Few culinary techniques are more quintessentially American than barbecue. The art of cooking meat low and slow over an indirect flame, to yield moisture and a smoky flavour, is a cornerstone of US food culture. As any devotee knows, though, the term 'barbecue' covers a multitude of regional styles, each showcasing different techniques and flavours. Here, we’ve ranked America’s original barbecue styles, delving into the deliciously rich and complex history of each one, and picking out the best joints to try them.
Click or scroll on to discover America's brilliant barbecue styles, as we count down to the one we believe is the most iconic of them all – let us know if you agree!
We've based our ranking on the enduring popularity of each dish in its place of origin and beyond, and on the opinions of our well-travelled (and well-fed) team. The list is unavoidably subjective.
While not a traditional barbecue city, Chicago, Illinois has a food scene influenced by migration from across the USA and beyond. Over the course of the 20th century, as people moved steadily to the city from the South, Chicago's culinary cultures blended to create a barbecue style of its own, defined by sausages and pork rib tips (the part of the rib cut away to make flat St. Louis–style ribs).
Rib tips – the cut of meat that was historically discarded by butchers making a squarer cut at the top of a sheet of ribs – tend to be a southside delicacy, and can be sampled at Honey 1 BBQ and Lem's Bar-B-Q House. Chicago is also the home of the aquarium smoker (named as such because it looks like a fish tank). These are metal smokers usually located on a restaurant’s roof. To see one – and taste the impressive spoils for yourself – hurry down to Smoque.
In the 1930s, the Santa Maria Club – a country club in California’s Santa Maria Valley – began holding monthly 'Stag Barbecues.' Beef would be rolled in salt, pepper and garlic, then cooked using the region’s time-honed technique (around since the 1800s) of smoking it over red oak wood. There, Santa Maria barbecue was born. The cut of meat most associated with the style is tri-tip beef, while the area’s proximity to Mexico also influences its barbecue traditions.
There are plenty of Santa Maria Valley restaurants serving excellent barbecue, and many have been around since the 1950s or earlier. One such place is Far Western Tavern, which today serves tender meat smoked over red oak. Just outside the valley in Casmalia, the Hitching Post is a wonderful example of the region’s techniques, and was named one of 10 Great Barbecue Joints in the USA by Forbes.
While Memphis barbecue dominates the Tennessee scene, west Tennessee boasts plenty of much-celebrated whole hog joints, with many chefs devoted to the craft. Whole hog barbecue became prevalent here because pork was cheap and went a long way.
Today, the Tennessee whole hog sandwich is considered a vanishing art, with Pat Martin among a handful of chefs keeping it alive. At Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint, which has several locations in Tennessee and beyond, the meat is served with a vinegar-based sauce. The sandwiches, crucially, are loaded with crunchy slaw – an addition that marks out the Tennessee BBQ sandwich from the rest.
While other regional styles have gone on to become the biggest stories in barbecue, there are some, like Virginia-based food historian Joe Haynes, who contend that Virginia barbecue is the original. Haynes argues that barbecue evolved from the cooking techniques of Powhatan Indians, indigenous to an area that's now part of Virginia, who slow-roasted food over hot coals. Today, pork is the main event, and the style leans heavily on its sauces.
There are four major sauces: the tomato-mustard blend of Tidewater (best exemplified by Old City Barbeque in Williamsburg), the Worcestershire sauce flavours of central Virginia (try Charlottesville’s Ace Biscuit and Barbecue, pictured), the mahogany sauce of the northern part of the state, and the vinegary blend of the Shenandoah Valley (represented by Shaffer’s BBQ, Middletown).
The origins of barbecue are complex, but can generally be traced back to the Caribbean, South America and North America. Native American cooking techniques, of roasting food over smouldering coals, almost certainly played a part, as did similar methods used by enslaved African American people. One theory goes back to the Caribbean Taíno people, who used the term barbacoa to describe the structure, made from green wood, on which they would place the meat, wrapped in agave leaves and cooked over a low flame.
