23 Classic Barbecue Recipes

This exquisite Texas barbecue brisket recipe from BBQ master and cookbook author Robb Walsh yields juicy meat that’s fantastic alone or on a sandwich with coleslaw.

Linton Hopkins turns this slow-roasted pork shoulder into sliders. "Why are we so obsessed with the 30-minute meal?" he says. "I want to create a TV show called The 36-Hour Meal. The best things take a little bit of time."

Cherry preserves with habanero chile create a fabulously sticky, sweet and spicy glaze for grilled chicken wings. Glaze them just before serving so the sugars don't burn.

This fabulous barbecued chicken recipe has an Asian-style barbecue sauce that's made with oyster sauce, soy sauce, roasted garlic and toasted black peppercorns.

These beef ribs—leftovers from the giant rib roast—are incredibly luscious. Chef Tim Love douses them in his sweet and tangy homemade barbecue sauce, then cooks them on the grill until they're crusty, sizzling and outrageously good.

Traditional Carolina barbecue begins with a whole hog smoked over coals; here, Sean Brock cooks pork shoulder for 12 hours in a 275° oven before smoking it for about 1 hour in a backyard grill.

At Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, chef Chris Lilly butterflies a whole chicken, smokes it, then dunks the bird into a vat of tangy white barbecue sauce.Home cooks can grill pieces of chicken until crispy and nicely charred, then serve them alongside Lilly's terrific white sauce.

The big, bold Southwestern flavors in this shrimp seasoning—which include pure ancho chile powder, smoked paprika, cumin and brown sugar—epitomize Bobby Flay's style. The seasoning mix would also be terrific on pork chops or beef tenderloin.

Before serving this hearty sandwich, which is spiked with ketchup, chef Christopher Tunnell ran it by his mom. "When she tasted it, she was proud," he says.

Fred Donnelly makes these spectacularly sticky ribs at home. "Anyone you make them for falls in love with you," he says.

This barbecue sauce, made with ketchup, cider vinegar, Worcestershire and canned chipotles in adobo, comes together quickly in a blender. The chipotles give the sauce an appealing smokiness.

Brian Perrone came up with this patty melt-style burger topped with smoked Gouda, sweet house-made barbecue sauce and hot sauce-spiked onions. He's glad he did: It was an instant hit.

The seasoning paste for this smoky lamb dish can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Serve the pulled pork with coleslaw and pickles, or mound it on hamburger buns and top with coleslaw and thinly sliced onion and dill pickles.

Bobby Flay makes this extremely good barbecue sauce by spiking tomato puree with two forms of smoky chile—ancho chile powder and chipotle in adobo sauce—then adding peanut butter for sweetness. The sauce takes some time to prepare, but by doubling the recipe, it can be made in one large batch and kept in the refrigerator for up to two months.

These sticky, apple-scented ribs are cooked in the oven, then finished on the grill. They're a simpler version of a recipe by champion pit master Chris Lilly, who cooks his ribs entirely on the grill. To follow Lilly's example, use a thermometer to keep the temperature at a steady 250° and wrap the ribs in foil after adding the apple cider mixture.

Beef back ribs can be harder to find in butcher shops than short ribs, but chef David Burtka serves them on Halloween because they resemble human ribs. Here, he braises them in Coca-Cola, then brushes them with homemade barbecue sauce before grilling them.

By happy accident, Amber Huffman combined leftovers of two low-country staples—barbecue and cheddar cheese grits—for a quick Southern fusion meal. Here, Huffman tops her grits with grilled shrimp slicked with a tangy, bourbon-based barbecue sauce.

Chef Pete Evans uses green mango—which is firm and a little crunchy—for the fresh, bright salad that accompanies the salmon fillets here.

"Some people follow Texas or American barbecue. Me, I'm a connoisseur of Korean barbecue," says chef Roy Choi. Choi especially loves these thinly sliced short ribs, known as kalbi in Korea; they're marinated overnight in a garlic, soy and sugar mixture, then quickly grilled, so they're charred all over.

Leftover red wine gets repurposed into a sweet, sticky and luscious barbecue sauce in this great recipe from Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple.

Roasted garlic seasons this pork shoulder, which slow-cooks until tender and deeply flavorful. Shred it and top with barbecue sauce, coleslaw and a spicy habanero vinaigrette for the perfect sandwich.

Naturally tart tamarind keeps the honey-based barbecue sauce from becoming too sweet for the luscious, slow-cooked ribs. Opt for dark, runny tamarind concentrate instead of tamarind pulp, which needs to be soaked and strained before using; it's available at Asian markets.