Everyone loves a set of saucy ribs, still smoking from the grill and shining with a glaze of some of the best store-bought barbecue sauces. Grilling up some BBQ in the backyard is cathartic: There’s something to be said about the whole ritual of BBQ on the grill, and the charred sweet corn (here’s how to buy the best ears for grilling) and cold beer that usually goes with it. Then there’s the flavor of that BBQ sauce mingling with the char from cooking over an open flame! But it’s not fun when the sauce sometimes burns on the grill, making the meat bitter and covering the grate in hard-to-clean grime.
Burning the BBQ sauce is easy to do, but it’s just as easy to avoid. The sweet, savory glaze on your grilled meat doesn’t have to turn into a blackened mess. The key to getting a great BBQ sauce glaze on your grilled meat is timing — and Matt Abdoo, executive chef and co-founder of Pig Beach BBQ, with locations in New York, Boston, and Florida, gave Chowhound some exclusive advice on how to get that timing right. The trick is to wait until the last few minutes of the cooking process before brushing the sauce on. “The timing can definitely depend on the type of barbecue sauce you’re using,” Abdoo said. However, in general, he notes, “The sweet spot is during the final stages of cooking — just enough time for the sauce to caramelize and cling to the meat without burning.”
When to add different kinds of BBQ sauce to meat on the grill
There are so many different kinds of BBQ sauce on the market, and the timing of when you should add that sauce to meat on the grill changes with each based on the sugar content. Sugar is the reason BBQ sauce burns and sauces with a high sugar content will burn faster than those lower in sugar. Of course, sugar is also BBQ sauce’s superpower, the key to why it tastes so great on grilled meat. You want to use that sugar to your advantage and caramelize BBQ sauce on the grill without burning it to draw out the rich, smoky qualities in the sauce.
According to Matt Abdoo, high sugar Kansas City-style BBQ sauces should go on the meat during the last few minutes of grilling. Vinegar-based and other low-sugar or sugar-free BBQ sauces can go on earlier in the process. Some home chefs will brush a thin layer of BBQ sauce on the meat before it goes on the grill to add a little more flavor and then follow up with a thicker slather in the last cooking stage. Abdoo’s final tip is great advice on how to complete that final step and achieve a sticky, flavorful sauce. “Lower the heat when you do [add the sauce] — this allows the sauce to set and become sticky without burning,” he explained, adding, “A little caramelized char adds great flavor and texture, but too much can overpower the meat and ruin your cook.”
