7 Store-Bought BBQ Sauces That Taste Just Like Those At Your Favorite Fast Food Chains

Fast food barbecue sauce just hits differently, folks. Whatever the reason, the little tubs of sauce you get with your fries or nuggets are infinitely tastier than the store-bought bottle of barbecue sauce you have in your pantry—and while you certainly can make your own barbecue sauce or upgrade a store-bought sauce, sometimes you just want a taste of fast food heaven at home. Well, you’re in luck. As it turns out, you might just have been buying the wrong kind of barbecue sauce all along: There are plenty of options out there that taste almost identical to the sauces you find at your beloved fast food chains.

It’s worth bearing in mind that fast food barbecue sauces can vary considerably, with different chains leaning on sweet, smoky or salty notes in their sauces. The real challenge is how to figure out which one suits your taste buds, and we’ve done the hard work for you. The best part is that pretty much any barbecue sauce that tastes like a fast food equivalent is available online and can be in your kitchen in no time.

Read more: The ultimate ranking of American fast food restaurants

1. For a McDonald’s Barbecue Sauce Dupe, Go with Open Pit

Open Pit Hickory BBQ Sauce

Open Pit Hickory BBQ Sauce – Open Pit

McDonald’s barbecue sauce is unlike any other. While it has a lot of the sour, smoky notes that other fast food barbecue sauces contain, it also has a distinctive umami note that comes from the inclusion of soy sauce, as well as sherry wine powder, which enhances its sour taste. While it can be hard to find these two ingredients in other barbecue sauces, there is one brand that does a pretty good job of mimicking the other notes going on in this dip. Open Pit Hickory BBQ Sauce is the closest match out there, thanks to its similar ingredient list, color and consistency.

Both Open Pit’s sauce and McDonald’s BBQ sauce are tomato-based, with vinegar, smoke flavor and onion powder showing up. They are also noticeably sweet, with high fructose corn syrup making up a large portion of the sauce. But where Open Pit really has the edge is in its inclusion of soy protein. This may not be soy sauce per se, but it certainly brings a little note of flavor that other barbecue sauces may lack, and puts Open Pit’s Hickory flavor as the best replacement for the McDonald’s version. Put it in a small serving cup and you will hardly be able to tell the difference.

Purchase Open Pit Hickory BBQ Sauce on Amazon.

2. If you want Wendy’s Barbecue Sauce, go for Buffalo Wild Wings’ bottled version

Buffalo Wild Wings Honey BBQ Sauce

Buffalo Wild Wings Honey BBQ Sauce – Buffalo Wild Wings

If you order Wendy’s golden nuggetbarbecue sauce is a must. This sauce has a noticeably sweet flavor supported by all the classic barbecue flavors and a rich texture that clings well to your food. Somewhat incredibly, the best way to replicate the taste at home is also to go for a barbecue sauce sold by another fast food brand. Buffalo Wild Wings’ Honey BBQ Sauce is almost a dead ringer for Wendy’s version, both in terms of sweetness and texture. Although not quite the same, it will definitely hit the spot.

This similarity is all the more surprising considering that store-bought barbecue sauces made by fast food restaurants are somewhat notorious for tasting pretty bad. Fast food restaurants often use different formulations for their bottled versions, leading to a product with a completely different taste. Well, no one said they can’t taste like the output of other fast food places. While it’s hard to find the exact ingredient list for Wendy’s BBQ sauce, the smoky flavor and chipotle peppers in the Buffalo Wild Wings sauce hit the mark on the smokiness of the fast food chain’s sauce, the corn syrup covers the sweetness, and the vinegar and jalapeños bring the tang factor.

Purchase Buffalo Wild Wings Honey BBQ Sauce on Amazon.

3. Bull’s Eye BBQ Sauce is a close match to Burger King’s version

Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce

Bull’s Eye BBQ Sauce – Kraft Heinz

Bull’s Eye BBQ sauce is pretty well loved by barbecue sauce fans out there as an easy to find option that covers the classic barbecue sauce notes. They might love it even more when they find out it tastes pretty much like Burger King’s BBQ sauce. Several people have pointed out the closeness that Bullseye has to Burger King’s sauce, with some in-the-know saying that this is actually the brand that BK uses in its stores.

However, exactly where the chain uses this sauce is a bit unclear. Some people have confirmed that Bull’s Eye is used by Burger King, while others have been more specific, saying that it only uses it in its burgers and that its sauce pans use Heinz BBQ sauce. This is made more confusing by the fact that Kraft Heinz owns Bullseye, so it may actually be putting it in the small pots. Does your head hurt too? Don’t worry too much about the details – all you need to know is that Bull’s Eye will hit the spot and give you all the layers of sweetness, smokiness and tartness you expect from a good sauce.

Purchase Bull’s Eye BBQ Sauce on Amazon.

4. Kraft Chicken & Rib BBQ Sauce tastes just like the McDonald’s version

Kraft Chicken & Rib BBQ Sauce

Kraft Chicken & Rib BBQ Sauce – Kraft Heinz

Sometimes flavor matches come from seemingly unexpected places – until you look a little closer. This is the case when it comes to Kraft’s Chicken & Rib BBQ Sauce, which seems to be a dead ringer for McDonald’s barbecue sauce. This knowledge was passed on the old-fashioned way in the Internet forum thread, with people over RedFlagDeals shares the wisdom that Kraft’s sauce has the same sweet-smoky flavor as the McDonald’s version. “Holy moly, just bought some and tried it, it’s very close!” said a happy customer.

