14 Creative Ways To Use Up Leftover BBQ Sauce

Barbecue sauce is one of those condiments you always need to have on hand — but it can be difficult to know exactly what to do with it. Whether you've made a batch of barbecue sauce or bought one of the underrated barbecue sauces that you should have tried a long time ago, it can be tough to figure out how to use your leftovers once you've switched your grill off. Barbecue sauce's sticky, sweet, salty, smoky tones may be perfect for your charred meat, but during the winter months, it can sit in your pantry or fridge, looking neglected and sad. Leave it for long enough, and it can start to go bad, leaving you with leftover barbecue sauce that's just gone to waste.

Don't despair, though, folks: There is another way. Barbecue sauce may not seem very versatile, but once you look beyond its intended uses, there's a host of ways you can employ it in the kitchen. Barbecue sauce's balance of sweetness and tanginess makes it an excellent substitute for tomato sauce in a lot of situations, and in others, it can amp up the flavor of your tomato-based dishes. Leftover barbecue sauce can also be used to add a bolder taste in slightly more unpredictable ways: We bet you never thought of putting it in your caramelized onions or frying your eggs in it, right?

If you're making a homemade pizza, you need to rethink what sauce you're using – and if you thought we were just gonna suggest regular barbecue sauce, you've got it wrong. Now, there's nothing wrong with using a standard barbecue sauce on your pizza base. It gives your 'za savoriness, smokiness, and a sweet tang that tomato sauce doesn't quite achieve. However, it's hardly an unexpected move: barbecue sauce bases are pretty commonplace these days, for the simple reason that they're very, very tasty.

What we're advocating for, folks, is a pizza sauce made from white or gold barbecue sauces. Carolina mustard barbecue sauce can give pizzas a sour, tangy undercurrent that works particularly well with ham or meatballs, and provides your pizza with a gorgeously golden hue. Alabama white sauce has way more creaminess, as well as a vinegary note that offsets meaty toppings and lifts up plant-based ones. You can also try mixing either of these two sauces with a more common brown barbecue sauce for the best of both worlds. If you're mixing up your base with a leftover barbecue sauce, though, just make sure that it's got body and thickness to it. If it's too thin and watery (like a mop sauce), it'll just make your dough too wet and not pack enough punch.

Looking for a way to elevate your eggs? All you need is some leftover barbecue sauce, a skillet, and a couple of minutes. Frying eggs in barbecue sauce is a quick and easy way to imbue them with way more flavor. As the eggs sizzle away, they absorb some of the flavors of the sauce, while also retaining their own smooth, slightly creamy notes. Their edges also crisp up way more effectively, thanks to the sugar in the barbecue sauce providing a shield of caramelization around them. Oh, and you don't have to worry about seasoning them at the end: All of the flavor has already been provided by the sauce itself. Pretty special, huh?

To fry eggs in barbecue sauce, you just need to add your sauce to your pan with whatever fat you're using, allow it to heat up and start sizzling, and then crack your eggs right in. Be wary not to use too much sauce: You don't want to poach them in it, after all. Plus, we'd also recommend being pretty careful with whatever you place around your pan, and have a cloth to hand (or consider using a lid for your skillet). Barbecue sauce's high sugar content will make it sizzle and splatter, and you may well find that your kitchen ends up covered in little droplets of the sweet condiment.

One of the cruel ironies about a grilled cheese is that it often goes nowhere near your grill whatsoever. Well, we'd like to not only propose that it should change, but that you should be adding more grilled flavors to the inside of it too. You can amp up your grilled cheese both by grilling it, and by adding some leftover barbecue sauce to the sandwich itself. By doing this, you give your grilled cheese way more smokiness than it would get if it was cooked in a pan, both on its outside from the hot grill and on its inside from the sauce, which adds a depth of flavor that complements the creamy cheese hugely well.

To add even more flavor, you can even daub some leftover barbecue sauce on the outside of your grilled cheese before throwing it on the hot grates. This will help it caramelize gently on its outside, increasing its crunch and its flavor. Just be wary that you don't add too much, as this can make your bread too wet, and also cause it to burn due to the sugars in the sauce.

Sometimes, your spaghetti sauce is missing something. You can't quite put your finger on it, but it just needs a little bit more ... Punch. Well, that punch can be provided by leftover barbecue sauce very easily. Barbecue sauce has a surprisingly complex flavor profile that sometimes doesn't quite shine through when it's used on its own, but when it's added to other ingredients that profile can act as a multi-layered base note. You get its sweetness, its vinegary pop, its smoky maturity, and its umami flavors — and all of these fill out the flavor of tomato sauce very well.

