13 Best BBQ Sauce for Ribs: Excellent Choices!

13 Best BBQ Sauce for Ribs: Excellent Choices!

Are you looking for the best BBQ sauce for ribs? We have 13 excellent choices for you and also a delicious homemade sauce recipe.

The secret to a sweeter and more flavorful barbecue has to be the kind of sauce you accompany it with. There are tons available, some which you can make at home and others are available from the stores. You need to link yourself up with some of the best or try out different ones to find one suitable for you.

This article brings you some of the best BBQ sauces that you ought to try out. You can try creating yours at home; actually, such always turn out tastier than buying from the store. Let’s dive in!

13 Best BBQ Sauce for Ribs

13 Best BBQ Sauce for Ribs

Your barbecue party is not complete without some delicious sauce. If you can make yours from scratch at home, then the better since you can combine all the ingredients you want to come up with something unique.

However, if you are trying to save time, you can always get others with fantastic flavors from the nearest stores.

No matter the kind you choose, know that the sauce will add zest to the barbecue. If you choose to make yours, you will need various ingredients such as honey, coffee, Worcestershire sauce, and much more. Kindly look at some of the best BBQ sauces you may go for below:

1) Lilie’s Q Carolina Barbecue Sauce

Lilie’s Q Carolina Barbecue Sauce
Lilie’s Q Carolina Barbecue Sauce

This Carolina sauce is among the different varieties of Lilie’s Q sauces. It emanates from South Carolina and is a favorite for many when having ribs. It is available from the stores, but one can also make it at home if you have the ingredients.

Its flavor comprises vinegar and mustard, so you need them when making it. One needs to make this sauce include ketchup, brown sugar, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, and apple sluice. You will also require garlic powder, black pepper, paprika, and cayenne pepper. This goes great with standard BBQ ribs as well as prime rib (oddly enough).

2) White Alabama Sauce

White Alabama Sauce
White Alabama Sauce

If you have never tried this sauce in your ribs, then you are missing out on a good complement. This sauce is pretty incredible when having it with pork ribs. The good thing is that you can always make it the way people from Alabama have been doing.

It makes a good baste for your ribs when they are almost done and is flavored with paprika. If you decide to make it from home, you will need mayonnaise, mustard, horseradish, garlic, black pepper, vinegar, and salt. Within a few minutes, this sauce should be ready for your guests.

3) Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce

Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce
Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce

As the name suggests, this sauce is sweet due to the ketchup and molasses. It, however, also has a unique tangy taste due to vinegar. The liquid smoke in it also brings about the smokey notes taste.

If you like your BBQ sweet, then this is the sauce you should buy. Even though it will contain some spicy taste, it will not overpower you. It usually is pretty thick, making it perfect for dipping in your barbecue ribs. You will require corn syrup, vinegar, tomato paste, food starch, spice, and Juice.

4) Chocolate Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

Chocolate Chipotle Barbecue Sauce
Chocolate Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

This sauce typically uses chocolate in it to make it thick. The chocolate also helps in complementing the spices in it. It is a great sauce to baste on your ribs, especially the pork ribs.

You can make it from scratch at home if you have oil, onions, cloves, cocoa powder, chipotle chili powder, cumin, coriander, and dry mustard.

You will also require cinnamon, cloves, tomato paste, beer, vinegar, molasses, salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Making it will be pretty straightforward, and it will make an excellent complement for your ribs and the side you will have.

5) Kansas City- Style Barbecue Sauce

Kansas City- Style Barbecue Sauce
Kansas City- Style Barbecue Sauce

The Kansas City-style sauce has quite a lot to offer relative to other Kansas-style sauces. It is not as sweet as these other sauces are, so it will not overpower you when having your ribs.

This sauce goes well with most types of meat, so you can use it when having various kinds of barbecue.

6) Honey Barbecue Sauce

Honey Barbecue Sauce
Honey Barbecue Sauce

Another sauce that you can easily make at home is this honey barbecue sauce. The ingredients necessary to make this sauce are probably available in your kitchen. But if you are not ready to make it, you can always buy it from the stores.

It is a mix of sweet and smoky flavor, therefore perfect when making ribs. You will need ketchup, honey, apple cider vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce to make this sauce. You will cook all these ingredients until they are pretty thick.

7) Lillie’s Q Smokey Barbeque Sauce

Lillie’s Q Smokey Barbeque Sauce
Lillie’s Q Smokey Barbeque Sauce

This sauce is also a great choice if you love Lillie’s Q products. The sauce is gluten-free; therefore, perfect for people with gluten intolerance. It is a kind of smokey sauce and features the Memphis style when making it.

Therefore, it is pretty thick and sweet but with slight vinegar. This sauce incorporates all-natural ingredients when making it nether does it have preservatives. It is, therefore, a healthy option you might want to try.

8) Texas Style Barbecue Sauce

Texas Style Barbecue Sauce
Texas Style Barbecue Sauce

This sauce from the Texas side of America features a great mix of something sweet with some heat. It also features a tomato base when making it. You will not have to travel to Texas to make this sauce if you have the right ingredients to make it at home.

Once you make it, please keep it in the fridge for around two weeks. It will bring out a good vibe in your ribs after this.

