that garlicky richness. The downside? Zero crust. The steak looked, in Guga’s own words, like it was boiled. Not appetizing. So it got pulled out and given a proper sear to fix that.

🧾 Homemade Papa John’s Garlic Sauce

• Parkay squeezable butter (soybean oil base)

• Garlic powder

• Onion powder

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[See full breakdown at ▶01:33]

🧾 Chicken Parmesan Papa Bites

• Pizza dough

• Olive oil, garlic, shallots

• Crushed tomatoes

• Shredded rotisserie chicken

• Mozzarella cheese (be generous)

• Egg wash

• Papa John’s garlic sauce

• Parsley for garnish

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[See full steps at ▶03:21]

The Tasting / Results

▶08:02 Steak 1 (Control): A solid baseline. Great charcoal flavor, extra juicy, pronounced beef flavor. The guys called it “a Guga steak on charcoal steroids.” Nothing wrong here at all.

▶08:37 Steak 2 (Sauce finish): This is where things shifted. “Like silky,” they said. A “huge wave of richness” that punches you right in the face. The garlic sauce added creaminess that just stays in your mouth. It didn’t mask the beef, it enhanced it. Everyone agreed this beat the control.

▶09:55 Chicken Parm Bites (side dish): Before the final steak, they tested Guga’s homemade version against Papa John’s original. It wasn’t even close. “Papa John’s version, you have to go deep sea diving to find some chicken.” Guga’s version had visible, generous chicken, better flavor, and the crew said Papa John’s version belongs “in the garbage.” Harsh but probably accurate.

▶11:12 Steak 3 (Sauce basted + seared): The room lit up. “Why can’t I stop smiling?” The crust wasn’t as good as the other two, that’s the tradeoff. But the flavor was on another level. “One of the juiciest steaks I’ve ever had,” with incredible richness and umami that paired perfectly with the natural beef flavor. It didn’t alter the steak. It just improved it massively.

The Verdict

▶12:13 Unanimous winner: Steak 3, the one basted in Papa John’s garlic sauce and then seared. All three steaks were good, but the progression was clear. The control was great, adding sauce after was better, and cooking in the sauce was the best by a wide margin. Yes, you lose a little crust quality. But the juice, the creaminess, the umami? Worth the tradeoff every time.

The real lesson here: Papa John’s garlic sauce is basically just flavored soybean oil with garlic and onion powder. You can make it at home for pennies. And apparently, it turns a good steak into something people can’t stop grinning about.

We try hard to get the details right, but nobody’s perfect. Spot something off? Let us know