Tangy, spicy, minty, vinegary, mustardy, garlicky, tomatoey, salty, cheesy, gooey, meaty and zesty are just some of the ways we describe the good stuff that gets splashed and slathered onto our favorite foods when the Blackstone Diner is ready to heat up.
You just call it sauce, and there is no limit on what kind to use. Searching for new sauces to use on my Blackstone Adventure-Ready 28-Inch Griddle, I tried out bottles and jars at a range of store locations including multiple spots in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Cape Cod, Mass. The first thing you notice is just how broad the “sauce” category is! I mean, suddenly you’re even looking at salsa because that’s just a translation of the word sauce. So why not?
Merriam-Webster defines sauce as (1) a condiment or relish for food especially : a fluid dressing or topping; and (2) something that adds zest or piquancy. So with that in mind, the bigger challenge is to see if there is any sauce you can’t add to your Blackstone creation. The answer is: none. Just start grabbing and try out new things. Here are 15 ideas for you:
1. THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE BARBECUE SAUCE
This bottle from Bachan’s is the O.G. and the first one I wanted to try out on the Blackstone for a healthy teriyaki-ish stir-fry dinner. Start by tossing a batch of chopped veggies on the griddle including snap peas, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms and bok choy. Hit it with this sauce that comes from soy, mirin, ginger, green onion and garlic. Then add chunks of firm tofu on the other side of the Blackstone, and repeat the process there. Mix them all together and hit it some more. It’s clean and not as heavy as your average BBQ sauce, and an Amazon bestseller for a very good reason. Blackstone perfection.
2. CAROLINA BARBECUE SAUCE
You can have a blast experimenting with Blackstone sauces, so I decided to grill some smash burgers and apply three different sauces for variety. We started with Braswell’s Carolina BBQ Sauce for a tangy mustard flavor that is famous down South. This was easy to distinguish from the next two below because it left a vibrant yellow color, not to be confused with cheddar. This one tasted so good I am going to make a habit of just cooking Carolina Burgers.
3. YUM YUM SAUCE
Primal Kitchen bills its popular Yum Yum Sauce with avocado oil as a “dipping sauce” that’s especially great for steak, chicken and shrimp. There’s no artificial sweetener and just two grams of sugar per serving, so I figured I’d try it on a smash burger for experiment No. 2. I’m sure it was good, but unlike the Carolina Sauce this cooked into the ground beef and became hard to distinguish from the next one here on our list . . .
4. WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE
This original from Lea & Perrins felt like a cool third pairing on the Blackstone in the interest of three totally different approaches. After squeezing the other two sauces, this one required a lot of shaking. I made sure it soaked in as the smash burger sizzled on the Blackstone standup griddle. It was pretty amazing and would be a great addition to a diner’s menu, topped with cheese.
5. TURN YOUR BLACKSTONE INTO A BRITISH PUB
Pop on a bowl of baby potatoes, each cut in half first. Sizzle them on high, sprinkle salt, and then hit them with London Pub Malt Vinegar. If you like Fish ‘n Chips, you’ll love this. I went further and also bought a jar of Duerr’s Mint Sauce, as it already has the vinegar built in. This kicks up the potatoes, which you can serve alongside a fine steak and wash down with a pint of ale.
6. GET THE JERK SAUCE, MON
They have called themselves “Grace, the Good Food People” since starting a century ago in the Caribbean, and trust me you want to bring this authentic Jamaican flavor to your Blackstone asap. I found a batch at a Cape Cod grocery store, and you will really enjoy the Grace Jamaican Style Jerk BBQ Sauce slathered over a mess of chicken or pork. You can get even more flavor out of it by using their marinade ahead of time. Brush both sides of the meat during the second half of the cooking process. Ya mon!
7. MATOUK’S CALYPSO SAUCE AND HOT SAUCE
We’re gonna stay in the Caribbean here but we’re gonna turn up the heat. Start with Matouk’s Calypso Sauce, which contains Pickled Scotch Bonnet, Mustard, Cane Sugar, Onion, Garlic, Celery Seed. Again brush it onto any meat of your choice. Want hotter? Try Matouk’s West Indian Hot Sauce Salsa Picante. This product from Trinidad and Tobago is a savory blend of hot West Indian Scotch bonnet peppers, spices and green papaya, rating about a 5 on the heat scale of 1-10.
