What are your favorite side dishes to go with BBQ?

[RichardCullip]

Coleslaw and BBQ beans

[Clark]

Potato salad or a good pasta salad. Pecan pie for dessert!

[Huskee]

I consciously avoid the stereotypical sides, although I do like mac n cheese with BBQ. And taters, not necessarily tater salad (although of course a hit) it can be time consuming to make. Fried taters do the job well, as do mashed, even though they might be an odd choice but no one will hate it, trust me.

[fzxdoc]

For me, the BBQ sides have to meet two criteria, unless I have willing sous chefs helping in the kitchen, which does not happen much at our house:

1. For a hot dish: One that can be prepared well ahead (preferably the day before) and simply nuked, warmed in an oven, SV'd, or set on the smoker to quickly warm up to a safe temperature. A codicil to this is that it has to taste and look as good or better the next day after the initial prep/cooking if not cooked the day of the event.

2. For a cold dish: One that can be prepared preferably the day ahead, does not get soggy and requires no more than 1-2 minutes of effort the day of the event.

These two criteria narrow the available options some, like mac and cheese, for example, which for me does not sometimes reheat well without getting oily. Funeral potatoes, and dried bean dishes, OTOH, seem to reheat just fine. Green beans cooking all day in the crock pot with salt pork or bacon works well too.

Pasta salads, coleslaw, and potato salad do well, and crudites and dips if the crudites are cut and bagged so they don't look dried out on the surface (Mr. Carrot, I'm talking to you ).

Any other sides that meet these criteria? I'd love to change up my game some with interesting new-to-me sides.

Kathryn

[yakima]

Balsamic vinegar, in my limited experience, is a great way to brighten up stuff.

And, on a more adventurous note, Rocky Mountain oysters. Hot or cold, your choice. With tartar sauce. Keep dogs on the leash.

[yakima]

We once did a BB and BM party. Bull balls and bloody marys. Bloody marys were great. Did not realize had to skin the BBs. Disaster.

[fzxdoc]

Hilarious. What a party that must have been, yakima . More Bloody Marys all around! The dogs must have loved the BBs, though. Unless you skinned them on the fly at the serving table, not a sight that many folks would want to see without a few BMs on board.

Kathryn

[PGH_RAM]

This just popped up in my email. Some of them look pretty good.

https://www.southernliving.com/food/side-dishes/13x9-sides

[hoovarmin]

Southern Living is a classic source of recipes. Very few ingredients most of the time and very simple methods, but great results.