14 Simple Ways To Upgrade Store-Bought BBQ Sauce

Along with ketchup, mayo, and mustard, BBQ sauce is a store-bought condiment that you likely have in your pantry. Using store-bought BBQ sauce is a quick, affordable way to add immediate smokiness and sweetness to any dish, and the possibilities with it are almost endless: You can use it as a meat marinade, smear it onto a sandwich, dip your chicken tenders into it, or pop it onto a pizza base. However, the store-bought versions of these sauces often don't stand up to the chef-made stuff — and while there are some awesome store-bought barbecue sauces out there, you might find that your standard brand is crying out for an upgrade.

Well, you're in luck. Store-bought BBQ sauce is incredibly easy to add new flavors and textures to, and you can often use ingredients that you have in your fridge or pantry. By mixing in sour, sweet, or savory ingredients, you can help to balance BBQ sauces that lean too heavily into one flavor profile, and give them the complexity that makes this condiment so impressive. You can even add deep smokiness using store-cupboard staples, giving the sauce that unmistakable barbecue taste. ‌

If you've never had a chunky BBQ sauce, now's the time to start. When store-bought, this sauce is typically smooth and viscous. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but adding in little pops of crunch can make your BBQ sauce way more interesting texturally, while simultaneously giving it an enhanced flavor.

In our opinion, the best way to introduce this texture-flavor combo is by using chopped pickles. Pickles are a godsend in overly-sweet store-bought BBQ sauces, because they add all-important notes of sourness and saltiness that provide balance. Their gently vegetal flavor also introduces a touch of earthiness to the sauce. Pickles also retain their crunch when submerged in the sauce, and when they're used as part of a BBQ marinade, they give your food tiny bursts of complex flavor once cooked.

Luckily, if you don't want to deal with little bits of pickles in your sauce, you can still get the most of their flavor. Just use a dash of pickle brine straight from the jar. The brine will imbue your sauce with all of that salty, sour goodness while keeping it smooth.

BBQ sauces should be smoky, right? Well, some store-bought sauces didn't get the memo. Some bottled versions of this sauce can go heavy on the sweetness and saltiness, but lack any smokiness whatsoever — and if they do have it, it tastes flat and underpowered. So if you want to boost your sauce's smoky factor, reach for the bacon bits. These bitesize morsels of bacon provide an intense smoky flavor to anything they're added to, and can also give your sauce a savory saltiness that further deepens its profile.

As well as this, bacon bits will mix up the texture of your sauce. By adding in bacon bits (and remember, bacon bits are not all made from actual bacon, so even vegetarians can get in on the party), you can give your sauce a pleasant crunchiness. This bacon-BBQ combo goes especially well when you're using your sauce as a sandwich spread, or as a dip for chicken nuggets or mozzarella sticks. If you're feeling up to the challenge, you can even rustle up your own bacon bits. Hey, it's a good way to use that leftover bacon!

Coming to the end of a jar of kimchi is always a pretty sad moment. However, the fun shouldn't stop once the last piece of cabbage has been eaten. Rather than throw it out, save your kimchi brine to make your BBQ sauce a flavor bomb. Kimchi brine adds an extraordinary amount of flavor to BBQ sauce, boosting its sourness and salty notes and giving it a spicy kick that some store-bought sauces seriously lack.

The thing you'll love kimchi brine best for, though, is its funky fermented flavors. The brine has all of the complex, layered fermented notes that the vegetables do, and gives your sauce an almost fishy dimension. If that sounds unappealing, trust us here: It won't dominate, but instead will add subtle depth to your BBQ sauce. That gentle fishiness, which generally comes from fish sauce, is also accompanied by an undertone of umami that creates more savory notes. It's worth saying that kimchi brine is often incredibly strong, so you won't need to add too much to your sauce. Begin with a teaspoon at a time, stirring it in thoroughly before tasting.

Not all BBQ sauces have herbal flavors in them, but those that do really pop. Adding herbs is a great way to cut through the denser flavors in BBQ sauce, and add some much-needed balance to its sweetness. However, in store-bought versions, herbal notes can often be pretty flat by the time you unscrew the bottle — which is why we're a big advocate of adding them at home.

While you can use loads of different herbs, oregano is our favorite. Its peppery, earthy, and even lemony notes add a touch of brightness to BBQ sauce, giving it extra dimensions without making it taste too floral. If you want to amp up that pepperiness, opt for the fresh kind. Dried oregano will do the trick, but the fresh leaves have an intensity to them that really brings BBQ sauce to life. You'll get gorgeous flecks of green throughout your sauce by doing this, too. However, if you don't have any fresh or dried oregano, never fear. Thyme, parsley, and cilantro all add loads of taste to store-bought BBQ sauce and fit well in its general flavor profile.

