Best Sauces For Brisket ⋆ 9 Of The Best You Have To Try! ⋆

A nice beef brisket is, well, it’s just something else. However, pairing it with the right saucepan still take it to the next level. But what sauces, exactly? Let’s find out, shall we?

So, what are the best sauces for beef brisket? Beef brisket is commonly served with BBQ sauce. Mop sauce is another favorite–both the classic kind and variations such as beer or coffee. You can also serve brisket with a lemon and oregano sauce or a creamy horseradish sauce.  

Whether you opt for a classic BBQ sauce or go for one of the many variations, brisket is a food that simply pairs well with this sweet brown sauce.

But it may be what you like.

So below, you’ll find a list of great sauces for brisket, as well as some tips for sauces to avoid.

The Best Sauces For Brisket

Lemon Oregano Sauce

This is a very simple sauce to make, yet not the most common sauce for brisket. It’s fresh and herby, though, so perfect if you want something a bit more summery.

That said, what’s more, summery than a BBQ?! However, BBQ sauce does not compare to the freshness of this sauce!

To make it, simply combine lemon juice, minced garlic, chopped oregano leaves, and olive oil. Freshly ground pepper and salt to taste.

You will want to blend this in a food processor till emulsified. 

You can find the full recipe here. 

Spiced Up BBQ Sauce

You love BBQ sauce but can’t be bothered to make your own. Or bothered may be the wrong word–there just isn’t the time.

That’s when it’s time (no pun intended) to spice up the kind of BBQ sauce you find in a bottle in the supermarket. 

I’ve got two different recipes for this. 

You can combine dark brown sugar, Dijon mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce, Worcestershire sauce, grated nutmeg, and crushed red pepper flakes and bring to a boil in a pan to make your own version of BBQ sauce. 

You can find the full recipe here. 

Another option would be to combine store-bought BBQ sauce with mild to hot salsa, cider vinegar, salt, and freshly ground pepper and bring to boil in a non-reactive saucepan.

If you want the full recipe, have a look here. 

BBQ sauce is best served at room temperature but needs to be stored in the fridge.  

Homemade BBQ Sauce

If you want to make your very own BBQ sauce, then kudos to you. 

For this, you’ll need a few more ingredients than if you’re just spicing up the store-bought version! 

So, you’ll need butter, onions, garlic, tomato sauce, ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, honey, chili sauce, Worcestershire sauce, maple syrup, lemon juice, paprika, dry mustard, chili powder, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder, and allspice.

You’ll need to sautée the onions and garlic in the butter before adding the remaining ingredients and cooking till it reaches the desired consistency. 

For the full recipe, look here. 

Mop Sauce

Mop sauce is not, as I first thought, sauce to be “mopped up” with meat or bread, but rather sauce applied with a mop. 

You see, in Texas, when there’s a ranch-style BBQ, you make so much meat and sauce you use a (clean) mop to brush the meat with the sauce! Talk about a lot of food!

For this mop sauce, you’ll need water, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, dark corn syrup (I’d likely sub with honey, agave, or maple syrup, though it will change the flavor profile), canola oil, and mustard. 

You’ll need to pop the ingredients in a saucepan, bring them to a boil, and let boil for about five minutes. Then let cool for at least ten minutes.

The full recipe can be found here. 

Coffee and Beer Mop Sauce

There’s mop sauce, and then there’s mop sauce. This mop sauce is certainly unique–in the ingredient list, you’ll find both coffee and beer! 

So what are the ingredients, you ask? They are as follows: beer, apple cider, apple cider vinegar, coffee, beef or chicken stock, vegetable oil, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce (tabasco), sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper. 

This sauce does not require cooking–you just whisk together the ingredients in a non-reactive bowl.

For the full recipe, see here. 

Creamy Horseradish Sauce

Horseradish comes with a fresh flavor and a bit of a kick and tastes absolutely divine when included in a creamy sauce. 

To make creamy horseradish sauce, combine cream horseradish (from a jar) with sour cream, salt, and cracked black pepper.

You can read the full recipe here if you want to learn the exact measurements. 

