Best Overall

It’s a classic for a reason. Sweet Baby Ray’s strikes the perfect balance of sweet, lightly smoky, and tangy without any one flavor overpowering the rest, making it endlessly versatile. It’s as great for brushing on ribs as it is for dipping chicken nuggets.

Runner up

Don’t be fooled by the silly name because there is nothing silly about what’s inside this bottle. Dinosaur Bar-B-Que’s legendary sauce out of Syracuse, NY, delivers a rich, bold, deeply layered flavor that comes dangerously close to knocking Sweet Baby Ray’s off the top spot. It’s the kind of sauce that has a devoted cult following for a very good reason, and once you try it, you’ll get the hype. It’s a bit thinner in consistency than Sweet Baby Ray’s, which is the only reason it got knocked down to the runner-up position. The flavor? Impeccable.

Best Smoky

If you want your food to taste like it spent all day in a real-deal smoker, this is your sauce. The hickory flavor comes through strong without tasting artificial, and the brown sugar adds enough sweetness to balance it out.

Best Spicy

This sauce doesn’t mess around. Cowtown’s cult-favorite recipe delivers a slow-building heat that lingers in the best possible way, without completely obliterating the BBQ flavor you actually came for.

Best Sweet & Tangy

Bachan’s brings a genuinely unexpected twist to the BBQ sauce lineup, blending soy sauce, ginger, and citrus into something that’s sweet, tangy, and addictive. It’s lighter than traditional American BBQ sauce, which makes it especially great for grilled chicken or fish.

best mustard-based

At just under $3, Cattleman’s Carolina Tangy Gold sauce wildly over-delivers. The mustard base gives it a bold, tangy kick that cuts right through rich, fatty cuts of meat like pulled pork and sausage.

best vinegar-based

Vinegar-based sauces aren’t for the faint of heart, but recteq’s version strikes a balance that even skeptics can get behind. It’s bright and acidic without being too harsh, and has enough body to actually coat your food.

Best White BBQ Sauce

White BBQ sauce is an Alabama tradition, and Big Bob Gibson is the name that started it all. Creamy, tangy, and peppery, this sauce is unlike any other in our lineup. Slather it on smoked chicken and prepare to have your mind completely changed about what BBQ sauce can taste like.