9) Tamarind Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

Tamarind Chipotle Barbecue Sauce
Tamarind Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

Being the main ingredient in making this sauce, Tamarind will give it a tangy flavor. The fruit is pretty sweet; therefore, it will lower the spicy taste in chipotle. Therefore, these ingredients make the sauce turn out amazing.

10) Cola-and-coffee BBQ Sauce

Cola-and-coffee BBQ Sauce
Cola-and-coffee BBQ Sauce

The combination of cola and coffee will give you a great BBQ sauce for your ribs. It will be slightly sweet due to the cola and the bitterness, of course, from coffee. Just baste it on your barbecue ribs and enjoy this fantastic combination.

11) Whiskey Peach Barbecue Sauce

Whiskey Peach Barbecue Sauce
Whiskey Peach Barbecue Sauce

If you like your ribs with the combination of sweet and spicy flavor, then this barbecue sauce will do you justice. The sauce will, of course, be sweet, but the whisky in it will make it a bit sour. You will also throw in several spices in it, making it well balanced.

12) Jack Daniel’s BBQ Sauce

Jack Daniel’s BBQ Sauce
Jack Daniel’s BBQ Sauce

Even though this sauce might seem quite sour, it is not. It is pretty sweet because it uses so much brown sugar and pineapple juice when making it. So, it’s a great option if you want to complement your ribs with something sweet.

13) Lemon Barbecue Sauce

This sauce will do well with your ribs. You can make it in the comfort of your home when you have the right ingredients. It may turn out pretty sour because of the lime, but it still tastes fantastic.

You will require ketchup, brown sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and ground pepper when making it. You will combine all the ingredients at once then bring it to a boil. Afterward, please place it in the fridge to become calm before using it in your ribs.

Best Homemade Barbecue Sauce for Ribs (Recipe)

If you want to make a good-tasting barbecue sauce, you will want to ensure that you have all the ingredients at hand. For most of these sauces, you can make with just what you have at home. You need not necessarily run to the store to look for some things. 

One most common and easy-to-make barbecue sauce has to contain all the flavors. It should be sweet, smoky, and tangy. It should also be thick enough, therefore, making it easy to baste it on your ribs. 

13 Best BBQ Sauce for Ribs: Excellent Choices!

Best BBQ Sauce for Ribs Recipe

4.67 from 3 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Resting Time 5 minutes
Course Appetizer
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

  • Brown Sugar
  • Ketchup
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Apple Cider Vinegar
  • Honey
  • Lemon Juice
  • Hot Sauce
  • Seasonings (Here you may include salt, black pepper, and garlic)

Instructions
 

Step 1: Mix all the ingredients

  • You may opt to mix all your ingredients in a bowl. However, you can put them in the plan from where you will be cooking them.

Step 2: Cook the mix

  • Allow all the ingredients to cook in a saucepan when the heat is medium. Cook until the sauce produces bubbles. Then reduce the heat and leave it to simmer for a few minutes.
  • You want all the flavors to absorb well into the sauce. Also, ensure that you cook the sauce until it becomes thick.

Step 3: Remove and serve

  • Once you are okay with the thickness, remove the sauce from heat. You may leave it to cool for a few minutes before serving. If you have a lot left, place it in the fridge.
Keyword BBQ Sauce for Ribs

What is the Best Spicy Barbecue Sauce?

There are tons of spicy barbecue sauces that you may want to try. How spicy you want the sauce to depend on you. Some are so hot that they will overpower you, while others will still be spicy, but you will be able to feel the taste of your ribs.

One of the spiciest sauces is the Cowtown night sauce. It is pretty well-balanced due to the sweet brown sugar and the molasses added to it. 

You can also try the Hot scorpion barbecue sauce if you want a spicy one. It is made with some of the hottest peppers in the world, such as the Trinidad Scorpion and smoked habanero, making it blazing hot. It is, however, a mix of sweet, spicy, and smokey flavors.

What is the Best BBQ Sauce for Ribs?

Sweet baby ray has to be one of the best sauces for BBQ ribs. Most people love it, which is why it sells out in almost all stores. This sauce is quite sweet, at least on most parts. However, it has a unique tangy taste, and you will also feel the taste of pineapple juice when having it.

This sauce will make your beef or pork ribs so yummy. Also, the fact that it is thick makes it very ideal for basting all-around your ribs once they are ready. You get to experience sweet and tangy flavor all in one place.

What is the Best Store-Bought BBQ Sauce?

Tons of store-bought sauces are pretty good. To determine whether the sauce is best for you, you might have to try quite many of them. Most of these sauces vary based on how the ingredients are used to prepare them and how they are prepared.

Some of the best store-bought BBQ sauces include the sweet baby ray sauce, the original jack Daniel bbq sauce, and the Lillie’s Q varieties. You can always go for other options depending on what you desire.

Final Words

A good barbecue is not complete without accompanying some great-tasting sauces. Most of these sauces are readily available in the stores, while you can always make them from scratch for others. However, you can always come up with your own, depending on your ingredients.

So, have you already chosen the best BBQ sauce for your delicious ribs? Please, feel free to leave your comment below!

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Candy Seideman has been cooking for most of her life. In fact she is referred to as "The Chef" by most of her close family not only because she attended culinary school and was an actual chef, but also because she has a passion for cooking for friends and family.