The Best BBQ Sauce Recipes, Tested

What is BBQ Sauce?

Barbecue sauce’s historical past is as lengthy and complex because the arguments over which type is greatest. It’s doubtless been round because the seventeenth century, when the primary written references to it may be discovered from the American colonies. Like a lot of American tradition, it comes from a mixture of Native American, African, and European components and strategies.

Cookbook Showdown: BBQ Sauce

LaBelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing About by Patti LaBelle

Patti LaBelle turned a family identify as a singer and actor, however for those who haven’t tried out her cookbooks, you’re lacking out on all of the magic Ms. LaBelle has to supply. LaBelle Cuisine, first revealed in 1999 and reissued in 2021, is an excellent useful resource for scrumptious down-home cooking. The recipes really feel like basic Southern fare, and so they’re made much more endearing with LaBelle’s private tales about consuming them with household and movie star mates. Her recipe shined within the Mac & Cheese Cookbook Showdown. But how does her barbecue sauce evaluate?

Patti LaBelle’s “Bodacious Barbecue Sauce”

LaBelle grew up in Philadelphia, and her barbecue sauce doesn’t self-identify with any explicit area, however its ketchup base aligns it with extra of a Kansas City type. It’s sweetened with brown sugar, spiced up with sizzling sauce and floor cayenne, balanced with cider vinegar, mustard, garlic, and lemon juice, and completed with a splash of liquid smoke. It’s simmered on the range to present the flavors an opportunity to meld.

Patti LaBelle’s BBQ Sauce Scores

• Flavor: 3.5/5 — To be trustworthy, it tasted quite a bit like fancy ketchup, which it sort of is? It’s largely ketchup with some add-ins. The liquid smoke brings a pleasant complexity and the lemon squeeze brightens it up.
• Texture: 3.5/5 — Very thick, comparable in texture to ketchup. It’s good and clean.
• As a Marinade: 2/5 — Was the hen tasty? Yes. But the sauce burned whereas cooking due to its thickness and excessive sugar content material.
• As a Condiment: 3/5 — Much higher texture for dipping than basting, however it actually does style like fancy ketchup. I would really like dipping fries on this greater than hen.
• Difficulty: Easy — Combine quite a lot of simply accessible components in a sauce pan and simmer. It’s positively an approachable recipe for all ability ranges.
• Overall: 3/5 — For a flowery ketchup, that is wonderful. For a barbecue sauce, it doesn’t have the flexibility I anticipate.

Carla Hall’s “Barbecue Sauce”

Hall was born and raised in Nashville, the place the barbecue is primarily flavored with dry rub and served with a spice-heavy tomato and vinegar sauce for topping and dipping. The sauce recipe in Carla Hall’s Soul Food combines quite a lot of flavors with a ketchup and apple cider vinegar base. It begins with sautéing onion, garlic, and serrano chile, then brings the ketchup and vinegar along with cumin, coriander, brown sugar, molasses, and mustard. There’s a good quantity of crossover in components from Patti LaBelle’s recipe, however I discovered the ultimate outcomes fairly completely different. Hall’s sauce is skinny sufficient to make an incredible marinade or glaze however nonetheless thick sufficient to make use of as a condiment. And with out being blended, it’s received taste bombs of onion, garlic, and serrano chile.

Carla Hall’s BBQ Sauce Scores

• Flavor: 5/5 — This sauce is basically advanced. You discover a unique be aware each time you attempt it. It’s actually balanced throughout candy, savory, and spicy with out being in any respect boring.
• Texture: 4/5 — It has little bits of onion, garlic, and chile, so it’s not clean, however it nonetheless labored properly on each grilled and fried hen.
• As a Marinade: 4/5 — This sauce additionally burned a bit whereas grilling, however in a method that felt applicable for barbecue. A whole lot of the flavour got here via within the hen.
• As a Condiment: 5/5 — Exactly what you need in a dipping sauce. Strong taste, thick, and tangy.
• Difficulty: Easy-Moderate — It’s not a technically difficult recipe, however does contain just a few extra steps and components than others.
• Overall: 4.5/5 — This is a incredible, versatile sauce that works properly with quite a lot of flavors.

Caroline Hennessy’s “Foreign Extra Stout Barbecue Sauce”

This recipe requires Guinness’s Foreign Extra Stout, which Hennessy says brings a roasted barley taste and plenty of bitter depth to the sauce. It’s cooked on the range, beginning with chopped onion and garlic, then deglazed with the beer. It additionally consists of ketchup, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, paprika, cumin, and cayenne pepper. It hits the identical notes as the primary two sauces — candy, savory, spicy — however in some barely other ways. The odor of the sauce whereas it was simmering was unimaginable. And after I stole a style, I spotted instantly that I had no enterprise judging Irish barbecue sauce as lesser than.

Caroline Hennessy’s BBQ Sauce Scores

• Flavor: 4.5/5 — Complex, bitter and candy, nutty and nearly chocolatey from the richness of the Guinness.
• Texture: 5/5 — This one was smoothed out with an immersion blender and had an ideal medium thickness.
• As a Marinade: 3.5/5 — This sauce additionally burned fairly a bit whereas grilling, and because it already had quite a lot of bitterness, much more of that got here out. But nonetheless very tasty!
• As a Condiment: 5/5 — I’d completely use this as a dipping sauce usually. It’s an incredible texture and mixture of flavors for quite a lot of dishes.
• Difficulty: Easy-Moderate — Again, not an excellent difficult recipe, however it does contain some further components and instruments.
• Overall: 4.5/5 — While the primary two sauces have been extra conventional when it comes to BBQ sauce flavors, the Guinness on this one gave it a singular twist I actually loved.

