Which Is The Best Barbecue Sauce

Cant Decide Here Are Some Tips To Help You

Although we cant all agree on who makes the best store-bought BBQ sauce, the products in our list are certainly some of the top contenders.

Some prefer sweeter sauce while others want to taste the tomato, so here are some of the flavors you should be paying attention to as you taste to help you choose the right one for your food and your taste buds.

• Smoke. If you like a nice woody flavor, then hickory or mesquite recipes are a great choice. Many use liquid smoke to achieve this flavor, so if you find that the one you choose is too sweet or tangy and you have some liquid smoke around, try adding a few drops to balance the flavors.

• Tang. The tang in the sauce stems from the vinegar used, so if you find that it is too tangy, you can try adding a bit of sugar in to help neutralize the tang.

• Sweet. High fructose corn syrup is unbelievably sweet, and when you add in ketchup and additional sugar, it can make a sauce recipe excessively sweet.

Want to tone it down? Try adding some apple cider vinegar and spices to help.

• Spicy. Most of the original BBQ recipes arent very spicy, so if youre looking for something with more of a kick.

• Tomato. Ketchup is one of the key ingredients to a BBQ sauce, which means that tomatoes are, too!

Just remember that ketchup has sugar in it, so if you find that a sauce is too sweet, then the combination of ketchup and added sugar has probably rendered it so.

If Youre Making Ribs: Montgomery Inn Barbecue Sauce

This sauce is from a world-famous rib joint in Montgomery, Ohio. Its more sweet than spicy and definitely saucier than it is thick, but its really versatile and a good general BBQ sauce, says PureWow food editor Katherine Gillen, who grew up eating at Montgomery Inn. Use warm on any protein or for dipping.

Best Bbq Sauce At Walmart

• 1

  Combine green onions, lime juice, soy sauce, 1 cup BBQ sauce and ribs in a large re-sealable plastic freezer bag. Seal and massage marinade into beef to coat completely.
• 2
• 3

  Preheat barbecue to high. Remove ribs from marinade. Discard marinade. Oil grill, then barbecue ribs, lid closed, until ribs are seared with grill marks, about 3 minutes. Turn ribs over and continue to grill while basting generously with remaining BBQ sauce, another 3 minutes. Remove from the grill and serve immediately.

Read Also: Honey Roasted Bbq Chick Fil A Bottle

Things To Think About

After you get past the basic ingredients of a BBQ sauce, you really start to get into the flavors that make the sauce unique. Consider how the ingredients work together to affect the following:

• Consistency. There are sauces that are more like a thin glaze and others that have the consistency of a dip, such as ketchup. The thickness you choose could depend on the kind of cooking you are doing, the origin of the sauce or just the kind of sauce that you prefer.

The only way to get an understanding of this before you buy is to read some reviews from those that have tried the sauce before.

Note: Experts say that the best BBQ sauce for pulled pork is thicker in consistency.

• Flavor. All BBQ sauces are made of a few common bases that do have an effect on the initial flavor before adding even more punch:

• Tomato and vinegar , often have a runny consistency.

• Tomato and sugar , molasses and brown sugar will often be added for extra sweetness.

What Makes A Great Barbecue Sauce

It’s all relative, but most pitmasters agree that balance is key to a great barbecue sauce. Most sauces are made with a tomato base, vinegar, some sweetener like honey or molasses and an element of heat. From there, sauces are fine-tuned with spices and flavors, such as mustard, garlic, fruit and smoke. Any sauce that’s too overwhelming in any one direction usually doesn’t work well. And super simple sauces without much spice or complexity often fall flat.

We tasted many traditional Kansas City-style sauces for this list, a host of vinegar-heavy Carolina-style sauces, some keto-friendly sauces, Bachan’s cult-favorite Japanese-style sauce and a few Alabama white sauces to see which ones really tickled our taste buds. We tried each one with plain unseasoned chicken breast since it’s a rather blank slate as far as classic grilled foods go. When tasting, we noted things like overall balance, heat, sweetness, overwhelming flavors or anything else that jumped out — both bad and good.

It took a lot of napkins to find the best barbecue sauce in 2022. Here they are.

Also Check: Low Carb Sweet And Sour Sauce Recipe

Best Grocery Store Bbq Sauce

Sweet Baby Rays is a grocery store staple. Its always there, its well-made, and its reasonably priced. The brand makes a variety of flavors, but its best is its Sweet Baby Rays Sweet N Spicy Barbecue Sauce. It begins as a classic, molasses-based sweet, tangy barbecue sauce. But this sauce cranks it up to eleven by adding jalapeños to add some heat to the sweet. Its the perfect sauce for pulled pork, grilled ribs, chicken, and even slathered on peppers, onions, and any other vegetables you enjoy.

Cattlemen’s Carolina Tangy Gold Bbq Sauce

Our family was introduced to Carolina Tangy Gold BBQ Sauce several years ago by one of our neighbors who was originally from South Carolina. And it has been a staple in our house ever since. Theres just something about that sweet mustardy tang that we just love. Michelle Braxton, recipe developer and blogger at Supper with Michelle

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Rivers Smokehouse Mustard Barbeque Sauce

Why youll love it:

Mustard based barbeque sauces are a truly unique beast, providing a wholly different flavor from most other barbeque sauces. This stuff is perfect for ribs and chicken, and makes for an excellent break from the norm if youve never tried it.

