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.
Image may contain Roast Food and Pork
Texas-Style Smoked BrisketChristopher Testani
  • Image may contain Roast Food and Pork
    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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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 little liquid smoke into the rub to capture that summery flavor.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.)

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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."

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  • 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.

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Following stints at StarChefs and Saveur, Joe joined Epicurious in 2016 where he’s written about how to make the very best biscuits, the singularity of third-culture cooking, and the ultimate cream cheese frosting. Currently, he works across both BA and Epi as the senior SEO editor for cooking stories, which ... Read More
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