Top 10 Rib Sauce Recipes

Kansas City style sauce is thick, sweet, and somewhat spicy. This is the tomato packed sauce that lays like a blanket on top of the meat, and true aficionados will accept no substitute for this style.

Pro Tip: Kansas City sauce does not soak into the meat, so a dry rub or marinade before you grill is particularly important. At the very least salt the meat.

Sweeter than Carolina style and tarter than Kansas City style, mustard and celery flavors are important in Memphis style recipes.

This recipe requires a 30 minute cook, adding the butter at the end.

I'm under the impression that every living soul in Memphis has their own sauce recipe. A study of Memphis (or Texas) sauces alone would require a small book. Be prepared to experiment a little if you are seeking to copy a particular sauce you have had in the past.

Sautee the onions, garlic, and peppers in the butter until soft. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer 45 minutes to an hour, stirring frequently. If you want more spice, you can add some cayenne at the end.

Pro tip: The flavor of the hot peppers you choose is extremely important to Texas style sauces. If you want a quicker sauce with powdered spices, use a finely ground dried chipotle or similar spice as a substitute and add cayenne for heat as desired. Hot sauce is almost never used as an ingredient in the Deep South.

Never add fresh hot peppers at the end of making a sauce, even if the sauce seems bland. Their flavor will keep intensifying long after the sauce has cooled. If you want to add more heat with fresh peppers, keep the sauce simmering until they are fully cooked.

Traditional Carolina style sauces are similar to marinades, although they are called 'mop sauces'. Most, including this one, require no cooking. They are very high in vinegar and contain no tomatoes.

Combine the white vinegar, cider vinegar, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper in a jar or bottle with a tight-fitting lid. Refrigerate at least overnight, shaking occasionally.

Chicago sauce has a tangy style, derived long ago from other regional styles. This recipe is from Pit Master and Chicagoan Merlin Barnes. When I asked him about the absence of mustard, he said “quite frankly, I never thought of it. The steak sauce gives it plenty of twang.” He also notes that the meat is usually brushed with vinegar during the cooking process.

Combine the ingredients, except the butter, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add the butter when the sauce is almost finished.

Pro tip: Chicago style is tangy, and smoke flavor is frequently added as a liquid or salt, perhaps to make up for long cold winters unsuitable for grilling outdoors.

Bourbon is nice in this sauce. Be sure to cook away the taste of alcohol.

Mustard based sauces are a variation of Carolina style sauces, with a lot of vinegar, very little sugar, and no tomatoes or ketchup. Somewhat thicker than its all vinegar cousin, this sauce is cooked briefly to emulsify the butter.

Simmer all of the ingredients for about 20 minutes and add the butter.

Pro tips: ¼ cup of Southern Comfort is a great addition. Reduce the sugar accordingly. If you add this, cook long enough to remove the alcohol flavor, 30 minutes or more.

I suggest Dijon here, but the choice of mustard is entirely yours.

Compared to other sauces, Teriyaki is a relative newcomer to the American grilling scene, and it became widely popular in the 1990's. Teriyaki is a composed sauce used for grilling in Japan, so it was a natural fit. The sweet and sour elements are nicely balanced, tending toward the sweet.

Sweat the garlic and peppers in the oil, and add the remaining ingredients. Cook at a slow boil.

You are cooking this until it just starts to caramelize. That means that it will suddenly thicken and coat a spoon. Remove it from the heat immediately when it reaches this stage. Exactly how long this takes depends on a lot of factors, so watch it like a hawk. If it catches you by surprise, do not add water. It could explode and burn you badly. Pour it into a cold pan, and add more liquid when it cools.

Pro tips: You can add a little tomato sauce to this if you care to do so.

If the sauce becomes thin because you needed to dilute it, you can correct it with a tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in cold water. Stir it in and simmer until it thickens.

This recipe is interesting because it contains tomatoes but no ketchup and is, like all of St. Louis, based on beer.

Combine all the ingredients and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. Make sure the mixture is thickened and the flavors are well blended. Add the butter towards the end.

Onion, fresh or powdered, is an optional addition to this sauce.

The origins of this idea are murky. It may have been a Coca Cola sauce first, and it probably originated somewhere slightly south of the Mason Dixon line. Wherever it came from, Dr. Pepper sauce is extremely popular, sweet and easy to make.

Combine all the ingredients and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the mixture is thickened. Add the butter last.