Barbacoa can also refer to a type of meat prepared by earth oven cookery, a technique used by indigenous people for thousands of years, which saw meat – and sometimes vegetables – cooked in ovens buried underground, often for extremely long periods of time. Today, barbacoa and pit barbecue are often interchangeable, though almost always refer to above-ground pits equipped with grills or spits, specially designed for slow-cooking meat over wood, coals or both.
There is one place in the USA that still crafts authentic, below-ground barbacoa. At Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Q in Brownsville, Texas, you can order barbacoa de cabeza – smoked cow’s head – which is cooked in an underground brick-lined pit for 12 hours. Bestowed with a prestigious America’s Classics award by the James Beard Foundation in 2020, it's a must-try for barbecue fans.
Kentucky barbecue is distinctive for its preference for mutton. According to Kentucky barbecue expert Wes Berry, mutton cookery in the state is centred mostly on the city of Owensboro, where pitmasters smoke the meat over hickory and serve it with a Worcestershire sauce–based dip, flavoured with vinegar, lemon and spices, known as mutton dip. Elsewhere in the Bluegrass State, pork shoulder (or Boston butt) is another perennial favourite.
Though Kentucky is known for its mutton barbecue, there are only a few places to find it, most of which are in Owensboro. To try sliced or chopped barbecue mutton, or a piping hot bowl of burgoo (a meat and vegetable stew), head to Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, which has been run by the Bosley family since 1963. Owensboro’s popular Old Hickory Barbecue also serves these local delicacies.
Hawaii has a long history of outdoor cooking, thanks to its sunny climate. Often, the grill is at the centre of a party, and a variety of culinary influences find their way onto the plate, from Portuguese barbecue pork to Korean-style ribs. Kalua pork sees the use of imus or earth ovens – rare elsewhere – and seafood is also high up on the menu, with grilled mahi mahi a speciality across the state.
Bob’s Bar-B-Que in Honolulu is a legendary local spot and the perfect place to sample the melting pot of flavours on display in Hawaiian barbecue; hibachi, teriyaki and traditional barbecue are all available here. To try kalua pork, head to Helena’s Hawaiian Food, also in Honolulu, where you’ll be served up meat that has been cooked in an imu.
Though sometimes overlooked in favour of its barbecue giant neighbours, Georgia also has its own signature style. As with many states, pork is king here. Sweet sauces – with sweetness also applied via sugar and sometimes cinnamon in the dry rubs for ribs – accompany smokier than usual meats (often smoked overnight) to complete the state’s barbecue flavour profile. Sides are also important in Georgia barbecue, and include coleslaw, potato salad and mac 'n' cheese.
The oldest pit barbecue restaurant in Georgia is Fresh Air BBQ in Jackson, open since 1929 (the dining room is pictured here, in the 1950s). The place is home to a wood-burning pit that requires constant tending, though it does result in some seriously smoky meat that is more than worth the effort. Elsewhere, the state’s signature meat style can be sampled at D.B.A. Barbecue in Atlanta, and Wiley’s Championship BBQ in Savannah (where the speciality is smoked wings).
Alabama has a deep-rooted history of barbecue, stretching back to the 19th century. Knowledge of pitmastery was passed down through communities of enslaved people, and pork became the preferable meat due to the prevalence of pig farming in the area. Otherwise, Alabama barbecue is best defined as a melting pot (or pit) of local styles and characteristics.
While ribs, tomato and mustard-based sauces abound across the state, Alabama’s primary contribution to barbecue is probably the white, mayonnaise-based sauce and pit-roasted chicken pioneered by Big Bob Gibson in Decatur. His restaurant – Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Que – has remained with his family since opening in 1925. The sauce is peppery and tangy, and is an especially good baste for poultry.
South Carolina style is largely characterised as whole hog barbecue, due to its origins in the whole hog cookery used by enslaved people on plantations there. Today, whole hog barbecue is considered a craft of its own, requiring long shifts (it takes around 12 hours) and close attention to the heat.
