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We Tried a Bunch of BBQ Sauces. These Are the Best – CNET

I’m a lover of barbecue sauce, so walking into a grocery store can feel like heaven. There are just so many options available, but not all sauces are created equal. If you’re looking to step up your game, you’ll need some of the best barbecue sauces on the market. With so many options, though, it isn’t always easy to tell which brands are worth your money. We’re here to help. There’s an art to barbecuing, and it starts with making sure you’ve got some prime cuts of meat to work with. But you’ll also need to make sure you’re using a top-notch sauce to achieve that perfect blend of sweetness, smokiness and acidity.

Full Moon

If you prefer to scoop your barbecue sauce up from the store, Stubb’s stuff can be found in most supermarkets and it’s an excellent alternative to Full Moon. Like the winner above, Stubb’s has a good balance with no single flavor taking over. This one is thick but not gloppy and gets its sweetness from brown sugar (no corn syrup) with a good kick from lots of black pepper.

Bachan’s

This rich, dark and smoky sauce is made by a small producer in North Carolina. It’s probably the most flavor-packed sauce we tried, with a big sweetness that’s cut with rich, smoky hickory and lots of heat. There’s a lot going on here but it harmonizes nicely to create one very tasty sauce.

Bull’s-Eye

If you’re a hot sauce junkie looking for a barbecue sauce, Texas Pete’s Eastern Carolina sauce is the one to get. Texas Pete is a hot sauce maker, first and foremost, and so this spin on vinegar-heavy Carolina-style sauce tastes quite a bit like hot sauce but with a subtle sweetness and tomato tang. It’s made with just five ingredients and no corn syrup. At 15 calories per serving, it’s probably the “healthiest” barbecue sauce on this list.

Sweet Baby Ray’s

Other BBQ sauces we tried that didn’t make the cut

  • Full Moon Alabama White Sauce: This sauce was positively addictive, but it might be a stretch to call it barbecue sauce. I know Alabamans may not love to hear this, but Full Moon white sauce is more like a really rich and flavorful ranch with loads of mustard, garlic and Worcestershire.
  • Jack Daniels Original BBQ Sauce: This is another one we all really liked. It has a nice balance and strong spice but ultimately some of the others just nudged it out of the top.
  • Good For Food Keto BBQ Sauce: At just 10 calories and 3 grams of carbs per serving, this sauce was definitely edible, although not one of our favorites.
  • Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce: This one had very little dimension and tasted more like slightly smoky ketchup than a good BBQ sauce. 
  • Heinz Carolina Vinegar BBQ Sauce: This sauce wasn’t terrible but had too much vinegar for most of us. 
  • Heinz Carolina Mustard Sauce: This was more like honey mustard than barbecue sauce. Not bad, but didn’t fulfill our requirements for this round of testing.
  • Kings Delight Bar-B-Que Sauce: This Carolina-style sauce is tasty but with so much vinegar, it’s less of a traditional barbecue sauce and more of a thin finishing sauce for pulled pork.

More of our backyard barbecue favorites

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