You can also make a creamy horseradish sauce by combining mayo, sour cream, a tiny touch of honey, freshly grated horseradish, salt, and pepper. 

Alabama White BBQ Sauce

There’s no saying BBQ sauce has to be brown, though most of us usually think of brown BBQ sauce when someone mentions BBQ sauce.

In Alabama, they have their own white version of BBQ sauce, though. Meaning it is a mayo-based sauce. 

To make this sauce, combine mayonnaise with apple cider vinegar, brown mustard, horseradish, lemon juice, minced garlic, salt, and pepper.

All you have to do is stir together the ingredients in a bowl.

You can find one version of Alabama White BBQ sauce here, but you can also research other recipes to figure out which one sounds like the tastiest one!

Smoked Brisket Sauce

This sauce is truly just another form of BBQ sauce, but it differs from the other recipes I’ve mentioned. 

For this sauce, you’ll need ketchup, dark brown sugar, white vinegar, chili sauce (the tomato kind), onion, garlic, honey BBQ rub, or another sweet bottled rub, Worcestershire sauce, vegetable oil, and butter.

Sautée the onions and garlic in the oil, add all remaining ingredients but the butter, turn up the heat and let simmer for 2-3 minutes before lowering the heat and letting it simmer for up to fifteen minutes.

It should reach the desired consistency. Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

Let cool, and use a blender to make the sauce smooth. Serve at room temperature.

See the full recipe here.   

Special Sauce

This is one of the ones great for a brisket sandwich. And it’s easy to make, too. Mix together mayo, ketchup, mustard, and BBQ sauce.

Then finely chop some pickles and add them to the sauce. 

You’ll find the full recipe here.  

What Types of Sauces Pair Best With Brisket?

It’s no secret that BBQ sauce is most frequently served with brisket. You’ve got regular BBQ sauce and Alabama white BBQ sauce. You can also serve your brisket with a nice and creamy horseradish sauce or a lemon and oregano sauce. Mop sauces are also incredibly popular when serving brisket.  

If you have a family recipe for BBQ sauce, then that’s likely the first place to start when trying out sauces for your brisket. 

You can easily whip up a BBQ sauce by spiffing up the store-bought version, too.

Some more effort is required to make your own BBQ sauce if you don’t already master one. You need to find a recipe that agrees with your tastebuds. 

As BBQ sauce is smoky and often comes with a hint of chili, there’s no saying you can’t serve a brisket with a chipotle sauce, either.

You can make your own by combining mayo (and sour cream) with chipotle sauce.

To that sauce, you can also add ketchup, onion, and garlic powder. Perhaps a hint of honey or maple syrup. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Another spicy, yet very fresh sauce that works well with brisket, is a creamy horseradish sauce.

In its simplest form, all you need is some mayo or sour cream and grated horseradish. 

While more unusual, an olive oil-based sauce flavored with lemon and oregano is also a good match for brisket. 

If you want to go Texan, make a mop sauce. There are many different versions of mop sauce, and I’ve covered only two in this article. Do your research and find one that’ll tantalize your taste buds!

What Sauces To Avoid Serving With Brisket 

As a general rule, you don’t serve brisket with just ketchup and mustard. Those are simply ingredients used in popular BBQ sauces that you serve with brisket. Nor is a heavy cream sauce usually used for brisket–like a mushroom and cream sauce or a cheese and cream sauce.  

Brisket is a BBQ kind of meat, so you tend to serve it with BBQ-style sauces.

It’s a nice steak, though, so just pouring over some ketchup or mustard just doesn’t seem right! Rather go for a lovely BBQ sauce. 

You don’t tend to serve brisket with the kind of creamy sauces you sometimes use for various steaks cooked in the oven.

For example, you don’t use a creamy mushroom sauce or a cheese sauce to serve with brisket. You do, on the other hand, serve it with a creamy horseradish sauce. 

Obviously, you don’t serve tend to serve brisket with Asian sauces, either. No soy sauce or sweet chili sauce.

That said, you could serve it with sriracha combined with mayo and sour cream.

There’s always an exception to the rule.

And perhaps someone out there really loves their brisket served with sweet chili sauce…you never know!

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