Recommend a barbecue sauce

tarnok

I have to cook for my weekly get-together and time is short. I've decided on grilled barbecue chicken and while I'd normally try to make my own sauce I need to trim some prep time so I'm planning to buy a sauce to marinade the chicken in and baste it with during the grilling. Can anyone recommend a barbecue sauce that would be good with chicken and reasonably likely to be available at the average grocery store?

Djeet

If the sauce has a lot of sugar in it and is thick then I wouldn't use it for a marinade; you will get a lot of char. Best to make your marinade, and then use a store bought BBQ sauce as a mop sauce for last 3-4 minutes of grill (I'm assuming you're grilling and not smoking).

For marinade you want salt, acid and aromatics. So a weak vinegar (like ricewine vinegar), maybe some mirin, soy or ponzu, garlic minced, green onion (scallion) slice thin, ginger, and sliced chillies for marinade (I like Asian marinades, but you could use coke/dr pepper for a slightly acidic solution that isn't a vinegar). Your marinade should be thin, but full of aromatics. For chicken do not marinade in acidic solution too long (an hour or 2 for boneless breast, a bit more for dark meat) as that'll start cooking the chicken.

Mop with your store bought once it's mostly cooked to prevent too much char. I always make my own, but Stubbs is pretty good in a pinch.

jefe414

I know many people on this board will recommend you make your own but if that's something you aren't interested in doing, I recommend Stubbs

It's available in stores.

Gafoto

I actually came in here to recommend anything but Stubbs. If you want your food to taste like skunked Coors Light, Stubbs is the appropriate sauce. I've never had a BBQ sauce that even compares to how bad Stubbs is.

Donovan Puppyfucker

Good ol' JR has a range of sauces available? http://www.jrsbarbq.com/store

Djeet

Skunked Coors? Really?

Generally I think BBQ sauce is there to cover for poorly cooked BBQ (chicken somewhat excepted given there's not much taste to chicken and it cooks pretty fast) and if you're going to roll your own keep it thin like a thick jus as opposed to a ketchup affair, but stubbs isn't bad for what it is, which is largely a ketchup and mustard base with adulterants.

iMatt

I quite like the Paul Newman sauce!

EggyToast

Most anything will work for cooking. I advise... cheating!

Buy a sauce that sounds good. I like Sweet Baby Ray's for something that tastes like a solid BBQ but is also cheap. Take your chicken, stab it with a fork in a couple spots so the juice gets inside, and then adulterate the BBQ sauce with vinegar. White will do, cider is better. Maybe add some extra things you like, maybe some ground pepper for example. Marinade in the wetter, less thick BBQ that you've adulterated!

Then when you're grilling, you use the BBQ sauce straight from the container as a finisher.

I do this all the time with sauces and other things that can be annoying to whip up in a pinch. I will use a pre-existing thing that's close, and then just modify it to work for the situation.

tarnok

Thank you for all the suggestions, I think I'm going to give Stubbs a shot, I know I've seen it in the grocery stores around here.

Karrmer

http://www.philsbbq.net/merchandise/phil-s-bbq-sauce-1269883066.html

Probably the best BBQ sauce ever made

Cogliostro

Stubbs is awesome and it's also a tangy vs sweet. BBQ sauces high in vinegar/low in sugar are a favorite of mine as they grill very well.

Pantshandshake

I like Sweet Baby Ray's in a pinch.
Also, anything from these guys has treated me quite well: http://www.dennymikes.com/
Lastly, a real quick, and delicious, marinade: Soy sauce, honey, ginger. I don't tend to measure things, other than by eye, but enough soy to turn the honey into a liquid is 'enough.'

ceres

If you are in a part of the US that has a Wegmans, their store-brand sauces are pretty amazing for what they are. Memphis is pretty sweet and Kansas is a bit less sweet, but I know there's a range.

It should be noted that I am not a barbecue expert even a little bit, I just really, really like the Memphis sauce.

Mego Thor

I'm shocked, Shocked!, to find there are folks that don't like Stubbs.

Bowen

ceres wrote: »

If you are in a part of the US that has a Wegmans, their store-brand sauces are pretty amazing for what they are. Memphis is pretty sweet and Kansas is a bit less sweet, but I know there's a range.

It should be noted that I am not a barbecue expert even a little bit, I just really, really like the Memphis sauce.

Yup, wegmans makes killer marinades and BBQ sauces. McCormick also makes good ones.

ceres

Are the marinades good too? I'll have to look into that. I mean really I like most of Wegmans store brand stuff, so I probably should have figured.

The Ender

I love Bull's Eye BBQ sauce.

If you love sweet sauce, I'd recommend it. If you dislike sweet sauces, avoid.


Also you might want to avoid it anyway, because it's basically just a bunch of brown sugar. But... YUM!

Bowen

I mean they're no Gordon Ramsey thing, but makes a good marinade with minimal effort.