What we didnt like

• Not great on beef.
• Can be an acquired taste.

The benefits of having a good mustard barbeque sauce on hand cant be overstated. If you can find a good one, it has a strong chance of becoming your absolute favorite sauce to cook some foods. Particularly, BBQ short ribs.

To be frank, this is not my favorite mustard barbeque sauce. That honor goes to a little batch made sauce only sold locally in southern Alabama. However, this is a worthy replacement in terms of sauces that are widely available and easy to procure pretty much anywhere in the US.

The tangy, mustardy goodness goes well with a lot of things. Its an excellent dipping sauce for everything from chicken tenders and French fries to a ham sandwich. But, its true power lies in using it as a marinade or mopping sauce, and as mentioned it goes especially well with pork and chicken Im not a fan when it comes to beef.

If youre looking for something a little different than the norm, this is an excellent choice.

Traeger Grills Sweet & Tangy Apricot Bbq Sauce

Why youll love this:

This is a very nice sweet sauce, going well with pretty much anything. Apricot is a fruit people have a bit less experience with eating on average than many other sweet sauces , lending it a more indescribably tasty flavor than similar sauces.

• Great for a wide variety of foods, but especially pork.
• Great price for the quality and bottle size.

What We Didnt Like

• A little thin, making it decent for many things, but hard to stick a thick layer to foods.

If you like sweet sauces, this is one of the best out there. Apricots are an interesting fruit. If youve never had one, they may seem like a strange fruit for making a sauce out of. They sit somewhere in terms of taste at the confluence of a fig, apple, and a plum, with a strikingly sweet taste.

Thankfully, like most good apricot sauces, this barbeque sauce cuts that raw fruity sweetness with a great deal of savory goodness and different varieties of sweet flavor that make a remarkably complex and rich sauce.

It works well for a lot of things, but is particularly at home on pork this is one of the best rib sauces Ive ever had.

The only complaints Id potentially level are with its thickness , and sweetness. Obviously I like the sweetness, but its certainly a barbeque sauce made for people with a sweet tooth youre probably not going to be pleasantly surprised by its taste if sweet flavors arent already to your preference.

Read Also: Texas Pete Chili Sauce Review

Finding The Best Barbecue Sauce For Your Grill

Claire Krieger/Taste of Home

Whether your grilling, slow cooking or just adding a bit of kick to your bag lunches, the right barbecue sauce is essential for country-style dishes. If you manage to find the right onethe kind with the right amount of sweetness, tang, smokiness and powerful flavoryoure set. But have you been to the grocery store lately? There are more barbecue sauces than you could ever imagine. Dont waste your time trying bottle after bottle of OK saucerely on our Test Kitchen who put 10 big names to the test.

How To Use Your Bbq Sauce:

• BBQ Marinade: Marinate grilled chicken, pulled pork, and ribs or spread it on top of any bbq meats during the grilling process.
• Condiment: Spread it over the top of your homemade nachos, salads, tacos, meatloaf, or on the bun of your juicy hamburger or chicken burger.
• Dipping sauce: dip meats and vegetables in it or stir a couple tablespoons into your homemade ranch for a BBQ ranch twist.
• Pizza sauce: spread it over bbq chicken pizza crust or create your own favorite pizza and drizzle it over top.

Read Also: Campbell’s Oven Sauces Creamy Garlic Butter Chicken

Third Place: Kc Masterpiece Original Barbecue Sauce

KC Masterpieces barbecue sauce is just plain delicious. The sauce is nice and thick, the flavor is sweet, slightly tangy and smokey. For the price is a hard sell to beat. KC claims to kettle cook their sauce and Im inclined to believe them. This stuff tastes like someone who knows what theyre doing made it at home. The one downside is it’s a little sweeter than I would like but if that isnt a problem for you, definitely pick up a bottle the next time youre in need of a sauce.

Rufus Teague Variety Bbq Sauce Pack

The motto of Rufus Teague BBQ is Good sauce makes bad barbecue good and good barbecue gooder and youll certainly find a way to make your barbecue gooder somewhere in this set of delicious sauces.

Jam-packed with wholesome, natural ingredients, this range of thick Kansas City-style barbecue sauces include finger-licking variations like Honey Sweet, Touch o Heat, Whiskey Maple, Blazing Hot, and Smokey apple.

To make sure these amazing sauces are available to as many people as possible, Rufus Teague has made this entire pack GMO free, Gluten-free, and Kosher certified.

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Homemade Bbq Sauce Recipe Ingredients

This BBQ Sauce comes together quickly with just a handful of ingredients that I generally have in my refrigerator or my pantry and is one that I think you all will fall in love with as well. Ive had friends ask me to please make extra for them to take home and if Id bottle it, theyd surely buy it.

To make this homemade BBQ Sauce, youll need:

What Makes A Good Barbecue Sauce

While there is no way of categorically stating that a BBQ sauce is either good or bad, when deciding which sauce is right for you, or the right match for the meat you plan to cook, there are a few things you can look for to help you make a good choice.

