Can You Really Use Barbecue Sauce To Marinate Your Meat?

We all want to cook perfect steaks and tender baby back ribs, and marinades are a great way to make that happen. Not only will a good marinade impart a lot of flavor, but it can also help tenderize the meat and preserve its juices during cooking. However, you need to be careful with which one you use, and while barbecue sauce might seem like an easy option, it's not usually recommended.

We asked chef Billy Parisi, a food blogger and classically trained culinary school graduate, for his expert opinion on the matter, and he said that while barbecue sauce won't ruin your meat, it will impact its taste profile, as the natural flavors won't be able to shine through. Chef Parisi says. "You can use barbecue sauce to marinate, but personally I don't like doing that because it can be extremely overpowering, where all you're getting is the flavor of the sauce."

The sugar content of the sauce can also affect the cooking process, as it will start to burn at a high temperature. A single, 35 gram serving of the average barbecue sauce can contain around 16 grams of sugar, so using a marinade made completely out of it is asking for trouble. Chef Parisi says, "With all the sugar in it, it can tend to burn the meat when cooking from a raw state until it's completely finished."

Barbecue sauce tends not to penetrate meat as well as a thinner more acidic tenderizing steak marinade and depending on the ingredients used, it might well create a too-heavy, dense sauce during cooking.

If you really want those exact barbecue sauce flavors, you can use it as a marinade, but first thin it out using some extra ingredients to make it work. A decent pour of olive oil or a few spoons of water and a little vinegar are good additions (though do check how much vinegar your barbecue sauce contains already). Some salt might be another good idea too to balance the sweetness. 

Try to use a barbecue sauce with a lower sugar content and lighter texture, and keep an eye on the amount of time you're letting the meat marinate, especially if it's a thinner cut. Our ranking of 15 popular barbecue sauce brands can provide some guidance.

The best option is to ditch the barbecue sauce as advised and make your own marinade with some simple ingredients. Chef Parisi usually starts with an oil and then just adds some acid and herbs. He says, "I almost always add fat, which in this case would be oil like avocado or olive oil. This adds flavor and helps to evenly infuse the remaining marinade ingredients into the beef. 

"Then I add an acid like vinegar or even citrus. This helps to flavor and tenderize the meat. Then I add in my aromatics like garlic or fresh herbs. Lastly, salt and pepper just go such a long way to ensuring the meat is exceptionally flavorful." You can keep it quick and easy with lemon, garlic, and white wine for the absolute best marinated chicken, or get fancy with a sumac and fresh herb-marinated Delmonico steak. 

But one thing to keep in mind is that you might not always want to use a marinade. Chef Parisi uses them typically only for cheaper cuts of meat. He says, "I usually prefer to make more budget-friendly cuts, such as a tri-tip or picanha, to maximize their flavor. These are cuts that don't have a lot of intramuscular fat. Therefore, techniques like marinating are a great way to bring out those flavors. I usually don't marinate more expensive cuts like ribeye, strip steaks, or tenderloin, as to me, there's no need."