Djeet

Backing myself out of any expressed loyalty to store-bought, it's dead simple to make your own and usually you have all the base ingredients in your pantry (ketchup, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt/pepper, cayenne/chili powder, and spices (your rub goes here), and your hero ingredients [pan drippings, or rendered fats, or heck grate chocolate or instant espresso]). And then cooking it down to desired consistency. That way if you like it thin and vinegary, or thick and sweet, or ketchuppy vs mustardy, you can tailor it the way you prefer and no preservatives that you get from store-bought to make it shelf-life-stable.

Similarly marinades are usually easy to make with stuff you got, like a vinaigrette with more aromatics and heat. Mainly a thin acid base (vinegar or a soft drink or beer or wine), sodium source, heat (cayenne or fresh chillies), and a lots of aromatics (fresh herbs, onion/scallion/garlic/shallot, minced or crushed to increase surface area, citrus rind).

CowShark

Reading this thread made me hungry for barbecue. I had some last night, but also bought a pound and a half of lean brisket that I could use as sandwich meat for work lunches all week.

Score.

I'm a fan of the central Texas regional style, I guess. Non-sweet, vinegary sauce (like Stubbs) is what I dig.

Natas_Xnoybis

just my 2cp, don't ruin chicken by slathering it in bbq sauce.

allrecipes.com is a great place to check out.

Mego Thor

I never would have thought that a mustard based barbecue sauce would be any good, but they're delicious!

lazegamer

Pantshandshake wrote: »

I like Sweet Baby Ray's in a pinch.
Also, anything from these guys has treated me quite well: http://www.dennymikes.com/
Lastly, a real quick, and delicious, marinade: Soy sauce, honey, ginger. I don't tend to measure things, other than by eye, but enough soy to turn the honey into a liquid is 'enough.'

By far the best option in stores.

jefe414

Mego Thor wrote: »

I never would have thought that a mustard based barbecue sauce would be any good, but they're delicious!

It's awesome when smoking pork shoulder for pulled pork sandwiches.

Djeet

While we're on pulled pork: finishing sauces.

A basic one is vinegar, salt, pepper corns, red chillie flake, and aromatics. Very thin and acidic. Tart. Really offsets a slow cooked fatty pork shoulder. Although I'm a Texan I learned this from Carolinians (we know cow, but those guys know pig). You could also do BBQ sauce as well, but try it with just a finishing sauce too.

Irredeemably Indecisive

I will put in a vote for Sweet Baby Rays. It is the only BBQ sauce I will purchase

Mad Jazz

Austin's Own is my favorite, but it's a local brand that's (obviously) not available to everyone. I'm also surprised by the Stubb's hate...it's not my favorite, but it's way better than a lot of other stuff out there. Honestly though, the type of sauce you want depends on your own tastes and on the meat you're cooking. Since you're grilling, don't use something with too much sugar, and don't cook it too hot or you'll dry the chicken.

CowShark

Not so, Mad Jazz. With the magic of the internet, you can get central Texas BBQ sauces from wherever, whenever.

http://www.austinsown.com/buy_online/

Hell, the Rudy's chain of stores will ship you a whole cooked brisket packed in dry ice for you to heat and eat (priced kind of like a Smithfield ham though).

edit: International!

Cogliostro

CowShark wrote: »

Reading this thread made me hungry for barbecue. I had some last night, but also bought a pound and a half of lean brisket that I could use as sandwich meat for work lunches all week.

Score.

I'm a fan of the central Texas regional style, I guess. Non-sweet, vinegary sauce (like Stubbs) is what I dig.

This

frijolefrito

http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=bbq+sauce+

Any of these work. Pick the one seeming less complicated or more complicated if you want. If not I like jack daniels bbq sauce.

Vater5B

If I am in a hurry, I always use Stubb's. I don't understand the hate.

CowShark

Maybe the haters only believe in sweet barbecue sauce?

Mego Thor

Isn't there enough room in this world for all the barbecue sauces?

Darkewolfe

Barbecue sauce is basically directly tied to regional tribalism. God knows if I'd really love sweet bbq sauce so much if I hadn't grown up in Memphis.

Mustard-based bbq sauces are unfathomably vile no matter what, though.

firewaterword

I dig Stubbs too, but I'm pretty sure it has MSG in it, if that's a turn-off for you.

CowShark

Mego Thor wrote: »

Isn't there enough room in this world for all the barbecue sauces?

Generally assume barbecue to be delicious unless proven otherwise.

MichaelLC

Another vote for Sweet Baby Rays.

So Cook's Magazine rated Taco Bell's Refried Beans as the best canned beans. Surprisingly national brands are actually sometimes good.

Rikushix

I'll echo what someone said before about Bullseye. I'm partial to the Guinness variety. But I've heard that Sweet Baby Ray's is pretty much the goddamn best BBQ sauce on the planet