Barbecue Recipes

34 recipes found

Kansas City-Style BBQ Sauce
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Oct 10, 2025

Kansas City-Style BBQ Sauce

This isn’t exactly the barbecue sauce that Gates Bar-B-Q, a Kansas City institution, serves at its five locations in Missouri and Kansas and sells in supermarkets. But it’s as close a recipe as Ollie Gates, the 93-year-old owner, is willing to give up. “It’s close enough,” he said. Like the original, this version uses ketchup and apple cider vinegar as its foundation, and it’s warm with red pepper and perfumed with cumin and celery seed. It tastes like Kansas City tradition, from before the rise of sweeter “Kansas City-style” bottled sauces like KC Masterpiece. “Some people say it’s sweet,” Mr. Gates said. “It’s sweet when you first taste it. Then it blossoms in your mouth, and then the heat comes.”

10mAbout 3 cups
Sweet Chili Baby Back Ribs
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Oct 10, 2025

Sweet Chili Baby Back Ribs

Ted Liberda grew up in the Kansas City suburbs, the son of a Thai restaurateur and a Midwestern backyard pitmaster. He opened Buck Tui BBQ in suburban Overland Park, Kan., with his wife, Pam, who immigrated from Lampang, Thailand, nearly 30 years ago and met Ted in one of his family’s restaurants. The menu reflects who they are with its blend of Thai and Midwestern influences. They season their baby back ribs, which are more tender and forgiving than the traditional Kansas City spare ribs, with a coriander-forward rub inspired by a jerky seasoning from Pam’s hometown. Then, they glaze them with a Thai-inspired sweet chili sauce while they cook in a cloud of Missouri hickory and oak smoke. The Liberdas have made ribs this way at home for years, and the layers of flavor in their recipe come together just as well in a Weber Kettle as they do in Buck Tui’s commercial-grade smokers.

5h 30m2 racks (4 to 6 servings)
Burnt Ends
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Oct 10, 2025

Burnt Ends

When Calvin Trillin, a Kansas City, Mo., native, declared Arthur Bryant’s “the single best restaurant in the world” in Playboy in 1972, he introduced his hometown’s barbecue to a wider audience — burnt ends included. Back then, as Mr. Trillin wrote, employees at Bryant’s chopped up the burned edges of their briskets and handed them out for free, thinking no one would pay for them. But customers were already developing a taste for the crisp, smoky, snack-size bites, and Mr. Trillin’s endorsement helped make them a staple in Kansas City and beyond. Decades later, Anthony Bourdain singled out the burnt ends at Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que (then called Oklahoma Joe’s). Developed by Joe’s co-founder, Jeff Stehney, this recipe starts with a whole brisket point — the fattier and more flavorful part of the brisket, which delivers the right balance of caramelized bark to fork-tender meat. (It’s been a long time since most burnt ends were actually scraps.) Smoking burnt ends takes the better part of a day, but it’s mostly hands-off, and the final product delivers the best of Kansas City barbecue — spice, smoke and sauce — in every bite.

15h8 to 10 servings
Lemon and Thyme Grilled Chicken Breasts
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Jun 24, 2015

Lemon and Thyme Grilled Chicken Breasts

These classic herb and lemon-seasoned chicken breasts will win over fans, especially when cooked over charcoal to give them the deepest, smokiest taste. For dark meat lovers, this recipe will also work with boneless, skinless thighs, though you might have to add a minute or so to the cooking time. Or use a combination of breasts and thighs and make everyone happy.

1h 30m4 servings
Sweet and Spicy Grilled Chicken Breasts
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Sweet and Spicy Grilled Chicken Breasts

Brown sugar gives these grilled chicken breasts a glistening glaze and caramel-like sweetness, while mustard powder and cayenne add an earthy kick. If you don’t want to bother making a mustard sauce for dipping, just serve these with dollops of good, strong Dijon mustard on the side. A crisp salad and some grilled corn completes the meal. And if you prefer dark meat, this recipe will also work with boneless, skinless thighs, though you might have to add a minute or so to the cooking time. Or use a combination of breasts and thighs for maximum crowd appeal.

