Condiments are plentiful in my house. With cocktail sauce, mayo, hot sauce, several varieties of mustard, and so much more, we’re never without a topping or spread to customize whatever we're eating.But when the warm weather hits, so do the grilled foods, which means it's BBQ sauce (or barbecue sauce, if you prefer) season. We love to pair the sauce with classics, like grilled chicken, burgers and pulled pork, but we're also fond of less expected pairings, like drizzling BBQ sauce on pizza.If you just like having options or are a BBQ enthusiast, you know that not all BBQ sauces are alike. For instance, Kansas City-style sauces are smoky, thick and sweet with a heavy tomato sauce base, while South Carolina-style BBQ sauces are typically zesty with a mustard kick or have more pepper and vinegar, like Eastern North Carolina varieties. Grocery stores typically have a pretty decent selection of BBQ sauces, which can make it even more difficult to choose the right condiment for you. But that's what I set out to do when I was tasked with doing a taste test to find the best BBQ sauce you can buy at the store.After tasting my way through 15 different widely available BBQ sauces, I was able to crown a winner—and it wasn't the one I would have expected. Before you fire up the grill, read through this list to see which BBQ sauce to add to your cart.Related: I Tried 9 Yellow Mustard Brands and the Winner Won by a Landslide?? SIGN UP to get delicious recipes, handy kitchen hacks & more in our daily Pop Kitchen newsletter. ??
Courtesy Kellye Fox
How I Tested These BBQ Sauces
Flavor balanceThis category includes sweetness, spice level, acidity and smokiness. My husband doesn’t like sweet sauces, but my kids do. I’m open to both. So, this wasn’t an easy ranking. ThicknessAbout half of the sauces didn’t drip from our forks, meaning that they could cling well to food. There was a mix of pourable and downright thin and loose sauces. We wanted something that was on the thick side because those sauces adhere to meat and are great for dipping, dressings and toppings. VersatilityI’d say that most of these BBQ sauces could be used for multiple protein uses, like coating ribs, making homemade baked beans, topping burgers or using as a dipping sauce for chicken nuggets. A couple were not so multipurpose and appear to be for specialized uses and palates.
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15 Popular BBQ Sauce Brands, Ranked From Worst to Best
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15. Bachan's Original Japanese Barbecue Sauce
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Disclaimer here: As an American, I’m used to a certain flavor profile of BBQ sauce, but that’s not to say that those labeled BBQ sauce aren’t valued or good. Bachan's Original Japanese Barbecue Sauce is a great BBQ sauce, but not in the “traditional” American style. Because it’s a Japanese-style BBQ sauce, its flavor profile includes more traditional Asian ingredients, like soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and green onion. As the label states, it’s great for marinating meat or as a sauce on rice, veggies or fish. It has a savory-sweet profile like a teriyaki sauce, and I can’t wait to use it on all of those things. If your grilling leans toward Asian flavors, this is a good option to pick up.Related: Everything You Need to Know About Fan-Favorite Kewpie Mayo
14. Stubb's Original Legendary Bar-B-Q Sauce
Stubb’s is a Texas-based company, so their flavor profile reflects that state’s style of being bold and spicy but usually less sweet. It also has more vinegar and is thinner because the focus is more on the taste of meat than the sauce. With all that taken into consideration, and our subjective opinion, this wasn’t a winner for us because it tasted like a cross between hot sauce and ketchup. The sweetness level could have been elevated, and we didn't feel like it had a full-bodied taste. However, my husband noted that, because of its low sugar content (only 5 grams), it would be good for grilling because the sauce would be less likely to burn. Overall, we thought Stubb’s would overpower the food it’s served with or on and is more suitable for a certain palate (namely those who like a tangy, tomato-forward BBQ sauce). If that's you, then definitely give this one a try.
13. G Hughes Sugar Free Original BBQ Sauce
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This is an award-winning brand of sauces that are completely sugar- and gluten-free. G Hughes’ Original BBQ Sauce was the thickest of all of the contenders, but there were very few spice notes. The label states that there's less than 2% of spices, dehydrated onion, garlic powder, hickory smoke, salt and a seasoning blend of salt, onion powder and natural flavor. The most prominent ingredients in this sauce are tomatoes, cider vinegar, corn starch and distilled vinegar, but we felt it lacked depth. And, despite there not being any sugar, it had a very strong, floral-like manuka honey flavor that we didn’t care for.Related: We Ranked 12 Olive Oil Brands and You Can Buy the Winner at Whole Foods
12. Good & Gather Organic Original Barbecue Sauce
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Target’s Good & Gather’s Original BBQ Sauce doesn't contain any high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, colors or preservatives, which we liked to see. It ranked low because it was very thin and didn’t have enough spice. The sweetness level was minimal (which was OK), but it could have used a bit more vinegar. I did like the strong smoke flavor.
11. Famous Dave's Rich & Sassy BBQ Sauce
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Compared to the others, this was the thinnest and most pourable, which doesn’t make it that versatile. It’s labeled as a Kansas-City style sauce, and we agreed that it had a bold, spicy kick, but that’s about it. It actually has a lot of key ingredients that make it rich and sassy, like tomato paste, vinegar, pineapple juice concentrate, molasses, salt, honey, smoke flavor and garlic powder. This brand is categorized as mild, but it tasted like a hot pepper or hot sauce was the first ingredient (which isn’t the case). Overall, there wasn’t a lot of balance—just a punch of spice and vinegar.
