Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Best BBQ Sauces for When You’re Not Making Your Own

Joe Morales
By
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The weather is getting warmer, and that can only mean one thing: BBQs! Spring and summer weekends will bring BBQ parties, camping trips, or just regular nightly meals with food cooked outside. What you put on your grilled meat to enhance the flavors is sometimes a tough decision. Strolling down the grocery store aisle becomes a bit overwhelming because of the BBQ sauce options. No matter what you decide to barbecue, you can’t go wrong with any sauce.

Remember to go low and slow for cooking times, use the sauce toward the end of the cooking process, and have plenty of extra on hand for dunking. A good tip, if you are going to use the sauce as a condiment, is to warm it up first, — or, at the bare minimum, have it at room temperature. There is nothing worse than dipping hot food into cold BBQ sauce. Here are some of our top BBQ sauces.

Recommended Videos

The Bestselling Barbecue Sauce

Image used with permission by copyright holder

We have some favorite go-to’s, but honestly, the best award-winning BBQ sauce is Sweet Baby Ray’s Original BBQ Sauce. Sweet Baby Ray’s was founded in Chicago in the 1980s and continues to dominate the BBQ sauce market. That’s pretty amazing considering the number of sauces on the market today.

Related

But Sweet Baby Ray’s is just one of many styles across the country. Sauces vary according to the different flavors and regions in the U.S. We’re going to discuss even more of the most popular sauces and how they’re used.

The Most Popular BBQ Sauce Styles

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Many BBQ sauces are tomato-based, and that is what you will find on the shelves of your favorite grocery store. Most of the ingredients are the same in all of the sauces; it’s just some of them are more pronounced than others.

  • North Carolina BBQ sauce is a vinegar-based sauce. The tanginess of the vinegar helps cut through the richness of fatty pieces of meat that has been slow-cooked or barbecued at low temperatures.
  • South Carolina BBQ sauce, aka Carolina Gold, is a mustard-based sauce. Carolina Gold BBQ sauce is a blend of mustard, vinegar, and spices. There are parts of South Carolina that use a vinegar-based and a tomato-based sauce, but by far, the Carolina Gold sauce is the most popular. It has a distinct yellow hue to it, giving it the name Carolina Gold.
  • Alabama White BBQ sauce is a tangy, mayonnaise-based sauce. The sauce is made from mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, and spices, and it’s best used on meats with a light flavor to them. It’s a creamy, delicious sauce that has a peppery bite from the amount of pepper and horseradish that go into it.
  • Kansas City BBQ sauce is a ketchup-based sauce that’s typically sweet, tangy, and spicy. One of the ingredients in this sauce is molasses. Molasses gives the sauce a thickness and a sweet flavor, which is then spiced up by chili powder.
  • Texas BBQ sauce is a tomato-based sauce with a twist: It includes meat drippings. These sauces are light, hearty, and range from sweet and tangy to sweet and spicy. They’re similar to the South Carolina BBQ sauce.

What is BBQ Sauce?

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Barbecue has been around for centuries. Barbecue is actually a style of cooking that involves some type of fire and smoke. The phrase “low and slow” is a way to describe this style of cooking as well. The sauce that goes on the barbecue is barbecue (BBQ) sauce.

It is a popular condiment used by consumers, but in the cooking of barbecued meats, it is used as a mopping or basting technique or as a finishing sauce. It can also be used for marinating, which assists in tenderizing and flavoring tougher cuts of meat.

The sauce is just one component of barbecued food. Just as there are many varieties of sauces, there are also various ways to prepare your meats. Meat can be smoked, grilled, or brined. A dry rub or wet rub can also be applied. It all depends on the style, but one thing is for sure: BBQ is delicious. Note this, though: If you put the sauce on too early, the sugars in the sauce will burn before the meat is fully cooked. That’s why the sauce is typically added at least halfway through the cooking process.

The Best BBQ Sauce for Beef

Image used with permission by copyright holder

This is a tough one. There are so many cuts of beef that it’s difficult to pinpoint which sauce will go best with it. Brisket, for instance, is perfect with a K.C.-style sauce or a Texas BBQ sauce because of the beef’s bold flavor. For beef ribs, think thick, sticky sweet sauces with just a hint of tanginess.

The Best BBQ Sauce for Chicken

Barbecued chicken on the grill
Photo by aly on Unsplash Photo by aly on Unsplash

The Alabama White Sauce is the way to go for chicken. It’s great for dipping, and we hear that some Southern places actually dip their barbecued chicken in the sauce before serving it. It’s perfect for that roasted chicken or that spatchcocked chicken you’ve been perfecting, or maybe even beer can chicken.