Nicole A. Taylor’s “Fig Vinegar BBQ Sauce”

Taylor, who grew up in Georgia, created this recipe as a play on Carolina vinegar barbecue sauce, however sweetened with recent figs quite than brown sugar. It’s received the shortest record of components of any recipe I attempted: apple cider vinegar, water, tomato paste, figs, salt, pepper, and crimson pepper flakes. It’s additionally the best to organize: place all of the components in a jar and shake it up. I like a recipe I could make in solely a pair minutes! As I’d anticipate from a vinegar-based sauce, that is the thinnest of the sauces I made, making it tremendous simple for a marinade and slightly trickier as a condiment.

Nicole A. Taylor’s BBQ Sauce Scores

• Flavor: 4/5 — If you’re right into a vinegary taste profile, this one does it proper! Sweet and spicy and properly sharp.
• Texture: 2.5/5 — I feel that is an unavoidable battle for vinegar-based sauces, however it’s actually skinny. And with the floating figs and pepper flakes, it was slightly tough to pour.
• As a Marinade: 5/5 — This sauce made for essentially the most tender, juicy, scrumptious grilled hen. I think about it could even be unimaginable with different meats.
• As a Condiment: 2/5 — I did benefit from the taste of this sauce whereas dipping fried hen bites, however it’s so skinny that it soaked proper into the breading and made it soggy.
• Difficulty: Easy — It actually doesn’t get any simpler than placing just a few components in a jar and shaking it up!
• Overall: 3.5/5 — A profitable marinade recipe, however doesn’t carry the complete versatility I anticipate from a BBQ sauce.

Bill Kim’s “Korean BBQ Sauce”

Kim’s barbecue sauce comes from a mixture of the American barbecue sauce he encountered as a cook dinner in Atlanta and his mother’s recipe. It’s received some basic components — onion, garlic, brown sugar — together with another components not discovered within the different recipes I examined, together with soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, recent ginger, Asian pear, and kiwi. It’s made by throwing every thing in a meals processor and working it till clean. I might inform instantly that it is a sauce you must shake up earlier than utilizing; the fruity bits rise proper to the highest when it sits nonetheless. But I don’t thoughts slightly shake if it comes with huge, juicy taste!

Bill Kim’s BBQ Sauce Scores

• Flavor: 5/5 — Wow! The soy sauce, recent ginger, and fruitiness punches you proper within the face (in an effective way).
• Texture: 2.5/5 — The pear and kiwi didn’t totally break down, giving it a little bit of a grainy mouthfeel, and the sauce separates after solely a minute of sitting nonetheless.
• As a Marinade: 5/5 — Truly, deeply scrumptious grilled hen. The toasted sesame and ginger come throughout actually properly.
• As a Condiment: 3/5 — While the flavour is nice for dipping, the feel is slightly uncommon. It didn’t cease me from going again for extra, although.
• Difficulty: Easy — Throw it in a meals processor and also you’re finished!
• Overall: 4/5 — This is a extremely tasty sauce and incredible for marinating, however I feel the feel is likely to be improved by simmering it.

Final Reflections

Honestly, I beloved each single one in every of these sauces, and every of them has not less than one wonderful software. Patti LaBelle’s fancy BBQ ketchup is ideal for fries or on a meatloaf. Nicole A. Taylor and Bill Kim’s sauces make gorgeous marinades. Carla Hall and Caroline Hennessy’s sauces are essentially the most historically barbecue-y, however I might simply add them to all kinds of dishes. So the best way to decide a winner?

Best BBQ Sauce for Marinating: Bill Kim’s “Korean BBQ Sauce” from Korean BBQ

The grilled hen marinated in Bill Kim’s barbecue sauce packed such a punch of taste. You actually received all of the notes, together with the soy sauce, recent ginger, toasted sesame oil, Asian pear, and kiwi. It’s an actual deal with for the tastebuds. It’s used throughout many recipes within the cookbook, so if it was so scrumptious in a easy grilled hen breast, I can’t wait to see how the flavors pop in his different dishes.

Best BBQ Sauce for Dipping: Caroline Hennessy’s “Foreign Extra Stout Barbecue Sauce” from The Official Guinness Cookbook

With a clean however thick texture and wealthy, advanced taste, Caroline Hennessy’s BBQ sauce stored me coming again for extra. I’d use this as a condiment on meat, potatoes, greens, and sandwiches. I would even eat it plain. This is definitive proof that Guinness makes an incredible secret ingredient.

Best BBQ Sauce Overall: Carla Hall’s “Barbecue Sauce” from Carla Hall’s Soul Food

Do you desire a barbecue sauce that may do all of it? An actual Swiss military knife of a sauce? This is the one for you. It’s extremely versatile whereas additionally having a robust, advanced taste. That’s a tough stability to strike, and Carla Hall pulls it off with ease. And though I used to be a bit skeptical of leaving the chunks of onion, garlic, and chile within the sauce as a substitute of mixing it, it really added one thing to the expertise and made it stand out from retailer purchased BBQ sauces. Carla Hall’s Soul Food is a cookbook that has impressed me with each recipe I’ve tried to this point.