Store-bought BBQ sauces can be well-balanced, but when they're not they tend to fall into one of two camps: Overly-sweet, or overly-salty. For overly-sweet ones, it's easy enough to add in a pinch of salt or touch of vinegar to balance things out. However, when they're overly-salty, you need to be a bit smarter with your ingredient choices, to add sweetness without it being too harsh.

That's why pineapple juice is perfect. Pineapple juice gives your sauce an immediate hit of sugar, while also balancing things out with a light tartness. It also provides your sauce with a gently fruity note that adds way more complexity than you think.

This juice has more going for it than just flavor, though. Pineapple juice is an awesome meat marinade, thanks to the presence of an enzyme called bromelain which helps to break down the meat's fibers. Adding it to BBQ sauce that you're using for a meat marinade is therefore an excellent way to simultaneously give it more flavor and a better texture. Just make sure you don't overdo it when adding the pineapple juice, though: You don't want to thin out your sauce too much and reduce its other flavors. A dash or two of pineapple juice will work wonders.

Store-bought BBQ sauce can be incredibly underwhelming. That's not always the case, of course — some of them pack enormous amounts of flavor into every spoonful — but too often they lack any intensity, and try to make up for it by injecting loads of sugar and salt into their recipes. If you end up with a sauce like this, a little fish sauce will improve things hugely. Fish sauce won't add overwhelming fishiness to your BBQ sauce (although it will introduce a funky, slightly fishy note — there's no getting around it, folks). The main thing it brings to the table is a deep, resonant umami, which intensifies the overall effect of the sauce.

Fish sauce gets its umami levels from its high glutamate content, and is on a level with parmesan cheese with its intensity. However, you need to make sure you're getting the right kind. When you're shopping for a quality fish sauce, you should avoid any brands that have added sugars or any preservatives or additives. You should also check out its nitrogen levels. A higher nitrogen content, indicated by a number followed by the letter "N," indicates a better-quality sauce. Ideally, you want a sauce that has 30N or above.

Garlic and BBQ flavors go together pretty seamlessly. Despite this, store-bought sauces often keep their garlic flavors pretty low in the mix, if they feature at all. Although you can easily rectify this by sprinkling in some garlic granules, sautéing some fresh garlic and pouring it into the sauce will give you a way better flavor. Sautéing garlic develops its taste, turning it from sharp and pungent to warm and mellow. It's that mellowness that you want in your BBQ sauce, as it ties into the sauce's sweet and smoky notes so well.

Sautéing garlic is easier said than done, though — and you need to be careful. You'll want it to be super finely-chopped so that it melds with the sauce well, and this increases the chance of it burning. To avoid this, a cold pan is key. Pop your garlic into a cold pan with your chosen fat, and put it on a low heat. As the pan heats up, the garlic will gently fry, and you can pull it off the stove before it turns from golden to burnt.

Way too many store-bought BBQ sauces are cloyingly sweet. Most people think that the best way to fix this is by adding in more salt — but usually, these sauces need sourness, to pull back their sugary notes and increase their complexity. One of our favorite ways to add this is with rice vinegar. This light, zesty vinegar gives a gentle tartness without that raw, almost briny taste that plagues other vinegars, meaning that the other flavors in your sauce won't be overwhelmed. Instead, they'll intensify nicely, and make the sauce way tastier.

Rice vinegar is also generally translucent, and so adding it to BBQ sauce won't change its color like other vinegars can, turning it dark and sludgy-looking. You also don't need much of it to make a difference. While it has a gentle flavor, it'll still pack a punch of acidity. Other vinegars like apple cider or white wine vinegar can also do a good job of giving your sauce some extra tartness without taking over. If you don't have any vinegars to hand, a squeeze of lemon or lime juice can also do the job.

Reaching for ingredients that hit the main five tastes isn't the only way to amp up your BBQ sauce. If you want to take things to the next level, crack open the bourbon. Bourbon and other types of whiskies go hand-in-hand with BBQ sauces, but adding them to the store-bought kind is a bit less common because their alcohol content can overwhelm things. If you're planning to cook with your BBQ sauce, though, adding bourbon will completely transform it. The alcohol will intensify the savory flavors in the sauce, while the bourbon itself will give it a hit of pure smokiness. As the sauce cooks, the alcohol will evaporate, eliminating any harshness.

You can use bourbon in BBQ sauces you're not planning to cook with, too. Just bear in mind that doing so will introduce an alcoholic edge, so it's best to add less rather than more. Even the most basic of bourbons will give your sauce loads of flavor, but as you might expect, using a better-quality whisky will give you a more layered, interesting taste.

