This mayonnaise and vinegar based sauce has a hint of horseradish and cayenne as well as a nice amount of sugar to hit many points on the tongue. Our Alabama White Sauce Recipe has a wonderful creaminess from the mayo, tang from the vinegar, kick from the horseradish and cayenne plus a little sweet from the sugar. Luckily this sauce only takes a few minutes because it is positively addictive.

Alabama white sauce originated at Big Bob Gibson’s many decades ago. The current steward of that iconic BBQ joint in Alabama is Chris Lilly who should be on the Mount Rushmore of BBQ legends. He has won so many major barbecue competitions that it almost seems unreal. In 2023 I was humbled and honored to sit next to him at our judging table at the Jack Daniels BBQ Invitational.

Indeed, that’s me second from the right in the flame pants and Chris Lilly is to the left (my right).

We aren’t kidding that this stuff is addictive. Make a lot more protein than you think you need. And by protein, I mean chicken. Thus, Alabama white sauce is typically applied to yardbird. Here are a couple recipes we love to use with this sauce. We have these white sauce wings, as well as this spatchcock chicken. Both recipes are pretty dated, but both are rock solid.

Alabama White Sauce Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 cups mayonnaise
• 1 cup white vinegar
• ½ cup apple juice (fresh cider would work well also)
• 4 tsp granulated sugar
• 2 tsp horseradish
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice (I squeezed a half a large lemon)
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper

There just isn’t much to the process here. It’s fairly simple. The only thing to get your head around is that this isn’t a barbecue sauce you slather on the meat and cook for any period of time. Therefore, this is a mayonnaise based sauce that is applied at the end of the cook, not during. It’s not a basting sauce, it’s a dunking sauce.

Alabama White Sauce Recipe Instructions

In a mixing bowl combine the mayo, white vinegar, apple juice (or cider), sugar, horseradish, salt, black pepper, lemon juice and cayenne. Whisk to combine and then dunk the chicken into the bowl to coat and serve

Step-by-Step, Picture-by-Picture Instructions:

To begin, drop the mayonnaise into a mixing bowl and pour in the vinegar:

Then the apple juice:

Now add the rest of the ingredients including the juice of a half lemon (make sure to get that seed that fell our into the bowl):

Blend all the ingredients together and then set in the fridge and grill up some chicken.

Here are some grilled chicken wings we cooked specifically for this Alabama white sauce:

Finally, simply dunk the wings in the sauce and serve:

Or this spatchcock chicken which needed a bigger bowl:

As you can see, this is not the thickest of sauces.

Although, don’t let that discourage you.

It’s so loaded with flavor, it doesn’t need to be thick.

Can you reuse Alabama White Sauce?

With this being a mayonnaise based sauce, I would recommend being very careful here. It has to be refrigerated once it is made and in particular after it has had chicken dunked in it.

Alabama White Sauce Recap

If you make wings with this Alabama white sauce, make sure to double the amount you think you need. The sauce is so addictive, folks are going to grab a plate with a few wings then get seconds with a pile on the plate. Trust me here.

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Alabama White Sauce Recipe

This Alabama White Sauce Recipe shows how to make this mayo and vinegar based sauce that also has hints of horseradish, cayenne, black pepper and sweet sugar

Course Barbecue, BBQ

Cuisine American, American Fare, Barbecue, BBQ

Keyword Alabama White Sauce, Alabama White Sauce Recipe, Apple Juice, Chicken Wings, Grilled Chicken, Horseradish, Lemon Juice, Mayo, Mayonnaise, Spatchcock, Spatchcock Chicken, Spatchcocked, Spatchcocked Chicken, Sugar, Vinegar, White Barbecue Sauce, White Sauce

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 8 People

Ingredients

• 2 cups Mayonnaise
• 1 cup White vinegar
• ½ cup Apple juice Substitute apple cider
• 4 teaspoons Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Horseradish
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons Black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Lemon juice Juice of about half a lemon
• ½ teaspoon Cayenne pepper

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients and blend together thoroughly and refrigerate
• Dunk grilled chicken, from chicken wings to whole chickens, in the Alabama white sauce

The post Alabama White Sauce Recipe first appeared on GrillinFools.

Author information

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

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