8. PORTUGESE PIRI-PIRI EVEN HOTTER SAUCE
For Blackstone chefs who want even more heat in their meat (pardon us, dear reader), we found a great sauce from A Taste of Portugal. Piri Piri is the name for Africa’s Bird’s Eye Chili, producing an intense spicy and bold taste. It is blended with sun-kissed lemons, handpicked spices, onion and aromatic garlic. Put it on anything you and your stomach want to brave. When you wield the two spatulas for Blackstone style cooking, all of this gets mixed in perfectly so you balance out the heat. You can hit it with a squirt bottle of water to dilute at any time, though why would you if you love spicy food like us?
9. SRIRACHA & BLACKSTONE CHICKEN FRIED RICE
If you’re enjoying our Blackstone Chicken Fried Rice recipe, then just remember that you can dominate the dish with your own touch of Sriracha! I went with the Yellow Bird Sriracha product just to give it a try. It’s a little on the small side, so opt for the full-size bottle. You can serve the Sriracha on the side in a small bowl, or just hit the pile of chicken fried rice in the finishing stages.
10. GUACAMOLE SALSA FOR THE GREEN
There are three main things you can do with homemade guacamole salsa: Serve it as a dip for nachos at your football watch party; spread it on bread to make your own avocado toast; or step on out to the Blackstone and mix it right in to whatever you are grilling. I decided to try it out with Mild Italian Sausage and yellow onions, so I cut diagonal sections of the sausage and sliced a large onion, then spooned a heaping helping of Herdez Guacamole Salsa into the food. You can get creative and add any other fresh vegetables such as peppers or zucchini. You finish with an incredibly tasty and beautifully vibrant dish.
11. TOMATO BASED SALSA FOR THE RED
Now that you’ve got that green sausage and veggies dish on your mind, picture yourself cooking something creative for a holiday party. Pair that green dish with a red dish that substitutes Green Mountain Gringo’s Hot Salsa — or any other tomato-based salsa. Substitute a different meat like pulled pork while you’re at it. Guests will dive in.
12. SOY SAUCE, AKA THE THIRD BLACKSTONE BOTTLE
This is just an obvious sauce to have handy anytime you fire up the Blackstone grill. In fact, it might warrant a third clear squirt bottle to go along with your water and oil. Just keep in mind that soy sauce packs the sodium, which is OK in moderation. Kikkoman has the iconic all-purpose bottle with the red cap, as well as the Less Sodium version with the green cap. We like to make tofu scramble every now and then, and all you need is firm tofu, lots of chopped scallions, generous sprinkling of turmeric, and this stuff for the liquidity.
13. MAHALO FOR HAWAIIAN-STYLE BARBECUE SAUCE
We mentioned Primal Kitchen above, and let’s just say that they make everything a Blackstone cook needs. Their BBQ sauce lineup is led by the Hawaiian sauce that sends me back to Maui on a summer night. Grill pork and mix in pineapple slices, then hit it all with this organic, gluten-free sauce and it’s like your own luau with swaying palms. Chicken is glorious slathered in this, and the Mango Jalapeno and Korean Style BBQ sauces are out of this world, too.
14. GUY FIERI’S FLAVORTOWN
You can’t miss this, just like you can’t miss the TV chef’s spiked bleach hair. Flavortown Mop Sauce BBQ Sauce is versatile to use on your Blackstone. Slather it on any protein for a good balance of chile, molasses, spices and mustard tang. As Guy says, “Turn your boring barbecue into dynamite!”
15. HEY, WHY NOT PASTA SAUCE?
Bring on the Rao’s! After all, Blackstone chefs love to brag about how they can cook down pasta right there on their griddle. Mix in your pasta sauce, maybe some meatballs and Parmesan. It’s not your Italian nana’s Sunday afternoon gravy, but Blackstone is all about adventure. These sauces also work on any Weber gas grill, Big Green Egg ceramic cooker, Pit Boss smoker, Traeger pellet grill, kettle grill or really anywhere outdoor barbecue cookouts are happening.
Like we said, sauce is sauce in any language. Apple sauce? Horseradish sauce? KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce in the Heartland? White mole sauce from Mexico? Beer even counts, because I’ve always splashed a bit on grilled meats. Everything is fair game when you have a blazing hot Blackstone for a blank canvas and food that’s ready for zest and piquancy.