Store-bought BBQ sauces can be disappointingly low on spice. This generally makes them more accessible to folks who don't like heat, but those that do can end up wanting more. If you fall in the latter camp, using chipotle peppers can give barbecue sauce a spicy kick. Made from dried, smoked jalapeño peppers, chipotle peppers give BBQ sauce a fiery boost while also supplying it with smoky, woody flavors. As they often come canned in adobo sauce, they also give your BBQ sauce vinegary, sweet, and savory notes. It's a win-win situation, y'all.

When adding chipotle peppers to store-bought BBQ sauce, we always recommend chopping them up as finely as possible. This is so their flavor distributes more evenly, and so that you don't end up biting into a huge chunk of hot pepper. As their spice can take a while to diffuse into the sauce, it's always a good idea to add a little less than you think. If you don't allow enough time for the peppers to impart their flavor to the sauce before adding more of them, you might find yourself with a final product that's much spicier than you intended. Reserve some of your store-bought sauce so that if you do add too much, you can balance things out by pouring more in.

BBQ sauces trade in their salty, sweet, savory tones, but sometimes they need a hit of citrus. While adding lime or lemon juice can do this, they also add significant acidity — and if you just want the bright flavors without things getting too tart, lime zest is where it's at. This zest is a secret ingredient in loads of Tex-Mex dishes, and in BBQ sauce it adds a citrusy intensity that cuts through its denser flavors. The sugar content in the BBQ sauce will also highlight the citrus notes even more, making everything taste richer.

Lime zest will also add some acidity, but not nearly as much as the juice will. Using a combo of both is the best way to amp up the overall lime notes. Having said this, you don't want to go too far here. Lime zest has a powerful flavor that will continue to diffuse into your BBQ sauce the more it sits, and even a touch too much will make it taste of pure lime. That's especially true if you're grating it super finely, as the pieces will work their way into every nook and cranny of the sauce.

Giving your store-bought BBQ sauce a sweet boost can be as easy as stirring through some sugar. However, if you want something to be really flavorful, molasses is the ingredient you need to make your sauce great. Molasses is full of complex flavor that goes far beyond sweetness. This thick syrup's caramelized, slightly smoky notes make it a favorite in regular BBQ recipes for its ability to add depth, and it does exactly the same thing with the bottled version.

Molasses also helps your sauce on a texture level. It's particularly good for thinner BBQ sauces that you want to bulk up, as its viscous, syrupy nature will give them more body. This also makes it easier to apply as a marinade, or if you're planning on brushing the sauce onto meat. For thicker sauces, meanwhile, it melds into them well. If you find that molasses thickens up your sauce too much, you can simply add a splash of water or a squeeze of lemon juice.

You don't have to be boring with how you add spice to BBQ sauce. While hot sauce, chili flakes, and cayenne pepper are all tried-and-tested methods of bringing up the heat levels, gochujang is the ingredient that will really transform your bottled condiment. Gochujang is a Korean chili sauce that has a super-thick consistency, and has a sweet, spicy, tart, and smoky taste. The spice in the sauce comes from gochugaru, a chili powder made from the gochu pepper that brings the heat — and gochujang can get pretty spicy.

As it's fermented with glutinous rice and soybeans, gochujang has a tacky consistency that makes it perfect for sauce you're using as a marinade or a dip. Adding it will bulk up your sauce and help it adhere to meat and vegetables more effectively, while also boosting its flavor in almost every way. Its fermentation process also amps up its complexity and depth, and introduces a gently funky note. Mixing it into BBQ sauce will also give it a luminous, bright-red hue that will make whatever you're cooking look so much more appealing. Trust us on this one, guys. Gochujang is the ingredient you need.

Mustard is an essential part of lots of BBQ styles. Carolina-style BBQ sauce often has mustard as a central flavor, where it provides tanginess, heat, and a slightly bitter note. However, mustard also works well in other BBQ styles, and squeezing some yellow mustard into a store-bought bottle can give it all of these important flavor elements without distracting from its central taste.

Yellow mustard is our preferred choice here, as its flavor is gentle enough to mix with most BBQ sauces without dominating them, while still brightening them up. If you want a more pronounced taste, you can also use other types of mustard. Hot mustard will bring way more spice to your BBQ sauce, whereas French mustard has an intense brininess that will give your sauce's flavor that "je ne sais quois" element. If you're using a hotter mustard, just bear in mind that the heat is slightly different from the kind you get from chili flakes or hot sauce. Combining the two can leave both your mouth and your nose on fire, so tread carefully.