For example, is the sauce the Kansas style or vinegar based? If you go for a Kansas style sauce, you can expect a thicker, sweeter sauce with a bit less spice. Typically, this style of sauce will come to mind when most Americans think of barbecue sauce, as this is the style you can easily get in a store.

If you prefer more heat, spice and tang, then perhaps you should try a vinegar-based sauce, which is the type of sauce usually used in North Carolina and Texas.

While the texture of your sauce does not in itself determine the quality of the product, it will help you decide how to best use the sauce. Do you want to use it as more of a condiment? Then perhaps a thicker sauce will work best. Want to use it in a recipe? Then a thinner sauce will do the trick, especially if it packs a punch flavor-wise.

A great tip from seriouseats.com is to take into consideration the aroma of the sauce. As their grilling and sauce columnist states:

You can have a perfectly cooked rib or pulled pork, but top it with an off-smelling sauce, and the whole thing becomes an unfortunate experience.

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Kosmos Q Bbq Sauce Sampler Pack

The Kosmos Q sampler pack includes their amazing competition BBQ, Sweet Apple Chipotle, Sweet Smoke, Peach Habanero, Honey Jalapeno, Cherry Habanero, and our new Top Secret OPX-1 sauces.

Filled with sweet, smokey, and spicey flavors, this set makes for both a great gift for the pitmaster in your life or a fantastic way to widen the number of sauces you have on hand to pair with different meats.

Head Country Bbq Sauce

Head Country brand provides its users with delectable and best barbecue sauces. This bbq sauce is built by this brand as well. Most importantly, it is built with rare elements that make it a high-quality sauce to serve. Although, this is the best bbq sauce for ribs. But you can comfortably serve it other foods. Such as burgers, pizza etc.

Above all, the flavour of this sauce is original. Moreover, you get 3 bottles of this sauce at the same price. If we talk about the amount of the sauce inside bottles. Each of the bottles contains 20 oz amount of delectable sauce. You can easily serve it for a specific time. If you place the product accordingly. For motivation, we will enlight the ingredients used for its preparation.

Ingredients

• Powder of onions
• Garlic powder

These are the ingredients behind the delectable taste of this best sauce for bbq. None of the element inside the product is unnatural. Therefore, the item tastes better and flavourful. Moreover, the customer reviews aware us that it is an ideal sauce for bbq and other kinds of food. That is to say, it is among the best bbq sauces.

About the Product

Amount

Taste

It will surely let you enjoy the rare taste of your food. Because it obtains an amazing combo of ingredients inside it. Furthermore, the elements inside the sauce are original and second to none.

Various uses

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The 12 Best Barbecue Sauces To Up Your Grilling Game

Summer is officially here. This means that, if youre anything like us, youre primed to spend a lot of your free time outside communing with nature. Even if youre not into camping in a tent in the middle of nowhere, kayaking on a white cap-covered lake, or even hiking for an extended, sweaty period of time, theres a good chance youll spend some time in your yard, sitting around a bonfire, or simply sitting in a lawn chair, staring into the sun . Youll also grill your meals as much as possible.

But if youre going to grill, youre also going to need some of the best barbecue sauce options to up your summer grilling game. Grilled pork or chicken wings arent complete without a sweet, tomato-based sauce, a tangy mustard sauce, vinegar-forward sauce, or even a mayonnaise-based Alabama white sauce.

Its a scientific fact that grilled food just tastes better than every other kind of food and we dont care if you use charcoal or propane. Its all good. Even if you dont own a smoker, your grill is a tiny, travel-sized setup, and your only barbecue-related claim to fame is that someone once gave you a king of the grill apron for your birthday, youre probably going to throw marinated chicken, steak, burgers, and veggies on the grill at least a few nights per week from now until October.

Fourth Place: Sweet Baby Rays Barbecue Sauce

The ranking here shocked me. This is the sauce my family uses to make my favorite baked beans, ribs and steaks. I truly believed that Sweet Baby Rays Barbecue Sauce would be the clear winner but it wasnt. Dont get me wrong, Sweet Baby Rays sauce is delicious. The sauce hugged the meat like a thick jam in the best possible way. The smoky flavors are balanced with a nice brown sugar-y note that makes for one decent cue sauce, but there are other brands that just do it better.

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Best Honey: Good & Gather Organic Honey Bbq Sauce

• Can be a little too sweet

• Thin

Theres something about a really delicious honey barbecue sauce that makes you want to eat a plate full of chicken wings . And with the Good & Gather Organic Honey Barbecue Sauce, you can do that and a lot more. With the right balance of sweet, tangy, and smoky, its perfect as a dipping sauce, marinade, or glaze for meats and tofuor anything you want. Its sweetened with a combination of sugar, honey, and molasses, and as Targets own brand, its budget-friendly but still has some organic ingredients.

With the right balance of sweet and spicy, the Rufus Teague Touch O’ Heat BBQ Sauce is our overall pick. If you want to kick it up a notch, the Cowtown Night Of The Living Bar-B-Q Sauce has an extra hit of heat.