Barbecue recipes for actual weeknights

Most barbecue writing is about the weekend: the twelve-hour brisket, the overnight rest, the cooler wrapped in towels. That is a wonderful way to spend a Saturday and no help at all on a Tuesday.

So the times on this page are honest, and they are the whole time — not the marketing kind that starts the clock after the meat is trimmed and the rub has sat overnight. Anything long enough to need planning says so, and the short ones really are short.

Every recipe carries calories and protein per serving, because barbecue is the food people most often assume they cannot fit into a target, and most of the time the assumption is wrong.

Our pick

BBQ Chicken Quesadillas

The one to start with: it is forgiving, it feeds a crowd, and the leftovers are better than the first night.

25 min · Bbq · high-protein

More barbecue recipes · 55 in the library

Recipe illustrations are generated by AI.

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