Making your own Southern barbecue sauce certainly gives you the ability to adjust the savory and sweetness to your tastes, but nothing beats the ease and convenience of store-bought smoky, sticky, finger-licking good barbecue sauce. Whether it's half-open in the fridge or tucked away in the pantry, having a bottle (or several) on hand can make or break an occasion.
With the summer season, also known as barbecue season, in full swing, having extra bottles of barbecue sauce on hand becomes especially important. You never know when you'll need to fire up the grill anytime soon, but who knows best? Southern Living Test kitchen.
So we asked the experts: Which commercial barbecue sauce brand would you choose? The answer is clear: any barbecue enthusiast who uses the sauce for smearing, dipping, or dipping will be pleased to hear the answer.
What type of BBQ sauce is best?
I purposefully asked the experts what they would choose when looking for a comprehensive, all-purpose barbecue sauce, with no specification as to style, use, or flavor profile. Our recipe developer and proud Austin native, Jasmine Smith, had this to say about our winning Stubb's BBQ Sauce:
“It's well-balanced, has the right consistency for any dish, is a little peppery, and has a little tartness,” Smith says. “It's exactly what I want in a barbecue sauce. It also has a great consistency, so it's great for adding to dishes.” [involved] It tastes just as the recipe says and keeps well.”
And the rest of the test kitchen staff agrees, noting that Stubbs is best known for its distinctive, tangy, homemade flavor. But most importantly, it has all of these qualities while remaining widely available and not too fancy or expensive.
What makes Stubb's the best?
Experts say Stubb's tastes like it was handmade with love. It doesn't taste like it's been bottled on a dusty shelf, but has the consistency of an experienced, skilled pitmaster personally bottled it for you. It's not too precious, making it a great blank slate for making your own sauces, and deliciously refreshing as a finishing dipping sauce for casual occasions.
The Stubb's story begins in Lubbock, Texas. This Texas-style sauce rose to popularity under the direction of pitmaster and founder CB Stubfield. With its unique balance of sweet and tangy, Stubb's quickly became famous throughout the South. Today, the sauce is widely available at most regular joints and is still served at Stubb's Barbecue in Austin, Texas.
How to use Stubbs BBQ Sauce
“Smoked ribs. The last time I used them in a recipe, if I was making a glaze and needed barbecue sauce, [Stubb’s] It serves as a base to which other ingredients are added.” – Jasmine Smith
“I use it to dip potatoes or proteins, or even add it to salads with ranch dressing!” – Elizabeth Marbosch
“Grill the ribs! Smoke them for a long time, smack them with a stubble every now and then, and then grill them over high heat to get them nice and crispy!” – Craig Ruff
“I like to glaze my ribs with something sweet and sticky like Stubbs.” – Nicole Hopper
“It has a good balance of flavours and a truly homemade taste. It also coats the ingredients nicely without overpowering them.” – Renu Dhar
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2nd place: Sweet Babyraids
While Stubb's was the clear favorite, Sweet Baby Ray's was also praised for its consistency and versatility, and it was slightly less expensive than Stubb's.
“It's consistent,” says recipe developer Amanda Stanfield, “and even if you tweak it a little, it's always super tasty.” Stanfield chooses Sweet Baby Rais as a dip for oven-roasted ribs and tenders, while test kitchen assistant Amanda Holstein uses it on a brisket sandwich.
Stanfield also loves to play around and experiment, using Sweet Baby Ray's as a base to make her own sauces. “You can add a little bit of jalapeño, a little bit of cayenne pepper, or reduce it with bourbon,” she says. “It doesn't cost a lot of money, so you can use whatever you want.”
Both Stubb's and Sweet Baby Ray's are firmly in the Texas-style barbecue sauce camp, and of course you can go the other direction for the vinegary Carolina-style barbecue sauce or the popular Alabama White Sauce, but both of these regionally-style sauces are either hard to find in stores at reasonable prices or hard to find outside of our stores. Southern Living This is our Birmingham, Alabama office.