This is all despite the fact that Kraft’s sauce is explicitly designed to be used to coat chicken and ribs, and not necessarily as a standalone sauce in its own right. However, the plot thickens when you consider who could make McDonald’s sauce in the first place. Kraft Heinz has had a long relationship with McDonald’s, where it previously made its ketchup. While that relationship appeared to formally end in 2013, when McDonald’s began phasing out the use of Kraft Heinz products, Kraft and McDonald’s have continued to collaborate in other ways. Plus, while Kraft Heinz doesn’t actually make their sauce today, it could certainly be the case that it was involved in its barbecue sauce at one point, and the franchise tries to keep it as close as possible.

Purchase Kraft Chicken & Rib BBQ Sauce on Amazon.

5. Shake Shack’s Barbecue Sauce can be substituted for Austin’s Own

Austin's own original mild BBQ sauce

Austin’s Own Original Mild BBQ Sauce – Austin’s Own

Sometimes you’re lucky enough to find a bottled barbecue sauce that tastes identical to your favorite fast food restaurant’s version. Other times you may have to settle for a sauce that is thick enough. This is the unfortunate reality for people who love Shake Shack’s BBQ sauce. While an exact replica may not be out there yet, people have found that Austin’s Own BBQ Sauce is a safe alternative and can somewhat cover the same flavor bases.

Looking at their ingredients, we can kind of see why Austin’s Own works – and why it’s not quite the same. Both Austin’s Own BBQ Sauce and Shake Shack BBQ sauce have a tomato base, with Austin’s Own using ketchup and Shake Shack’s version with tomato paste. They also both have smoke flavor, molasses and spices in the mix, with much of this in Austin’s Own coming from the Worcestershire sauce. Where they differ, however, is that Shake Shack’s BBQ sauce uses mustard as one of its key flavors, an ingredient and flavor note that Austin’s Own doesn’t seem to have. In a pinch, though, it’s close enough.

Purchase Austin’s own original mild BBQ sauce on Amazon.

6. If you want something like McDonald’s Barbecue Sauce, choose Sweet Baby Ray’s

Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce

Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce – Sweet Baby Ray’s

Sweet Baby Ray’s is one of those barbecue sauces that everyone thinks tastes like everything else. Trawl the internet and you’ll find people comparing it to the offerings at Burger King, Wendy’s, and generic fast food barbecue sauce pouches. Well, these can all be close, it’s actually the most similar to McDonald’s BBQ sauce. Several people online have pointed out that Sweet Baby Ray’s hits the sweet spot that McDonald’s sauce also covers, with reviews of the sauce also comparing it to the fast food chain’s version.

This proximity is quite interesting, considering how different their ingredient lists look. All the big players are there, of course, and both contain tomato paste, vinegar, smoke flavor and dried garlic or garlic powder. But where McDonald’s gets its sweetness from high-fructose corn syrup, Sweet Baby Ray’s gets a boost in sugar from a combination of cane sugar and pineapple juice concentrate. Sweet Baby Ray’s also contains mustard flour, which contributes to its tartness, while McDonald’s BBQ sauce has no mustard at all. But taste buds out there can’t tell the difference, and when you combine that with the deep brown color they both have, your eyes won’t be able to tell them apart either.

Purchase Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce on Amazon.

7. Redneck Lipstick is a great substitute for Popeyes Barbecue Sauce

Redneck Lipstick Original BBQ Sauce

Redneck Lipstick Original BBQ Sauce – Redneck Lipstick

Popeyes Bold BBQ Sauce is the ideal accompaniment to its chicken, offering a sweet and tangy counterpoint to its incomparable salty crunch. So what if you want the lovely combination at home? You have to reach for the Redneck Lipstick Original BBQ Sauce. This sauce may not be a total swap for Popeyes’ sauce, but it’s certainly not far off. “It’s not quite the same, but it’s really, really close. It tastes sour, sweet and bright. My brain immediately goes back to all the memories of eating Popeye’s chicken,” says one person happy about the comparison over at Reddit.

Interestingly enough, Redneck Lipstick doesn’t suit a particular style of grill. Instead, it aims to incorporate flavors from multiple influences, bringing flavors from Texas, Memphis, Kansas City and Carolina into its original sauce. We’re not quite sure that’s what Popeyes intended to do with its own sauce, but hey, if the shoe fits, right?

Purchase Redneck Lipstick Original BBQ Sauce on Amazon.

Methodology

Hand dip a dinosaur lump in BBQ sauce

Hand dipping a dinosaur lump in BBQ sauce – The Image Party/Shutterstock

When choosing barbecue sauces for this article, we went straight to the most reliable source we could think of: the customers. We scoured the web to find people who had done head-to-head comparisons between store-bought barbecue sauces and fast-food barbecue sauces, looking at both message boards and reviews to find which options fit the bill. There were a lot of vague or unconvincing comparisons to sort through here, so we focused on comments and reviews that emphatically pointed out how close certain sauces are, and more specifically, why they tasted the same.

In some cases, several barbecue sauces were compared to a specific fast food restaurant’s own offering. In these situations, we either included them all to give our readers more options (as was the case with McDonald’s and its barbecue sauce), or we went with the one we thought was the closest taste comparison. Once we had identified the most likely option, we looked, where possible, at the ingredient lists for both the fast food barbecue sauce and the purchased option to identify where they had similar formulations.

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