Mouthwatering Barbecue Sauces

Enhance the flavors of ham, pork, and chicken with this delicate, summery fruit sauce. The chili sauce and vinegar balance out the peach preserves' sweetness, while the cloves add a hint of spice.

Recipe: Peachy Barbecue Sauce

Strong-flavored meats like lamb, game, or beef can stand up to this bold sauce featuring adobo chiles, aromatic spices (like cloves and coriander), and maple syrup. It takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to prepare, but is well worth the effort–and the majority of that time is devoted to baking the garlic cloves, not hands-on prep work.

Recipe: Maple-Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

This dipping sauce is a great alternative to the usual shrimp cocktail sauces, and relies on a secret ingredient–a can of Coca-Cola! One reviewer even compared it to a wings sauce. For more heat, make sure you use the jalapeño seeds or chop up a second pepper.

Recipe: Four-Alarm Barbecue Sauce

This Kansas City-style sauce is similar to nationally branded barbecue sauces like KC Masterpiece. The ketchup thickens it up a bit, while the cider vinegar and onion add tang. Pair with steak, pork, burgers, or chicken and baste during the last 10 minutes of cooking, then serve additional sauce with the meal.

Recipe: Thick-and-Robust Barbecue Sauce

Sauces from the Carolinas tend to be vinegar-based; this is a sweeter and thicker version of a traditional South Carolina sauce. Like all homemade sauces, you can make substitutions or alter the quantities of ingredients to personalize this sauce to your own tastes and preferences.

Recipe: Sweet Mustard Barbecue Sauce

Homemade sauces tend to be much lower in sodium than commercial sauces, making them a great alternative for those watching their salt intake. This sauce gets its deep flavor from the variety of spices and other sauces that go into it–feel free to make substitutions to suit your own tastes. It's best with grilled chicken and paired with a side of coleslaw and baked beans.

Recipe: Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce

Use this tomato-based sauce for dipping, dressing up sandwiches, or as a glaze brushed on during the last 15 minutes of cooking. The sorghum, a type of molasses, lends a touch of sweetness to the mixture, though the lemon juice and hot and Worcestershire sauces keep it from being overwhelming.

Recipe: Tangy Barbecue Sauce

When you need a barbecue sauce at the last minute, you can't go wrong with this 6-ingredient, 5-minute sauce. And all of the ingredients are probably already in your pantry.

Recipe: Quick Barbecue Sauce

A far cry from a tomato-based barbecue sauce, this sweet and tangy yellow sauce is made with fresh green tomatoes and tomatillos. It's great for basting grilled chicken, fish, or shrimp.

Recipe: Tomatillo Barbecue Sauce

At many barbecue joints across the South, white barbecue sauce is the sauce of choice. It's generally a mayonnaise-based sauce, made tangy with the addition of vinegar, horseradish, and mustard. Fans of white sauce say that once you've doused your barbecued chicken in this sauce, you'll never go back to red.

Recipe: White Barbecue Sauce