The Best Gourmet Barbecue Sauces for Delicious Grilling

No Matter Your Regional Preference, You'll Find Great Choices Here

BBQ chicken and onions on a grill

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These top-notch barbecue sauces are surefire shortcuts to delicious, lip-smacking-good barbecue. Whether you're a barbecue purist devoted to a regional style or like to mix things up when you turn on the grill, you'll find your ideal sauce here. In no particular order, here are barbecue sauces that top the tasty list.

  • 01 of 10

    American Stockyard Harvest Apple Barbecue Sauce

    This micro-batch barbecue sauce owes its intriguing flavor to tart Washington apples, brown sugar and spices. There are several other sauces in the American Stockyard line worth a taste, from KC Pitmaster and Smoky Mustard to Northwest Red Raspberry. They're all-natural and gluten-free. Buy online at amazon.com.

  • 02 of 10

    SFQ Barbecue

    The artisanal SFQ Barbecue Sauce was born out of a delicious thought experiment: If San Francisco had a barbecue tradition, just what would go in the sauce? Founder Michele Manfredi, together with husband John Mitzewich, honed in on iconic San Fran ingredients—think coffee, chocolate, red wine (as oak-aged vinegar) and melting pot spices—for her barbecue sauce. It was so good, she ended up jarring it; SFQ's farmers' market successes landed it in local specialty stores, but it now is sold only online. You can get it online at ​​sfqinfo.blogspot.com

  • 03 of 10

    Bone Doctors Barbecue Sauce

    Here's more sauce with a cool backstory. Two orthopedic surgeons met several decades ago and bonded over their mutual culinary interests. They set out to create the ultimate barbecue sauce to enjoy with family and friends. But thanks to fundraising cookouts for a daughter's soccer team, their sauce won over a wider audience. So the good doctors took the plunge and started bottling their Original, Sweet & Spicy and Carolina Bold barbecue sauces and their spice blend, and Bone Doctors was born. They have since added Brazen heat and Isaac's Apple to their barbecue sauce line.  All the sauces are free of  preservatives, artificial flavoring, coloring, corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup. Buy online at bonedoctorsbbq.com.

  • 04 of 10

    Wild Thymes Farm Barbecue Sauces

    No matter your barbecue preference, you're likely to find a Wild Thymes barbecue sauce that suits your taste. The Original and Hot sauces blend Kansas City and Texas style, while the gluten-free Mama's Whistlin' Dixie is a mustard-based sauce inspired by South Carolina-style barbecue. The flavors of Mexico, Thailand, and Morocco lend international flair to the rest of the sauces in the line. Buy Wild Thymes online at wildthymes.com

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  • 05 of 10

    Bone Suckin' Sauce

    Sweet, spicy and smoky, this barbecue sauce gets its bold, balanced flavor from natural ingredients that include tomatoes, cider vinegar, molasses, honey, mustard, horseradish, natural hickory smoke, and spices. It's reliable, and best of all, it's fairly easy to find in specialty stores and groceries nationwide. It's gluten-free and kosher. Buy online at bonesuckin.com

  • 06 of 10

    Slather Brand Slatherin' Sauce

    Pineapple lends an unusual sweet-tart flavor to this all-natural, all-purpose sauce. It might not have been developed specifically for grilling, but the blend of tomatoes, honey and spices is a natural fit for slathering on beef, chicken, and pork. This sauce is gluten-free and contains no artificial colorings or flavors, no high-fructose corn syrup or preservatives. Buy online at slatheriton.com

  • 07 of 10

    Three Little Pigs Competition Barbecue Sauce

    If it's classic Kansas City barbecue you crave, then Three Little Pigs Competition BBQ Sauce belongs in your pantry and on whatever you're throwing on your grill. The multiple award-winning sauce earned a 5-star review from Barbecues & Grilling Guide Derrick Riches. It's gluten-free. Find it online at amazon.com.

  • 08 of 10

    Outta the Park Barbecue Sauce

    Fresh ginger adds a welcome kick to ​Outta the Park's award-winning, Carolina-style, all-natural barbecue sauces, made with organic ketchup, brown sugar, molasses, brown mustard, ginger, and chili peppers. Butter mellows the Regular sauce, while the dairy-free Hot & Spicy version gets extra heat from chili peppers and spicy mustard. All varieties are gluten-free and contain no high-fructose corn syrup or artificial colors or flavors. But online at outtathepark.com.

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  • 09 of 10

    'Cue Culture Sauce

    If you're looking for something a little different, 'Cue Culture's chef-driven barbecue sauces might be just the ticket. The small-batch sauces get their flavor inspiration from creator Wayne Tuohey's travels throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean. His creations are an amalgam of entrenched regional barbecue styles and culinary experimentation, so you'll find Pomegranate Jalapeno, Apricot Habanero Rum and Cherry Bourbon alongside more traditional offerings like North Carolina Vinegar and Texas-Style sauces. Buy online at cueculture.com.

  • 10 of 10

    Big Butz Barbecue Sauce

    Big Butz barbecue sauce comes in Original, Hot, X-Tra Hot, No Butz and, wait for it, Cranberry. The Original and hotter versions are all sweet and tangy, with increasing degrees of heat. Cranberry, as you would guess, is sweeter than the other three and has a fruity vibe. Big Butz barbecue sauces are all made in small batches at a tiny barbecue joint in Wisconsin. That doesn't keep them from winning awards and getting raves from reviewers. Order Big Butz online at bigbutzbbqsauce.net.