Summer

17 Unbeatable Barbecue Mains

Pull out the white bread and toss the slaw—these smoky, sweet, tangy recipes for pork, beef, chicken, and shrimp barbecue are ready for your next backyard cookout.

ByJoe Sevier

July 22, 2016

Our Best Barbecue Recipes for Pork Beef and Chicken

Christopher Testani

1/17

Texas-Style Smoked Brisket

In Texas, barbecue is about beef: specifically brisket, the cut by which any 'cue joint is judged. And while this version may take 12 hours, those first unforgettable bites are worth every smoky moment.

Get This Recipe
Peden + Munk

2/17

Sweet-and-Spicy Ribs

These meaty ribs are precooked until very tender but not yet falling off the bone so they hold together on the grill.

Get This Recipe

Photo by William Hereford

3/17

Slow-Smoked Barbecue Chicken

This wonderfully flavorful chicken with an espresso, garlic, cinnamon, and cumin rub comes from barbecue experts Joe Carrol and Nick Fauchald.

Get This Recipe
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, and Ali Nardi

4/17

Brown Sugar BBQ Pork Butt

Our all-purpose barbecue pork shoulder can be grilled or oven-roasted. If you're going the oven route, work a littleliquid smokeinto the rub to capture that summery flavor.

Get This Recipe
Lara Ferroni

5/17

Classic Barbecue Pork Ribs with Smoky Bacon Barbecue Sauce

A rub of garlic and fresh herbs plus a bacon-infused barbecue sauce make for ribs that burst with flavor. Baking the ribs first, then quickly finishing them on the grill or in the broiler, yields tender, meaty ribs without a lot of fuss.

Get This Recipe

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Dawn Perry

6/17

Beer-Can Cabbage Sandwiches

Think vegetarian food doesn't belong at a barbecue? Think again. These tangy sandwiches deliver plenty of barbecue flavor, with no meat in sight.

Get This Recipe
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, food styling by Michelle Gatton, prop styling by Alyssa Pagano

7/17

Fette Sau Dry Rub

Use this dry-rub recipe as a starting point for developing your own signature seasoning. (Reduce the sugar for a less-sweet "bark" (crust), increase the cayenne for a spicier one, and so on.)

Get This Recipe
Linda Pulgiese, food styling by Chelsea Zimmer

8/17

New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp

Instead of a tomato-based sauce, traditional New Orleans barbecue shrimp is coated in a spicy garlic-Worcestershire butter. Be sure to have crusty bread on hand for sopping it up.

Get This Recipe

9/17

Texas-Style Barbecued Brisket

The trick to cooking low-and-slow is proper grill set-up. Follow ourtwo-zone grilling guideto get started.

Get This Recipe
10/17

North Carolina Pulled-Pork Barbecue

As anyone from eastern North Carolina will tell you (often passionately and at great length), barbecue there means a whole hog cooked low and slow over a banked pit. The meat is pulled or chopped into moist strands, dressed with some "mop" (the vinegar-and-red-pepper basting sauce), and mixed with cracklings.

Get This Recipe
11/17

Basic Barbecue Sauce

A good barbecue sauce is a study in contrasts: sweet versus sour, fruity versus smoky, spicy versus mellow. Here's a great all-purpose sauce that's loaded with flavor but not too sweet.

Get This Recipe

Hans Gissinger

12/17

Dinosaur Bones with Chipotle-Cherry Barbecue Sauce

These humongous sweet-and-smoky beef ribs will be the talk of your next backyard barbecue. Because the ribs are an unusually large size, your butcher may have to special-order the whole racks for you.

Get This Recipe
Photo by Shutterstock

13/17

Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q White Sauce

In the 1920s, a railroad man named Big Bob Gibson developed a mayo-based barbecue sauce. Today, in Alabama, it's an indispensable accompaniment to BBQ chicken.

Get This Recipe
Con Poulos

14/17

Southwestern Barbecued Brisket with Ancho Chile Sauce

Ancho chile powder gives this version of smoked brisket an extra boost of smoky, Southwestern flavor.

Get This Recipe

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, food styling by Michelle Gatton, prop styling by Alyssa Pagano

15/17

Vinegar Sauce

This sauce will add brightness to pulled pork, and also has enough depth to stand up to beef and lamb.

Get This Recipe
Jessica Horton

16/17

BBQ Beef Brisket

The salt and sugars in this dry rub will cure the outer portion of the brisket, leaving a hearty flavor and the smoke-charred crust called "bark."

Get This Recipe
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, food styling by Michelle Gatton, prop styling by Alyssa Pagano

17/17

All-Purpose Barbecue Ribs

This versatile rib recipe will work with pork, beef, or lamb ribs. A bright, mustardy vinegar sauce is served alongside the meat.

Get This Recipe