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Home Team’s Alabama White Sauce Recipe

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South Carolina — arguably the birthplace of barbecue — is home to four native barbecue sauces: a heavy tomato, a light tomato, a vinegar-pepper, and a mustard-based sauce.

Recently, however, an interloper has crossed the border, and we find ourselves with a fifth sauce: the Alabama White Sauce.

Home Team BBQ Smoked wing dripping Alabama White sauce
Photo courtesy of Home Team BBQ.

The Alabama white sauce got it’s start in 1925 in Decatur, AL, when Big Bob Gibson was the first to whip up a batch. His great-granddaughter’s husband, Chris Lilly, now runs the place and spoke about the origins with AL.com.

Interestingly enough, he may have actually thought of it as a vinegar-based barbecue sauce.

“He definitely had an affinity for vinegar based sauces,” Lilly says. “His pork sauce is what I’d describe as sort of an Eastern-style North Carolina barbecue sauce.

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“It’s what you call a ‘sop mop,’ where he basted shoulders during the latter part of the cooking process. And I think that carried over for his chicken when he developed that sauce.”

Smoked Wings with Alabama White Sauce from Home Team BBQ
Photo courtesy of Home Team BBQ. Holy City Handcraft, photographer.

“His chickens sometimes stayed on his pit for three hours. When you’re pulling a pit of chickens you’ve got to have some way to keep those chickens moist. Keep them from drying out.

“And I think that’s where the mayonnaise came from. The fat in the mayonnaise basically used as a buffer against the chicken drying out once it came off the pit.

“People describe it as a mayonnaise sauce, but I would describe it as a vinegar sauce with mayonnaise in it, more than anything,” Lilly says, who’s been with Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q since 1991.

Alabama white sauce is — to most people — a mayonnaise-based sauce that’s reminiscent of a simple coleslaw dressing; however, there is no question that Home Team’s Alabama White is popular on things other than cabbage, especially with their Smoked Chicken Wings.

Home Team chef and co-founder Aaron Siegel, who we featured in this interview, originally provided his recipe for his Smoked Chicken Wings and Alabama White BBQ Sauce to starchefs.com.

The combination of those wings and that sauce are hard to beat.

Three smoked wings in Alabama White sauce
Photo courtesy of Home Team BBQ.

In fact, Charleston’s news station WCSC featured Home Team in their “Lowcountry Weekend” segment and had the following to say about the wings and Alabama white sauce.

“One of the most popular dishes at Home Team is Fiery Ron’s Smoked Chicken Wings with Alabama White Sauce. The wings are smoked and then quickly flash-fried to give them a crispy, caramelized coating.

“They’re then paired with Home Team’s delicious and creamy Alabama White Sauce.

“You can even get a little saucier if you know how to ask. If you want to kick things up a notch, you can ask for a side of Death Relish, a spicy pepper relish that really lives up to its name.

“The two sauces are a perfect balance for each other and take your wing-eating experience to a whole new level.”

If you’re making Home Team BBQ’s wings or your own, you have to make the sauce, and it won’t take long.

Home Team BBQ currently has three locations in Charleston — Sullivan’s Island, Downtown, and West Ashley — with other locations opening in Greenville and Columbia. There is also a Home Team in Aspen, CO.

Here is the recipe for Home Team BBQ’s Alabama White BBQ Sauce:

Home Team BBQ Smoked wing dripping Alabama White sauce

Home Team BBQ’s Alabama White Sauce Recipe

Yield: 48 Servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes

White barbecue sauce is new to South Carolina, not having the historic precedence of vinegar, tomato, or our very own mustard-based sauces. Chef Aaron Siegel's recipe is the perfect companion to his smoked chicken wings and it is easy to make at home.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Duke's mayonnaise
  • 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon Kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper, coarsely ground
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and cayenne.
  2. Chill until ready to use.

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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 48 Serving Size: 1.5 Tablespoons
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 66Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 191mgCarbohydrates: 1gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 0g

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Check out some of these other authentic SCBBQ sauce recipes we’ve published on destination-bbq:

Swig & Swine Mustard Sauce recipe

Moe’s Original Alabama White Sauce recipe

South Carolina’s Best Mustard-Based BBQ Sauce Recipe

And we’ve published the following sauce recipes in the SCBBQ Recipes: Going Whole Hog cookbook  (read more about that here):

Sauces and Rubs:

Vinegar-Pepper Sauces

  • Jay Phillips’ Whole Hog Sauce Recipe
  • Dad’s Mop Sauce Recipe
  • Eastern SC Vinegar-Pepper Sauce Recipe
  • Moore Family’s Little Fisher Hog Sauce Recipe
  • Lowcountry Vinegar Sauce Recipe

Mustard Sauces

  • Swig & Swine’s Mustard BBQ Sauce Recipe
  • Dukes BBQ-Style Sauce Recipe
  • Dukes BBQ Sauce – “Actual Recipe”
  • Simple South Carolina Mustard Sauce Recipe
  • Bessinger’s-Style Gold Sauce Recipe

Tomato-Based Sauces

  • John Padgett’s Kansas City BBQ Sauce Recipe
  • Honey-Hickory Barbecue Sauce Recipe
  • Bullies BBQs Thin Basting Sauce Recipe
  • Cherrywood Signature BBQ Sauce Recipe
  • “Carolina Red” Light Tomato Barbecue Sauce Recipe
  • Basic Tomato Barbecue Sauce Recipe

Other Sauces

  • Home Team BBQ Alabama White Sauce Recipe
  • Moe’s Original BBQ’s Alabama White Sauce Recipe
  • Brisket Mojo Sauce Recipe
  • Roller Family Hot Sauce Recipe
  • Salsa Verde with Avocado for Pulled Pork Recipe

Kelsey

Saturday 23rd of November 2019

Long story short, I didn't find this recipe until 10 minutes before my smoked wings were done! I only had Hellman's olive oil mayonnaise. I ended up adding another 3 tbsp of sugar and 1 tsp poppy seeds to the recipe!

This is the closest recipe I have tried to hometeam bbq! We travel to Sullivan's island every summer and we have to have wings and Alabama white sauce from home team!

James Roller

Monday 2nd of December 2019

Thanks for letting us know. Interesting. I would think the olive oil would throw off the taste and I like the poppy seed addition. Will have to try that myself. Thanks again!

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