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As a South Carolina girl – born and raised – barbecue is an integral part of my life. While a mound of sweet, tangy, and juicy pulled pork with a side of coleslaw will always be my favorite way to eat barbecue, I enjoy a variety of sauces and styles. Today’s sauce – something I’ve named “Bri’s Kickin’ Barbecue Sauce” – is thick with a kick, full of deep flavor with some fruity notes, and perfect for basting onto a rack of baby back ribs. This sauce is more of a basting and dipping sauce, but if you came here for pulled pork, click here for my Perfect Barbecue Sauce recipe. Today’s recipe is perfect too, just in a different way. 😉
July 4th is coming up next week, so if you’re into grilling, I highly recommend this sauce to add wonderful flavor to anything from ribs to chicken thighs and drumsticks. Adjust the sweetness level to your own personal taste (as written it has a definite sweet note but isn’t overly sweet) and feel free to add more or less sriracha depending on how much you like heat. I’m not a big spice fan, but I put a little more in this sauce than usual. I’d say it’s on the upper end of medium on the spice scale, but some of you spice-handling firemouths will probably take one lick and laugh me out of the state.
Other Grill/Barbecue Recipes:
- Bri’s Sweet & Spicy Rub
- Bri’s Basic Spice Rub
- Easy Basic Marinade
- Family Favorite Grilled Chicken Thighs (pg. 82, Necessary Food)
- Marinated Picnic Chicken (pg. 83, Necessary Food)
- Mustard Grilled Chicken (pg. 83, Necessary Food)
- Marinated Grilled Deer Steak (pg. 84, Necessary Food) – great basic soy/lemon juice marinade for any type of meat
- Italian Marinated Grilled Chicken (pg. 84, Necessary Food)
- Pulled Pork Barbecue (pg. 87, Necessary Food)
- Briana’s Barbecue Sauce (pg. 423, Necessary Food)
Picnic Sides:
- Fresh Salsa
- Broccoli Cauliflower Salad
- Creamy Cucumber Salad (pictured below)
- Pizza Appetizer Pinwheels (pg. 398, Necessary Food)
- Spinach Dip (pg. 405, Necessary Food) with raw veggies
- Veggie Dip (pg. 406, Necessary Food) with raw veggies
Festive Desserts:
- Mini Cheesecakes with raspberry and blueberry toppings
- Blueberry Custard Bars
- Blueberry No-Bake Cream Cheese Bars (like a fruity Coolwhip Jello salad my mom used to make)
- Chocolate Cupcakes or Lemon Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting in various colors
- Peaches & Cream Bake (or substitute blueberries and raspberries)
- Strawberry Delight
- No-Bake Cheesecake, (pg. 360, Necessary Food) with Strawberry Glaze (pg. 366, Necessary Food)
- Dessert Pizza (pg. 365, Necessary Food)
(Recipes not linked are found only in my cookbook, Necessary Food.)
As always, check out the Notes section of the recipe for extra info. Check out the links in and below the recipe to see the products I use and recommend. Some of the links included in the recipe and blog post are affiliate links, which means that if you make purchases through these links, I make a small commission to help defray the costs of running this blog (at no extra charge to you). Thanks for your help!
You may also enjoy:
- Starting THM
- my recipe index
- my recipes grouped by fuel type, allergy info, and theme
- all my condiment/sauce recipes

- 1½ c. no-sugar-added ketchup*
- 2 T. salted butter
- 2 T. sriracha (feel free to decrease this for less heat)
- 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1-2 tsp. THM Super Sweet Blend (or more, to taste)
- 1 tsp. liquid smoke
- ¾ tsp. each chili powder, dry mustard, paprika
- ½ tsp. maple extract
- Dash orange extract
- Whisk the ingredients together in a small saucepan and simmer for ten minutes. Taste and add more sweetener and/or spice as desired. Store in the refrigerator.
Suggested products:
This sauce sounds Amazing, Briana! I can’t wait to get brad pitting. Its really a perfect recipe for making barbecue sauce.
Hey Briana how about a substitute for us mustard type BBQ sauce lovers? Love your work, I follow you everywhere!!!❤️
Thanks for the suggestion, Pam! I actually have that written on my list to work on! Anything in particular you’d like to see?