I Tried And Ranked BBQ Sauce From 8 Fast Food Chains

When you get fast food, there are always the classic sauces that most places have on hand: ketchup, honey mustard, sweet and sour, signature sauces, and barbecue sauce. Not all barbecue sauce is created equally, however. Some have a tangier, slightly spicy taste. Others are sweeter and mellower. What really makes the difference is the type of ingredients that are used, like honey, molasses, or brown sugar, for the sweetness. Or, the balance and use of spices like paprika, onion, garlic, cayenne, pepper, or salt. 

Knowing how much barbecue sauce can vary in taste, I decided to conduct a taste test with as many fast food chains as possible. After collecting sauce from eight different chains, I conducted my taste test by dipping french fries into each one. I ate multiple bites and had a large amount of sauce on each fry. Sometimes, I'd go back and forth between two chains that had similar tastes to really find the difference. 

Ultimately, I recognized that people will have completely different preferences when it comes to what they like in a barbecue sauce. For me, I like my barbecue sauce to have a major kick of flavor — something that really livens up a french fry or chicken nugget. I like a tad of sweetness, but not too much, and a tangy, saliva-inducing aftertaste. Now that you know that, let's get into the ranking.

In last place we have Smash Burger — which is probably a good thing, because it's the smallest chain restaurant on this list. With about 164 locations in the U.S., this restaurant really excels when it comes to burgers. The barbecue sauce came in a small, clear container, not a pre-sealed one with the store logo on it like other chain restaurants.

Right off the bat, I'll say that I still enjoyed this barbecue sauce. It landed in last place, sure, but it wasn't anywhere near bad. However, comparing sauces side by side helps shine a light on the differences and what you might prefer. When I tasted this sauce, I immediately thought it had a very brown sugar-heavy base. It was incredibly thick in texture, and the sweetness popped through as the strongest flavor. After I chewed the fries and let them settle, I got a slightly tangy aftertaste on the tongue. Ultimately, I placed this sauce in the last position because it didn't have enough layers for me. I like a barbecue sauce that is anything but simple, and the Smash Burger sauce didn't deliver that.

Placing Wendy's in second-to-last place surprised me quite a bit, since I'm very much a fan of its barbecue sauce, especially to put on a classic Wendy's burger. Ultimately, however, I found that when compared to other chains' sauces, it fell flat. It is considered a honey barbecue sauce, which gives you a hint that it'll land on the sweeter side; however, that's just not the type of barbecue sauce I gravitate towards. 

At first taste, I sensed a strong molasses flavoring. I then checked the website's nutrition information for the ingredients and saw that there is indeed molasses in this barbecue sauce recipe. While I'm okay with molasses as a way to sweeten the sauce, I'm not a fan if it overpowers the other flavors. This sauce was very mild in all aspects and didn't have any tangy or exciting kick. It was still enjoyable to eat, but it's simply not anything that I'd write home about. If it had just a touch more salt or tang, I'd be much more pleased, but alas, I think this barbecue sauce simply does its job, and that's about it.

Whenever I go to Chick-fil-A, I usually get the famous Chick-fil-A sauce with whatever I order. I've never even tried the other sauces, so I was curious to see what the barbecue sauce had to offer. I would say that this sauce is like any other basic barbecue sauce that you get at a restaurant. It had an even balance of sweetness, a little bit of tang, and a little bit of salt. If a perfectly balanced sauce is your thing, then you might just love Chick-fil-A sauce. For me, however, I still think it leaned a bit too sweet.

When looking at the ingredients, it's mainly sweetened with sugar, brown sugar, and corn syrup, which is maybe why I liked it a little better than the Wendy's sauce, which was made with molasses. The sweeteners don't have a super distinct taste, so instead, they just add a level of sweetness. There is also pineapple juice concentrate in this mixture, which could have helped with the tang that I enjoyed. Overall, this is a very solid barbecue sauce, but it didn't stand out as one of my favorites.