10. Bull's-Eye Original BBQ Sauce
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Bull’s-Eye is a Kraft Heinz product that’s been around since 1985. Some Burger King enthusiasts may be familiar with it because it was used on their Rodeo Cheeseburger. While that collaboration ended in 2007, it still reminds people (especially kids) of restaurant-style barbecue sauce. It’s really sweet, thick and would probably please everyone.This would have probably ranked number 1 according to my kids, but it was way too sweet for my husband. I had to make an executive decision because while it was rather sweet, it also would probably overpower the natural flavor of a mild protein, like chicken. But I did absolutely love the natural hickory smoke flavor and acidity level. Related: We Made Sauce With 16 Different Canned Tomatoes and the Winner Won by a Landslide
9. Open Pit Original Barbecue Sauce
Courtesy Kellye Fox
Like Bull-Eye, Open Pit is one of those BBQ sauces that’s pretty old school (from the 1990s) and something I remember my parents using. The issue with Open Pit’s Original BBQ Sauce is that it’s very thin. When we shook it, we could hear the sauce moving around, so we had some idea what we were getting into. It also has a unique flavor that we thought might not work well for all proteins, although my husband noted that he would grill with it because it wouldn’t overpower the meat. Unlike him, I thought it was thin and had limited versatility (i.e., only for tossing in chicken wings or poured on pulled pork).As for flavor profile, it’s very tangy and spicy with a very muted sweetness. It definitely wouldn’t be a BBQ sauce that you’d bring to a cookout that everyone would like because of the prominent black pepper-like spice level that lingers on your tongue.
8. Kinder's Original BBQ Sauce
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Kinder’s boasts that it’s good for BBQ, glazing, dipping and more, but it was too runny for us. It has a very prominent smoke flavor (one of the best of this testing), but the downfall for us was that the entire flavor profile was too subdued. It reminds me of a watered-down Bull's-Eye. Because it wasn’t thick and probably wouldn’t stick to meat, Kinder’s landed at #8.
7. Kraft Original Slow-Simmered Barbecue Sauce
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Kraft definitely wasn’t as sweet as Bulls-Eye, which is why it’s ranked higher. The label notes that it's great for dipping. The smell was so appetizing and strong that it was reminiscent of walking past a BBQ restaurant. It’s a classic sauce with tomato puree, molasses, salt, smoke flavor, vinegar, corn syrup, paprika, garlic and dried onion, among other ingredients. My husband found it too sweet (again), while the kids and I thought it was OK, which meant this one was ranked in the middle of the pack.
6. KC Masterpiece Kettle Cooked Original Barbecue Sauce
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If you’re looking for a BBQ sauce that has a strong hickory smoke flavor, KC Masterpiece Original Barbecue Sauce is it. This sauce is thick and has a sweet heat, but it’s lacking some acidity. We didn’t come to a consensus on this one because of a slightly off-putting smoky aftertaste, but it’s definitely suitable for many uses. Related: We Baked Cookies With 10 Different All-Purpose Flours and the Winner Won By a Landslide
5. Signature Select Original BBQ Sauce
Courtesy Kellye Fox
Signature Select is a store brand sold at Safeway, Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, ACME, Shaw's and Vons. This was the first sauce we tasted and we thought it had a decent level of sweetness and tartness. Despite its rather short ingredient list—corn syrup, tomato puree, vinegar, along with lesser amounts of pineapple juice concentrate, molasses, smoke flavor, garlic, sugar and tamarind—the flavor profile was decent for a grocery store sauce. It’s the kind of sauce that could be used on everything. It ended up in the #5 spot because some of the others had more of a punch and depth of flavor.
4. Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Original BBQ Sauce
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This was the second sauce that we tried, and we thought that it was better than Signature Select. It was fairly thick, tangy, smoky and sticky. But it’s the combination of other ingredients that really sets it apart. Of course, there’s a small amount of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey in the mix, but it’s complemented by yellow mustard, hickory smoke, tamarind concentrate, pineapple concentrate, apple cider vinegar, tomato paste and molasses. This combination made it pretty unique and downright delicious. We didn't rank it higher because we couldn’t agree on whether it was too sugary, which is why it’s positioned here.
3. Lillie’s Q Carolina Barbeque Sauce
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I’m new to the Lillie’s Q brand—and now I’m sold. This particular BBQ sauce, which is their original Western North Carolina tomato style, tasted like A1 steak sauce to me. Because it’s Carolina style, there’s definitely a tang courtesy of the yellow mustard, mustard seed and lime juice concentrate. This is a thick, rich, tomato-forward BBQ sauce that's great for everything—pork, chicken, beef, dressings. My daughter wasn’t as fond of the higher acidity, which is why Lillie’s is ranked third. If you like a tangy BBQ sauce, you should definitely give this one a try. Related: We Tried 9 Different Ice Cream Sandwiches and the Winner Won By a Landslide
2. Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce
Courtesy Kellye Fox
Sweet Baby Ray’s is a BBQ sauce that delivers that classic tomato, sugary, smoky and slightly tangy flavor. It would be great to bring to a cookout, and it reminds me of fast-food BBQ sauce. It’s thick, which makes it ideal for dipping, mixing and slathering various items. We had a tough time finding any fault with this one...until we tried number one.
1. Great Value Original Barbecue Sauce
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What’s really surprising is that while there’s a lot of sugar (12 grams in an 18-ounce bottle), including corn syrup and honey in this sauce, somehow it wasn’t overpowering. Compared to the other sauces, Great Value’s ingredient list is relatively short, with tomato puree, vinegar, molasses and apple cider vinegar being its core components. The dried onion and garlic, hickory smoke flavor and mustard flour round out the other ingredients. So, the next time you’re at Walmart and want an affordable and delicious BBQ sauce, consider this option for your next cookout.
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