The finished product tends to be served simply, with an acidic vinegar-based sauce. Whole hog barbecue in the state is dominated by the Scott family. Rodney Scott’s BBQ in Charleston, South Carolina is highly regarded as one of the best examples of whole hog barbecue; in 2018, Scott won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast.
There isn't one uniform style of barbecue in North Carolina, where cooking and serving techniques vary between the east and west of the state. The eastern style, widely considered the original, is typically a whole hog basted with a peppery, vinegar-based seasoning. Its tart, acidic characteristics are distinctive from the western style. The latter takes pork shoulder and introduces ketchup and (sometimes) Worcestershire sauce into the mix – resulting in a sweeter, saucier dish that's much faster to cook than the whole hog.
Skylight Inn BBQ in Ayden is one of the state’s best places to try the eastern style. Its relationship to whole hog barbecue can be traced back to the 1830s, when pitmaster Sam Jones’ great-great-great grandfather traded from a covered wagon. For the western pork shoulder speciality, Hursey’s BBQ in Burlington is a great bet, having been in business since the 1940s, while the shoulder at Little Richard’s BBQ – smoked for 12 hours – also perfectly exemplifies the regional style.
Memphis barbecue is characterised by an emphasis on pork (ribs are a particular speciality), typically smoked over charcoal. The style emerged in the early 20th century as the Tennessee city grew as an economic centre, and former army cook John H. Mills opened a barbecue stand on Beale Street, a hub for the city’s Black community. Mills’ rib cookery – hot and quick over charcoal – informed what would become the iconic Memphis rib.
The signature Memphis barbecue dish is the dry rubbed rib. Building on Mills' cooking style, the recipe was created by Charlie Vergos at his restaurant Rendezvous, which opened in 1948. It sees dry ribs basted with water and vinegar during cooking, and finished with a mouth-watering spice mix of salt, pepper, bay leaf, cumin, chilli powder, oregano and paprika. Rib sandwiches are another highlight of the Memphis scene, proudly slung by A&R Barbecue on Elvis Presley Boulevard.
Kansas City barbecue emerged in the early 20th century, courtesy of Henry Perry. The chef opened a barbecue stand in the city in 1908 and is considered to be the father of this regional style. The technique sees meats seasoned with a dry rub and smoked over oak and hickory. Other calling cards of the style include burnt ends (the crusty, tasty cut from the end of a brisket) and its sweet, tomato and molasses–based sauce.
The most famous barbecue restaurant in Kansas City is Arthur Bryant’s, which has its roots in Perry’s original stall and subsequent restaurant. After Perry’s death in 1940, his employee Charlie Bryant took over the business, followed by his brother Arthur (who had also worked for Perry) six years later. Renowned for its ribs, must-have burnt ends and house-made sauces, Arthur Bryant’s is one of the most beloved barbecue restaurants in the US.
Arguably the most famous style, known all over the world, Texas barbecue tends to focus on beef (specifically brisket) and pork ribs. The style originated in the 19th century with German and Czech immigrants, who brought with them European meat-smoking techniques, often used to stop meat going stale. The prevalence of pork ribs, once again, originates in the techniques of enslaved people on plantations elsewhere in the South.
Like North Carolina, Texas plays host to competing barbecue styles. Central Texas style showcases the beef – usually simply seasoned – while east Texas style offers both beef and pork, sometimes stuffed into sandwiches. South Texas barbecue is also closely linked to Mexican cooking, with dishes often served with guacamole, salsa and sweet barbecue sauce.
Southside Market and Barbeque in Elgin (sometimes called the sausage capital of Texas) claims to be the state's oldest barbecue restaurant. The place opened as a slaughterhouse in the 1880s, and began selling sausages soon after. These days it's well known for Elgin hot guts, a type of beef sausage smoked over oak wood, alongside other beef specialties. Elsewhere, spots like Snow’s BBQ in Lexington and Franklin Barbecue in Austin often attract lines stretching over several blocks.
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Last updated by Natasha Lovell-Smith.