12 Store-Bought BBQ Sauces For Chicken, Ranked Worst To Best

Barbecue sauce is a bold condiment that often packs a serious punch of flavor. Typically made with a mixture of tomatoes, vinegar, brown sugar, molasses, and spices, barbecue sauce is sweet, smoky, and tangy. And yet despite most BBQ sauce brands featuring similar ingredients, there can be surprising differences in texture and flavor. Some are thin and vinegary; others can be thick and sweet. Some BBQ sauces are smoky and spicy, while others use unconventional ingredients (more on that later) to give the sauce a unique flavor profile.

To get a better idea of all these different flavors and textures, I decided to taste a dozen popular store-bought barbecue sauces and compare them. While some of these brands were already familiar to me, there were several I had never tried before, and some of the results really surprised me. Read on to find out which barbecue sauces fall short and which ones are worth it.

Great Value Original is Walmart's version of a simple barbecue sauce. The reason this ranks dead last comes down to texture and flavor. Out of all the barbecue sauces that I tasted for this ranking, the texture of this one was the most gelatinous. I prefer a barbecue sauce that's more medium-bodied — thick enough to easily stick to food before also thin enough to drizzle. Great Value's BBQ sauce has a consistency that's sure to stick to anything it touches, but its gooeyness isn't exactly appetizing — especially on chicken.

And then there's the flavor (or lack thereof). This mostly just tastes like artificial hickory smoke flavor. The intricate nuances of sweetness and tanginess aren't to be found here. Instead, it's just a wallop of fake smoke flavor followed by a quick fade into oblivion. The bottom line is that the only good thing this sauce has going for it is the cheap price tag.

In many ways, the flavor of this barbecue sauce really took me by surprise. I'd never heard of G Hughes BBQ sauce before, and since I don't really like overly sweet barbecue sauce, I was intrigued by the company's sugar-free hickory flavor. Because it's advertised as sugar-free, I didn't expect there to be any sweetness to it, but strangely, that's not the case. In fact, I found this barbecue sauce to be too sweet for my liking. Looking at the ingredient list, the only sweetener that I could see in the recipe is sucralose, which is an artificial sweetener. Considering sucralose is listed as the last ingredient, there's probably only a slight amount used in the recipe, which is why I'm surprised by the level of sweetness here.

The flavor of garlic also comes through but overall the taste of this barbecue sauce is a little strange. Perhaps my expectations were thrown a bit off, because despite this being advertised as hickory flavored, there's also very little smokiness to it. What this ends up tasting like is a strangely-flavored tomato sauce. A little sprinkle of smoked paprika and a splash of vinegar would do this some good, if you're in the mood to do some doctoring. 

I think I've seen Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce in every American grocery store that I've ever been to. This stuff truly seems to be everywhere. Despite its popularity, I don't think that I'd ever bought it before this ranking (though I'm sure that I tasted it unbeknownst to me at many neighborhood barbecues). All of this is to say: Even though the brand name is very familiar to me, I wasn't quite sure what to expect flavor-wise here. The one word that could describe my initial impression: disappointing. I am surprised at how lackluster this sauce is, given how widespread it seems to be.

Suffering from a similar fate as the Great Value brand barbecue sauce, this BBQ sauce from Sweet Baby Ray's also has a gelatinous texture. But perhaps worse than that is its muted flavor. There's a hit of pepper at the end, but other than that, there's nothing particularly memorable or noteworthy. There are definitely better barbecue sauces on the shelf to reach for.

Sweet Baby Ray's hickory & brown sugar BBQ sauce is a little different from the brand's original. The hickory and brown sugar sauce is a little darker in color, most likely due to the brown sugar. This sauce also just seems a tad thinner than the original. Even though I don't typically like sweeter BBQ sauces, I did think that this was a little bit better than the original. The extra sweetness and smokiness kicks this up a notch.

Because of the high sugar content in this sauce, I wouldn't recommend grilling with this over an open flame, since the chicken would probably burn very quickly. Instead, this sauce is probably best enjoyed coated on after the chicken's been cooked. But this sauce still pales in comparison to other more well-rounded options, which we're about to dive into. Up until this point, all of these barbecue sauces have been letdowns, but from here on out we're moving into much tastier territory.

It had been a while since I'd tasted Jack Daniel's honey BBQ sauce. I remember it being extremely sweet. After tasting it again for this ranking, I was pleasantly surprised. The sweetness wasn't as overwhelming as I'd remembered. There is a tanginess there, perhaps due to the mustard and pineapple in the recipe, that helps balance out the sweetness. This sauce is much more complex than the previous sauces on this list, which is why it's placed higher in the ranking.

Texture wise, this barbecue sauce is really thick, so I think this would be an excellent choice to use as a dipping sauce for crispy chicken tenders. I do wish that the honey and whiskey flavor came through more, though. If they did, I think this barbecue sauce would probably end up ranking even higher here. Overall, this is a tasty sauce that's much better than the other options on the lower end of this ranking.

In many ways, Blues Hog champion's blend barbecue sauce was the one that surprised me the most. For starters, I'm pretty sure there's cinnamon in the recipe, even though it's not shown in the ingredients (though it might be included in the ever-ambiguous "spices" that's listed). The unique flavor of this barbecue sauce makes this not only great for chicken, but I could also see them being fantastic on pulled pork or some of the best ribs.

