7 Kraft BBQ Sauces, Ranked From Worst To Best

If you want to grill like a master, remember that your barbecue game is judged not just by your choice of meat, but also by the sauce you serve with it. Whether you're smoking a brisket, slow-cooking ribs, or charring a chicken breast, picking the best sauce for the job can be intimidating. Especially when the barbecue sauce section of your local grocery store is stacked to the rafters with options.

With a base of tomato, vinegar, or mustard, plus some combination of spice, sugar, and heat, barbecue sauce varieties stem from geographic tradition. This makes choosing one for a particular application even more contentious, and it helps explain why many of us reach for a long-trusted brand like Kraft to do the work. If you lack the time (or desire) to make your own barbecue sauce from scratch, Kraft has options for you — a lot of them. We at Chowhound thought our readers might benefit from a taste-test comparison.

Drawing on my experience as both a backyard barbecuer and a catering cook, and setting aside my personal biases as much as possible, I sampled seven varieties from Kraft's barbecue sauce line and ranked them from worst to best for this article. 

Some recommendations are based on first-hand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer/distributor/etc.

Hands down the least favorite of my samples, Kraft's Sweet Teriyaki Slow-Simmered Barbecue Sauce is an ambitious offering, but the fusion of these two standards tasted clunky. The tomato-dominant base was strong and thick, competing with the soy sauce notes rather than complementing them. And there was almost no discernible pineapple juice, garlic, or ginger flavor.

I think of teriyaki sauce as something you baste or marinate meat and vegetables with before searing them quickly on a flat top or hibachi grill, so I'd anticipated something a little thinner and less corn-syrupy. I'm not sure this would work on anything that wasn't going to spend a decent amount of time on the flames burning off the excess. And the tomato flavor would likely overpower the Asian-inspired undertones, giving the final dish a bit of an identity crisis.

I know teriyaki and barbecue sauce are similar in concept and application, and some sauces blend the two flavor profiles successfully, but Kraft's offering wasn't in the same league. Would it work in a pinch? Sure. Would I seek it out? Definitely not.

Kraft's Sweet Brown Sugar Slow-Simmered Barbecue Sauce was similarly uninspired, earning it a spot near the bottom of my ranking. Brown sugar needs balance and contrast to shine in a barbecue sauce. Unfortunately, Kraft's recipe fell short on zen and zip. It was distinctly missing the savory molasses base typical of the best sweet barbecue sauces. The mix also had very little vinegar or acidity. I detected a little smoke, which helped, but that was the only depth — and it wasn't enough to offset the sugar. 

If Kraft's Sweet Brown Sugar barbecue sauce was all I had on hand, and I was dressing up a pork butt, I'd mix in some Worcestershire sauce, a little pepper, and maybe a bourbon reduction to enhance the flavor. Though I'd take it any day over the Sweet Teriyaki, I would not buy Sweet Brown Sugar again if I had other options.

On the nose and tongue, Kraft's Hint of Honey Slow-Simmered Barbecue Sauce was a little sour, with maybe too much apple cider vinegar and more tomato than anything else. It didn't really register as a honey-forward barbecue sauce, lacking the earthy, floral qualities I've come to expect from anything featuring that ingredient. Its texture was more oily than sticky, and it wasn't even that sweet.

Paler than some of the smoky, molasses-based sauces in Kraft's barbecue line, the color was about right; it smelled good and would probably do just fine for basic pork or chicken applications. But expect a brighter, fruitier flavor profile than rich honey, and a slight aftertaste that wasn't bad but didn't improve anything, either. All in all, this was a relatively neutral, perfectly okay barbecue sauce that advertised a hint of honey and didn't really deliver. 

I am always cutting onions — at home, at work, and in my sleep. Before I started cooking, personally and professionally, I didn't appreciate how wide a variety of onions there are. But now I know, and I'm here for them all. Unfortunately, none of them make a strong appearance in Kraft's Sweet Onion Slow-Simmered Barbecue Sauce, and that's where this one comes up short.

Yes, there is a definite flavor from dried onion, but it would have been so much better with some real onion juice or puree. I would also have liked a bit more heat, if only from additional black pepper. However, I liked the tangy base, onion-forward flavor, and the slightly thinner consistency enough to buy this sauce again. I'd just pair it with additional allium elements, perhaps as a grilled onion side dish or a fresh scallion garnish, to give the accompanying barbecued meat a little more depth.

Far superior to the Hint of Honey barbecue sauce in the middle of my ranking, Kraft's Spicy Honey Slow-Simmered Barbecue Sauce was tasty and really well- balanced. The honey flavor was smooth and definitely came first, followed by vinegar, tomato, and a little smoke. It finished with good, but not overpowering, heat that lingered for a minute in my mouth. I would have liked a little more kick, maybe some cayenne, jalapeño, or red chile, but that's a personal preference. I know the average palate tends toward mild.

But overall, I liked this one. The flavor and consistency are good enough to use as a dipping sauce for chicken tenders or nuggets, but I can also imagine it working as a glaze for chicken wings or even a neutral seafood like shrimp. And I'm sure it'd make a great marinade, since hot honey is key to sweet-and-spicy grilled meats and vegetables. I'd buy this one again and plan to use the leftovers from my sample on some chicken legs tonight.

A rich, dark color introduces Kraft's Hickory Smoke Slow-Simmered Barbecue Sauce, and the smoke hits your nose before anything else. Unlike some other sauces in this line that finish with liquid smoke notes, I tasted hickory first here. And it gave me some olfactory nostalgia for campfire bacon and Southern barbecue joints.

The molasses undertones are savory and sweet without being overpowering or artificial, and the finish is a little spicy without distracting from the smoky goodness. The tomato base is vinegary rather than ketchupy like some of the lower-ranking sauces, and there's enough black pepper in the mix to give it some bite. With hickory being one of the best woods for grilling and smoking beef, I can imagine this sauce drawing neighbors to the backyard if I mopped it on a brisket and let it smoke all day in my Big Green Egg. I've bought more expensive hickory-flavored barbecue sauces that I like less, and I'll definitely reach for this one again.

To my genuine surprise, the sauce that I liked best was actually Kraft's Original Slow-Simmered Barbecue Sauce. Getting the recipe just right with a good balance of tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, mustard, pepper, and molasses, this is admittedly a very basic, traditional sauce with no domineering characteristics. And that's what I liked about it.

A chameleon of sorts, with all the expected barbecue sauce elements married harmoniously, it's equally well suited to dressing a rack of ribs, holding a crockpot of meatballs, or jazzing up a frozen pizza. I can also imagine this pantry staple drizzled over ranch on a Southwest salad or tossed with pulled rotisserie chicken for a quick weeknight sandwich. No, it does not have the cult-like following of Sweet Baby Ray's Award-Winning Barbecue Sauce, but honestly, I liked Kraft's Original Barbecue Sauce better. It's significantly less sweet, considerably more flexible, and very reasonably priced. I haven't put this one in my grocery cart in a long time, but that's going to change after this taste test reminded me how good it is.

I secured seven of the eight barbecue sauce varieties in Kraft's product line and tried each in my home kitchen. To avoid a particular cut of meat or grilling method affecting the flavor profile or my preferences, I sampled each at room temperature from a glass bowl with a spoon and took notes on my reactions. As I would when cleansing my palate during a whiskey tasting, I drank water and noshed on white bread between samples so I could test each sauce as objectively as possible.

My primary consideration was overall flavor, but I also considered consistency, smell, coloring, potential use, and fidelity to the sauce's product name. I set aside my personal and professional preferences when evaluating each option to arrive at this ranking.