You can add barbecue sauce to regular spaghetti by squirting a little bit in at the end of the cooking process, warming it through, and serving. This can make it stand out a little bit too much, though: We'd recommend adding it to baked spaghetti, where its bold flavor can mellow slightly while still remaining punchy. It's worth remembering that you may not want to add barbecue sauce if you've already added other vinegary or sweet ingredients, as this can tip it over the edge.

Chicken salad can be so boring, guys. Sure, it's a reliable lunch that's simple to make and doesn't cost the world, but it's easy to get tired of its creamy, slightly basic flavor. Luckily, there's a secret ingredient that can make chicken salad way more exciting – and it's barbecue sauce. A squirt of your leftover sauce can give your chicken salad a smoky, sweet lift, as well as some much-needed color.

Although it's easy enough to just add barbecue sauce to your chicken salad's dressing, you might want to use it in other ways. Begin a step earlier, and use the sauce to cook your chicken, by marinading or glazing your protein before throwing it in the oven. This will allow the sauce's flavors to develop and permeate your food even more deeply, and it'll also take the edge of some barbecue sauce's incessant sweetness and slightly syrupy texture. Just ensure that you don't add too many other sweet ingredients to your chicken salad, like grapes or raisins, as the combo of these with barbecue sauce can take it into sugary territory.

If you want to add unexpected flavor to your mashed potatoes, we recommend you look no further than barbecue sauce. We know it sounds kinda wild, but we'll explain. Barbecue sauce can provide a counterpoint to the deep creaminess and somewhat neutral flavor of mashed potatoes, which can occasionally get a little boring. These potatoes can need more than just salt to bring them to life, and barbecue sauce gives them sugariness, a hint of smoke, and some much-needed umami. Just a little squirt can take your potatoes to brand new heights.

Importantly, different types of leftover barbecue sauce can also be employed in mashed potatoes, to excellent effect. If you want to keep your mashed potatoes slightly more traditional, try using gold barbecue sauce, which will give them a pop of mustard and not alter their color too much. White barbecue sauce will be even more subtle, and can amp up its vinegariness in an unassuming way. We prefer going for a classic, dark brown sauce, though — it's just a bit more of a confident move, and we're all about taking risks in the kitchen.

Cornbread generally tastes pretty mild — and this can be a blessing and a curse. Every now and again, you might find yourself wishing that your cornbread loaf had just a bit more to it. For those moments, barbecue sauce is an unexpected friend. Drizzling leftover barbecue sauce into your cornbread batter before baking it can give it a smoky undertone that provides depth, while also amping up its natural sweetness. Plus, some barbecue sauces have a delightful spiciness to them which gives cornbread a little more piquancy, allowing it to stand up for itself more against bolder-tasting foods.

If you want your barbecue sauce's flavor to be distributed through the cornbread, you can just stir it in before you bake it. However, we prefer to swirl it over the top of our batter, before dragging a toothpick through it to spread it around in an artistic (well, we like to think so) fashion. This will give your cornbread way more visual flair, and it'll also distribute little pops of sugary flavor throughout, making eating it way more of an adventure.

Barbecue sauce is such a natural fit for enchiladas that it's kinda surprising people don't use it more often. This sauce takes enchiladas to a whole new level thanks to its smoky sweetness, and umami edge that gives the dish more of a sense of fullness. Barbecue sauce works excellently with the spicier notes of enchiladas, helping to lift them up while simultaneously stopping them from becoming overwhelming. Plus, it adds a lot of color to your dish, making it just that much more interesting to the naked eye.

Barbecue sauce on enchiladas is a great choice if you want something more interesting than tomato or typical enchilada sauce, but not as intense as mole. Just bear in mind that barbecue sauce can often be way more flavorful than enchilada sauce, which is designed to be a little more muted, and provide moisture without completely overtaking the dish. You may therefore want to dilute your barbecue sauce a little (you can just add a bit of water to it to do this), or else combine it with a more simple tomato sauce to pull its flavor back a little.

How often is your meatloaf just totally lacking in flavor? Unfortunately, it's a fairly common occurrence. A lot of people think they can get away with just pouring tomato purée or passata over their meatloaf and relying on the meat itself to do the work — but this will leave you with a watery, dull-tasting mess that has no seasoning or punch whatsoever. You can get around this with some help from leftover barbecue sauce, which will take your meatloaf to the next level. A barbecue glaze on your meatloaf will give it a boost of sweetness and a smoky tone that works excellently with the meat, and will make it taste like it's just been grilled. As well as this, the gentle hit of spice from some barbecue sauces can add a touch of complexity, and the mustardy tones in other sauces gives your meatloaf a pleasant sourness.