This unique flavor profile is why this barbecue sauce is ranked a little higher than the previous sauces. The recipe also features a few unique ingredients that you don't typically see in traditional barbecue sauces, including anchovies and vanilla — though I didn't really detect either of them during my tasting session. The consistency is on the thinner side, which could make it a good candidate for tossing with a batch of chicken wings, since the thinner sauce can easily spread into all the nooks and crannies. If this were a little less sweet, it may have placed even higher in the ranking.

Here's what I like about Kraft sweet & spicy: Unlike some of the sauces lower in this ranking, this sauce actually stays true to its label. It is indeed both sweet and spicy. In fact, I was a bit shocked at how spicy this sauce was, and that's coming from a bit of a hot sauce fanatic. That said, it's not insanely hot — I just expected Kraft to play it a little safer in the heat department. The heat comes from chipotle peppers in the recipe, which also gives this sauce a nice touch of smokiness.

The texture on this barbecue is also really nice. It's sticky without being too thick, and it has enough liquidity to make it an excellent candidate for basting. The next time I use this barbecue sauce, I think I'd use it to make a spicy fried chicken sandwich topped with some crunchy coleslaw.

Out of all the barbecue sauces, KC Masterpiece original was by far the thickest. This sauce is practically sludge-like. It's also extremely dark in color, perhaps due to the molasses and caramel color in the ingredients. But what really matters here is the flavor, and KC Masterpiece original BBQ sauce does a good job in that department. There is a pepperiness to the sauce that is more striking than most of the other brands that I tasted. Mind you, I'm not saying it's spicy — I'm saying it's peppery. The distinct taste of turmeric (also in the recipe) adds to that pepperiness. That pepperiness, combined with the sauce's tangy sweetness, complemented the chicken very nicely.

If this sauce had a little more vinegar, I think it could have placed even higher in this ranking. But as it stands, this is a very respectable store-bought barbecue sauce that I would happily purchase again.

Stubb's sticky sweet BBQ sauce reminds me a little of Blues Hog, because the flavor of what seems to be cinnamon is pretty upfront. I expected this to be wildly sweet since it's right there on the label, but thankfully the sweetness isn't overkill. It's definitely still on the sweeter side, but the sweetness feels restrained. The sweetness also tastes kind of fruity, like it comes from the tomato puree in the recipe.

I normally don't like barbecue sauces that are sweeter, but I couldn't stop tasting this one for some reason. The flavors are a little more complex than the other sweeter sauces on this list. The spices taste exceptionally well-balanced in this sauce. It tasted great on the chicken, but I can also see this being used on some stuffed cheeseburgers topped with crispy onion rings to make rodeo burgers. I bet using this to make some BBQ baked beans with bacon would also work nicely.

As a big fan of Korean food, I was interested to check out Heinz Korean inspired sweet and tangy barbecue sauce. This is part of the company's "flavor tour", which includes a Mexican inspired street corn sauce and a Thai-inspired sweet chili sauce. If those two sauces are anywhere near as tasty as this one, then I have to say that Heinz really hit it out of the park with this little side quest sauce project.

This Korean inspired barbecue sauce tastes exactly like the gochujang sauce that's in your rice bowls every time you order bibimbap. So while this definitely tastes great on chicken, I feel like its true purpose is to be liberally doused over a steaming rice bowl topped with kimchi, an assortment of shredded vegetables, and a fried egg. This sauce could also be a great base ingredient to make some homemade kimchi. Basically: If you love Korean food and you like to cook Korean food at home like I do, this sauce will definitely come in handy.

Bull's-Eye is another barbecue sauce brand that I've seen around for a long time, but I'd never tried before this article. I'm happy to report that this sauce is very tasty; I feel like it embodies everything I really want out of an affordable, store-bought barbecue sauce. It's rich, smoky, sweet, and tangy. The consistency is thick enough to stick but also still easily pourable and spreadable.

There is also an upfront smoky and peppery flavor to this barbecue sauce that I enjoy. The balance between the smokiness, sweetness, and tanginess is smooth and dialed in just right. No, there are no surprise ingredients here or anything necessarily mind blowing, but this sauce nails all the basics. If I can't find my number one pick (coming up), then I'm looking for a bottle of Bull's-Eye original. Heads up: According to the company's website, Bull's-Eye also makes some regional variations of barbecue sauce such as Texas-style mesquite and hickory smoke that seem worth checking out.

Claiming the coveted crown for top spot is Kinder's Gold barbecue sauce. Hands down, this is the best store-bought BBQ sauce that I've ever tasted. Made with a mix that mostly includes tomato puree, sugar, yellow mustard, vinegar, salt, and molasses, Kinder's Gold seamlessly sails across different taste receptors with a subtle, delectable ease.

This barbecue sauce is a little thinner than most of the other store-bought barbecue sauces that I tried; I think it's perfect. And something else that I really appreciate about this sauce is the bottle's design. It has a capped squeeze tip that makes a light drizzle of barbecue possible, giving you much better control than some of its other competitors that sell sauces in jugs that tend to accidentally glug out way more than intended. The bottom line: Kinder's gold is the kind of smartly designed barbecue sauce you'll end up drizzling on your french fries or the best onion rings of your life or anything else remotely edible nearby. Give it a try — and remember who gave you the good word. 

All of these barbecue sauces were tasted multiple times for a thorough evaluation. Notes were recorded during tastings and referred to during the writing of this article. Overall balance of flavor and texture were taken into account during the ranking process.