1h 30m4 servings
"BBQ" Brisket
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"BBQ" Brisket

Brisket simply cannot be grilled over direct heat no matter how careful you are; it absolutely requires long, slow cooking. In fact, it’s difficult to grill (or broil) without some form of precooking, whether in aluminum foil (a venerable trick that makes sense) or in a barbecue pit. The slow braising phase of cooking the beef, in a ketchup-and-chile-based sauce, may take a while — it doesn’t surprise me when brisket takes three hours or even longer to become really tender — but the final browning can take as little as 10 minutes and produces fork-tender brisket.

3h8 or more servings
Braised and Grilled or Broiled Pork Ribs
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Braised and Grilled or Broiled Pork Ribs

The barbecued ribs I like best are cooked all the way through, using moist, relatively low heat, then finished over a high flame for a final browning. And you can nicely, if imperfectly, replicate this process by braising the ribs and then finishing them over the grill or in the broiler. Of course the broiler won’t add wood flavor, but then neither will a gas grill or briquettes. What I did for the ribs in the recipe here was brown them, then slowly braise them in the oven (the top of the stove would work as well). When they were nearly falling off the bone I took them straight from the braising liquid and ran them under the broiler, just until they crisped up.

2h4 to 8 servings
Buffalo Chicken Wings
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Buffalo Chicken Wings

Americans are a wing-loving people. The Buffalo variety, by most accounts “invented” at the Anchor Bar in, yes, Buffalo, is the official food of our most sacred event of the year: the Super Bowl. These can be made on the grill or in the oven.

45m4 to 6 servings
Peanut Chicken Wings
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Peanut Chicken Wings

Here's a lively twist on the traditional chicken wing. Just grill or broil the wings until they're cooked through, then toss with a simple sauce of coconut milk, peanut butter, soy sauce, fish sauce and lime juice. Return to the grill or oven until they're crisp. You might never go back to Buffalo.

45m
Blowout Rib-Eye
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Blowout Rib-Eye

A huge rib-eye, cooked slowly then quickly – whether on a grill or in the oven – will yield perfectly cooked meat. The cost of the cut may seem like a lot to pay for a piece of meat, but if it’s local and well raised, with better flavor, texture and karma than cheaper commodity beef, it’s worth it for a table of four. You might think sauce is overkill with a rib-eye like this, but playing steakhouse chef means dreaming up the accompanying sauces that you would most like to see on the table. My favorite is what I call ‘‘blue butter,’’ a blend of blue cheese and butter. If blue cheese isn't your thing, try creamed spinach sauce, chile chimichurri, tomato nam prik or bourbon balsamic syrup.

20m4 servings
Miso Chicken Wings
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Miso Chicken Wings

45m
Curry-Yogurt Chicken Wings
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Curry-Yogurt Chicken Wings

45m
Chipotle-Lime Chicken Wings
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Chipotle-Lime Chicken Wings

45m
Jerk Chicken Wings
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Jerk Chicken Wings

45m
BBQ Chicken Wings
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BBQ Chicken Wings

45m
Teriyaki Chicken Wings
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Teriyaki Chicken Wings

45m
Garam Masala Chicken Wings
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Garam Masala Chicken Wings

45m
Lemon-Garlic-Pepper Chicken Wings
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Lemon-Garlic-Pepper Chicken Wings

45m
Fish-Sauce-and-Black-Pepper Chicken Wings
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Fish-Sauce-and-Black-Pepper Chicken Wings

45m
Smoky Brisket
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Smoky Brisket

2h 30mSix servings
Ron Scher's barbecue sauce
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Ron Scher's barbecue sauce

25mAbout three cups
Grilled Baby Back Ribs With Spicy Peanut Shake
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Grilled Baby Back Ribs With Spicy Peanut Shake

Marinating, it’s said, not only adds flavor and moisture that will stay with the food through the rigors of the grilling process, but also tenderizes whatever you’re about to put over the coals. There’s only one problem with this comforting culinary scenario: It’s mostly not true. These ribs are grilled naked, save for some salt and pepper. Afterward, they are cut into individual ribs and tossed with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, orange juice and ginger and sprinkled with a spicy peanut shake. You get the ease of last-minute preparation and brighter, clearer, more direct flavors and you can show off a bit for your guest as you mix and toss at the last minute.

50m6 appetizer servings, 3 to 4 entree servings
Betty Talmadge's country barbecue sauce
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Betty Talmadge's country barbecue sauce

5mAbout four cups
Spicy Mango Barbecue Sauce
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Spicy Mango Barbecue Sauce

15m2 cups