The runner-up is a nice K.C. BBQ sauce with a thick, sticky-sweet sauce. It would go great with fried chicken as well!

The Best BBQ Sauce for Pork

Image used with permission by copyright holder

It’s said that North Carolina’s vinegar BBQ sauce is only used on pork, whole hogs, and shoulders because the vinegar cuts through the fattiness of the pork. In reality, North Carolina and South Carolina sauces are going to work with any type of pork.

The Best BBQ Sauce for Ribs

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Ribs can either be pork or beef. Fatty, delicious baby back ribs or country ribs go great with K.C. BBQ sauce or a Texas BBQ sauce. The richness of the meat will be sopped up by the sweet, tangy, and smoky flavors of the sauce.

Editors' Recommendations

Joe Morales
Joe Morales
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Joe Morales is a trained chef with over five years of experience working in fine dining and Michelin recommended restaurants…
The CDC just released its list of top superfoods, and we bet you’re not eating most of them
Admit it: you don't even think about buying most of these foods
Fresh Watercress bundle

Navigating the modern maze of "healthier" options can feel like navigating a jungle while blindfolded. But here's the beacon of clarity you've been waiting for. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the science-driven heavyweight of health knowledge, has just unleashed its latest weapon in the battle for better nutrition – a list of superfoods providing valuable insight into the quest to determine which foods are healthiest.

We all know the drill – fruits and veggies are good for you, but which ones are the real superheroes? The CDC has crunched the numbers, dialed in on nutrient density, and separated the contenders from the pretenders. It's time to leave the confusion behind and dive deep into the world of superfoods that are more than talk; they're packed with health benefits.

Read more
You’re probably not using the broiler setting on your oven, but it’s a game-changer — here’s why
What is a broiler, you ask? Only the best oven setting you're not using.
Pizzas on oven racks

In the summertime, we talk an awful lot about grilling. And who can blame us? Grilling is a hoot, and grilled foods are spectacularly delicious. But for many reasons, grilling isn't always an option. Perhaps you haven't yet been inspired to buy a grill for yourself, or you live in a place that's especially rainy with no covered patio. Maybe you had a particularly embarrassing experience years ago that involved burning off your eyebrows, and you've been too scared to pick up the tongs ever since. Whatever the reason, it's okay. There is another option. In fact, it's likely something you already have in your kitchen and may not even be aware of. It's your broiler setting.
In addition to being a fantastic substitute for a grill, your broiler can also do a multitude of other impressive culinary tasks, from cooking to crisping to browning to brûléeing. So it's in your best interest to learn how to use this handy tool as soon as possible.
Broilers come standard with almost every oven on the market, be it gas or electric. In most cases, the broiler will be on the inside of your oven, the heat coming directly from the top. You'll access the broiler's heat by placing one of your oven racks on the highest setting — usually two to three inches from the broiler. In other cases, the broiler may be located in a drawer at the bottom of the oven and will work similarly, but with less control as to how closely your food can be placed to the heat source. Either way, it should be fairly obvious when you give your oven a quick inspection. So in case you've ever wondered what that button is for, or, if you're just noticing it for the first time since you moved in, this is how to use your broiler.

Cook
A broiler is, essentially, an upside-down grill inside your oven. If you know your way around a grill and think about it this way, cooking with the broiler will become quite simple. It gives off very high heat, so it's designed to cook quickly. Anything that cooks well on fast, high heat will do well in the broiler. Things like thin cuts of meat, smaller vegetables, and even pizza all cook beautifully this way. Simply adjust your settings according to your ingredients.

Read more
Want to make a great homemade dressing? An ice cube is the secret ingredient you’re missing
This humble little ingredient can help you cook like a professional chef
Ice cubes

If you've ever wondered why your homemade salad dressings just don't have the same silky smooth texture of those you find at restaurants, this simple trick could very well be the reason. It turns out, the secret ingredient is probably something you have lots of at this very moment, right in your freezer. And it didn't cost you a thing. Ice.

In the following video, YouTube Chef Carla Lalli Music demonstrates how to make three fabulous homemade salad dressings — Spicy Buttermilk, Herby Miso Ranch, and a Savory Citrus Vinaigrette. She explains that these three dressings are the only ones you'll need to get you through every possible summer dish, and makes every viewer's mouth undoubtedly water in proving her point. She then expertly mixes up a batch of each, sharing tips and tricks along the way. And one of those tips is something every home chef should know — using an ice cube as a key dressing ingredient.

Read more