For the best results, a lot of people recommend using sweet honey barbecue sauce on meatloaf. The honey flavor delivers a mature sweetness that doesn't make your meat taste like it's been dipped in sugar. However, we're inclined to believe that any barbecue sauce would work well here. We'd lean towards using a dark brown version, though, instead of a white or gold sauce. It'll just fare better in the oven, and will caramelize more effectively.

Wanna take your sour cream to the next level? Mix it with barbecue sauce. Sour cream and barbecue sauce make an unforgettable dip, and one which goes well with pretty much everything. These two foods complement each other hugely: Sour cream helps to take the sting out of barbecue sauce's intensity and reduce its sugariness, which can sometimes be an overwhelming flavor note. Barbecue sauce, meanwhile, helps to add depth to sour cream, and also gently highlights its sour flavor note.

As for what to serve a barbecue sour cream dip with, it really is up to you. We personally think it's an awesome accompaniment to French fries, particularly as a replacement to a spicy mayo. It's also great served with chips or sliced vegetables. Chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, and onion rings all go excellently with the dip, with the creaminess helping to stop the barbecue sauce overwhelming the other flavors in the food. You can also dollop it over foods like loaded fries, nachos, or even a salad.

You've probably had a burger with barbecue sauce on it. You may well have had a burger that's been glazed in barbecue sauce, and then cooked. However, these are all child's play, people — have you had a burger that's had barbecue sauce directly added to the meat? We bet you haven't, and it's time to try it out. This is the perfect use for leftover barbecue sauce, especially when you only have a little bit left, as you generally only need around two or three tablespoons for each two pounds of beef you're using. Adding your sauce to the burger meat will give it a smoky, sweet note and allow the outsides to crisp up and caramelize more effectively.

When adding barbecue sauce to burger meat, it's important not to just use the two ingredients. Barbecue sauce will add moisture which can loosen your burgers and cause them to break apart, so you'll need to throw in some binders. Make sure you add bread crumbs and an egg, too, as well as some fresh onion and garlic (or onion and garlic powder) for extra flavor.

Caramelized onions can often be pretty disappointing, guys. We hate to be the one to say it, but unless you're really good at making them and put in the required amount of time and patience required, they can end up bland and flavorless. Thankfully, we have a solution for this, in the form of leftover barbecue sauce. Adding a dash of barbecue sauce to your caramelized onions can infuse them with smoky depth and also help them break down more easily.

Now, it must be said that adding barbecue sauce to caramelized onions will take their flavor in a different direction from the classic thing. You won't get that same subtlety that traditional caramelized onions deliver, and instead, you'll get a bold, tangy, almost syrupy flavor. It's this punchiness, though, that will make them particularly good in burgers. Importantly, too, you should let your onions cook for around eight to 10 minutes before adding your barbecue sauce, so that you're not just boiling them in it from the beginning.

We all know the drill with nachos: Chips, cheese, salsa, sour cream, and maybe a few other ingredients if you're lucky. While that may be a delicious combo, there's no denying that it's repetitive. So when we discovered that barbecue sauce is perfect for a twist on nachos ... Well, you better believe that we were trying it as quickly as possible. Barbecued nachos made with barbecue sauce have a sweet, deep, smoky flavor that regular nachos don't quite reach. They also tend to caramelize more easily in the oven or under the broiler, thanks to the barbecue sauce's sugar content (although it's a fine line between lightly charred and totally burnt, so be careful).

You'll want to make sure that your other toppings work with your barbecue sauce, and don't cause a clash of flavors. While spicy beef flavored with taco seasoning can be a good fit, the combo of two intense ingredients can make things a bit too boisterous. Instead, we'd advise going all-out on the barbecue vibe and opting for a smoked brisket and some pulled pork. Top it with some cheese, and you'll be in heaven.

When we think of fries and barbecue sauce, we tend to think of one being dipped in the other, or barbecue sauce being used as a drizzle over your hot potatoes. However, we've got another use for leftover barbecue sauce with fries that'll blow your mind. Take your barbecue sauce, and use it to make oven-baked barbecue fries, with the potatoes cooked directly in a barbecue sauce coating (before being dipped in a combo of the sauce and sour cream once you're ready to serve).

This may sound like a wild approach to fries, but trust us when we say that it works. The barbecue sauce gives your fries a huge boost of flavor, and also helps them caramelize and crisp up more effectively. Plus, the sauce adds a sweetness to the fries that keeps them a lot more interesting, and a savoriness that makes them way more of an event. It also allows them to develop an attractive orange-brown shade that just looks the part.