When I go to Shake Shack, I'm normally a cheese fry type of person. I've never tried its barbecue sauce before, so I was a bit curious to see where it would land on this list. Texture-wise, I noticed this sauce was a lot thinner than the others. During this entire taste test, the textures were fairly consistent throughout, so the thinner texture stood out. I like my barbecue sauce a bit thicker because I think it makes it easier to dip and get a good amount of sauce on the food.

As for the flavor, I thought it was solid. It actually had a bit of spice, and paired with a good amount of sweetness; I thought both flavors balanced each other perfectly. One thing that was missing in the flavor profile was salt. I wanted it to be a bit more savory, which I think would have really helped to make the spice pop even more. All in all, I thought it was good, but there is definitely room for improvement.

KFC has a big selection of sauces, with three being its own signature creations. The barbecue sauce pleasantly surprised me, although I found it tricky to judge. In the very first millisecond of tasting it, I thought it would be very similar to Wendy's sauce because I sensed a sweetness that overpowered any other flavors. Fortunately, as I kept chewing, the other flavors began to waft through, allowing me to enjoy a journey of flavors.

The KFC sauce offers a nice ride of flavors that start off sweet, then a little bit salty, and then there's a nice kick that seals the deal at the end. I'd say it's still on the sweeter side for barbecue sauce, but I enjoyed the nice tang and salty sensation as well. I thought this was the most well-balanced barbecue sauce of them all.

I've always been a fan of Burger King — especially the chicken fries. As a child, I used to get both the sweet and sour sauce and the barbecue sauce, and alternate the sauces between each bite. I knew I was going to have good things to say about Burger King's barbecue sauce, but I wasn't sure how it would stack up against other chains. As I took a bite of the sauce, I was immediately flooded with the reasons why I've always enjoyed this sauce so much.

Out of all of the sauces on this list, Burger King's barbecue sauce is the least sweet. It still has a touch of sweetness, as a barbecue sauce should, but ultimately, a more savory and tangy flavor pushes through. Although fast food is already salty enough, I personally like a sauce that also has a good amount of salt. It feels more bold and noticeable to me, which I think pairs well with something like a french fry or chicken tender. The only reason this sauce isn't higher on the list is because I think the tanginess could be a tad stronger. Other than that, I truly think it's a fabulous sauce.

McDonald's is a fast food restaurant that has personally never done me wrong. I'm a huge fan of most of the items on McDonald's menu, so I was confident that I'd enjoy the barbecue sauce. First and foremost, the container of the sauce says "Tangy BBQ," which is exactly the adjective I want to hear as a description for barbecue sauce. As soon as I tasted the sauce, all of the flavors exploded at once. I could sense a touch of sweetness, a touch of saltiness, and a whole lot of tang.

What I enjoy about a tangy barbecue sauce is that it gives you that salivary rush, which truly intensifies the experience of your entire meal. That mixed with a McDonald's french fry is absolute heaven to me. When compared to the other sauces, the McDonald's barbecue just stands out as much more dramatic and memorable. It has all of the qualities that I like in a barbecue sauce.

I don't visit Popeyes very much, and I was completely surprised to see it end up as No. 1 on this list. When I took my first bite, my immediate reaction was to audibly say "wow!" This is the boldest, most flavor-popping barbecue sauce that I've ever had. Funnily enough, the sauce is called BoldBQ sauce, which I deem an extremely fitting name.

Ultimately, I think that this sauce has it all. You can taste a sense of sweetness for sure, an equal amount of saltiness, and the tangy kick at the end just powers through to top it off. It's almost like experiencing a wave of flavors that rolls through as you chew, and I found it incredibly satisfying to eat, dip after dip. This was my clear winner for number one — and I might just have to go in and buy the sauce packets to have on hand. It's truly that good.

When taste-testing these barbecue sauces, I looked for a few key factors: boldness, balance of flavor, texture, and aftertaste. I recognize that each person may have a different preference for barbecue sauces, but I prefer a bold, tangy, exciting sauce. I tasted each sauce one by one, using french fries as the vehicle for the sauce. If I found that one sauce was similar to another, I'd taste test back and forth until I could really figure out the differences. As I went through, I was able to clearly order the sauces from favorite to least favorite. I truly enjoyed them all, but now I know which ones stand out amongst the rest.