BBQ Cooking Side Dishes

We have several holidays coming up – Memorial Day, Southern Memorial Day, and July 4. Are you already thinking up some holiday ideas? For the three events mentioned, BBQ cooking is very popular. You know that BBQ is traditionally a Southern food, right? Oh sure, the rest of the country does it now, too, but it all started in the South, where the pig was king of the barnyard.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why Southern food dishes go great with BBQ cooking! If you’re hosting a barbecue or cookout, or if you’re invited to one, you’ll need to prepare a side dish or two. You wouldn’t show up to a gathering empty handed, would you? Of course, you wouldn’t! Why, that would be very un-Southern!

So what goes well with barbecue? If the barbecued meat is hot and spicy, the best accompaniments are cool, creamy dishes. Favorites are potato salad and coleslaw. You might think these two old standards are boring, but there are plenty of ways to “jazz” them up.

For potato salad, you could add ranch dressing instead of mayo. You could also add sour cream, diced bacon, red bell peppers, chopped cucumbers, bread-and-butter pickles, or radishes. If you want to add some heat to your potato salad, stir in some diced green chilies, some chopped pickled jalapenos, or some chipotle powder.

Coleslaw doesn’t have to be boring, either. Give it a tropical flair by adding some crushed pineapple or some diced mango. Make it more colorful by adding purple cabbage, diced tomatoes, halved grape tomatoes, sliced black olives, or small strips of red bell pepper.

If you choose to forego the potato salad and coleslaw, what about rice salad, corn salad, or pasta salad? You can find my recipes for all of these at the Best American Food website!