In Search of the Perfect BBQ Sandwich

I’ve been eating BBQ all of my life, although my deep love of the craft is much more recent. I’d go to a restaurant as a kid and eat some ribs with my family or order a BBQ sandwich. Heck, they even served BBQ Sandwiches at my school cafeteria for lunch.

Most of them looked like this- A soft white bun, chopped beef mixed with sauce. I managed to snag one at the E-Stop in Ada (a gas station I’ve written about previously). One bite in sends me on a nostalgic trip back to my youth when I thought BBQ was mainly about the sauce, and my biggest concern was eating as fast as possible to maximize my time on the playground at school. Truth be told, I still love these sandwiches, but these days, I’m after something a bit more elusive- the PERFECT BBQ sandwich. After 5 months of searching, I can’t say that I’ve found it, but I have found some spectacular choices.

The first thing you have to decide when you are hunting down the perfect sandwich is- do you want one meat or multiple? Each has their own advantages.

This is the BIG THUNDER sandwich from Bad Brad’s in Stillwater, OK. The sandwich contains polish sausage, brisket, and turkey. Here, the sausage isn’t too overpowering, the salt from the brisket and fat from it and the sausage pair nicely with the denser, leaner smokey turkey. In short, they work in harmony to produce a distinctive flavor with each meat bringing something to the table.

Multiple meat sandwiches can even elevate derided chains like Billy Sim’s. Their Heisman sandwich combines bologna (an OK staple), sausage, and thin cut brisket.

My friend Brock (who’s photography and words have been featured quite a bit on this blog) stated “Separately those meats are plain and sterile, dry. Not terrible by any means. Better than the likes of rib crib. Together though, damn.”  This is a key theme here- sandwiches offer customers a better eating experience at chain joints with multiple meat sandwiches. Indeed, this also true of single meat sandwiches in terms of brisket. Poorly cooked brisket can still be enjoyable if chopped and mixed with sauce. Sometimes the chopping also allows it to blend better with other meats.

Another thing multiple meat sandwiches offer is value. If you have a joint with lots of different meat that doesn’t offer by the pound or even if you feel silly asking for just a slice or two of brisket, multi-meat sandwiches are a great way to sample more of what the joint has to offer. All the King’s Men in Bryan, TX is a pretty expensive joint, but the food has been quite stellar on most of my visits. Before they expanded their sandwich menu, they offered The Kitchen Sink.

This concoction includes brisket, jalapeno/cheddar sausage, turkey, and a single candied pork belly burnt end. I really liked this sandwich, but it also leads to a negative of multi meat sandwiches- sometimes the meats don’t pair well. In this case, the Wild Boar sausage was way to strong, and a mouthful of the three most prominent meats just tasted like sausage way too often. Single meat sandwiches can transform the meat into something new, often through the use of toppings.

Sauce is the most common topping as seen here. While not necessary by any means, sauce can really continue to elevate the sandwich to something special. Of course, if the sauce is bad, the whole sandwich is hurt. I actually like to sauce my own sandwiches at my leisure. The first sandwich, from Church BBQ in Huntsville, TX, simply has brisket and sauce, while the second, from Good Bull BBQ in College Station, TX, decided to add cheese. Let’s take a look at this interesting choice a bit further.

The sandwich on the left, the Aggie special from Martin’s in Bryan, TX, uses American Cheese while the one on the right, from Joe’s Kansas City BBQ, uses provolone. While I enjoyed both of these, the provolone blended much better with the meat and sauce. American cheese has a distinct and somewhat manufactured flavor, while provolone is more subtle. Note that both sandwiches use onion rings as well, a practice so popular that fast joints like Arby’s are doing the same. Onion rings offer a good textural difference and indulgent flavor while also adding the familiar, and much beloved topping (onion).

Pickles and onions are THE BBQ sandwich topping staple in Texas. Some joints, like the popular gas station chain Buc-ee’s (on the left), package their sandwiches with pickles and onions already included on the sandwiches. Most joints though, will just give you pickles and onions to put on your sandwich at your discretion. C&J BBQ (pictured right) is one such joint. This is the perfect way to eat a BBQ sandwich in my opinion, but you can elevate these simple toppings by using house-made pickles and onions. These can be crunchier or softer than store-bought condiments but are almost always infinitely more flavorful. As my friend Brock states, ” Most of the time they’re fine, sometimes they taste cheap. Sometimes that’s okay, even. Most of the time I get it on the side.”

Finally, in terms of basic and common toppings, we reach coleslaw. Particularly popular on pulled sandwiches (like the one pictured left from 13-0 BBQ in College Station), coleslaw offers a crunchy texture and, usually, a bit of creamy sweetness. I do like some of the more vinegary slaws, but they do often lack the pleasant crunch of traditional slaw. I’m often weary of coleslaw overtaking the sandwich, and I greatly appreciate joints like All the King’s Men allowing customers to top their own sandwiches with the delicious apple/jicama slaw. On the right you see one of the more unusual toppings- Mac and Cheese. Again, I would caution folks to at least try the mac and cheese before trying a sandwich topped with the stuff. Great mac and cheese can still overpower a sandwich, but if they can harmonize, the result is a truly indulgent sandwich.

BUT WAIT, I hear you say, THAT’S NOT A SANDWICH!

Indeed it isn’t. That is the Yell Boy taco from Good Bull and features brisket, pulled pork, and sausage with queso mac and cheese. But it brings me to the final, and most overlooked part of the sandwich- the bread choice.

Almost every sandwich so far has featured a bun. But for my money, soft white (untoasted) bread is the best vehicle for sandwiches. DBQ, in College Station, offers an amazing, sauceless brisket sandwich on white bread, and the bread really offers the perfect, oh-so-slightly sweet, compliment to the salty meat and the vinegary pickles and crunchy onions and coleslaw (an optional choice). Those who have seen my KC visit post know how I raved about the simple white bread elevating a simple ham sandwich into legend at Arthur Bryant’s. A bun usually absorbs sauce better, but if you are going sauceless, I can’t recommend white bread enough.

In the end, much like everything else, the choice is up to you. But make it carefully, and with plenty of thought about WHY you want the sandwich in question, and what you want out of it. By doing this, you may finally be able to find the perfect BBQ sandwich (or taco!)