Bachan's Japanese Barbecue Sauce review: best Japanese BBQ sauce - Business Insider

A bottle of Bachan’s sauce with its packaging against a green wall — Bachan’s Japanese Barbecue Sauce is one of the best sauces for grilling, for marinading, or any dish that could use some umami.

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Bachan's small-batch Japanese Barbecue Sauce is far more complex tasting than most bottled sauces.
It's Amazon's #1-selling BBQ sauce, but it also elevates everything from vegetables to pizza to eggs.
It's so tasty and diverse that my chef boyfriend and I keep it in our kitchen at all times.

Bachan's The Original Japanese Barbecue Sauce

I grew up cooking with my southern family, but once I met my boyfriend, an industry-taught chef, I learned a lot of small tips and tricks that seriously upped my dinner game – things like chopped herbs are the secret to a tasty salad, you should top everything with finishing salt, and a dinner's soul is in the sauce.

The sauce not only maximizes the flavor of your dish, but also keeps everything juicy and moist. The problem, of course, is a good sauce takes work. Premade sauces are often one-dimensional and too something, be it sweet, savory, citrusy, or another dominating flavor. To make a good sauce at home, my boyfriend will either spend time and effort making it from scratch or, in a pinch, end up mixing together five-plus premade sauces to find the right balance of flavor.

The one sauce he will use straight from the bottle: Bachan's Japanese Barbecue Sauce, a small-batch, multi-generational family recipe of ginger, teriyaki, soy-deliciousness that delivers the perfect umami kiss to literally any food you're cooking.

It's hands down the best pre-made sauce I've tried and is a staple in our kitchen for meats, vegetables, pizza – pretty much anything that needs a little added oomph.

About Bachan's Japanese Barbecue Sauce

Bachan's was founded by Justin Gill, a Japanese American who grew up eating and gifting friends his family's homemade sauce. It became so popular among those that tried it that he decided to launch a business with it. As it's a family recipe, Gill named the brand after his bachan, or his grandmother.

A grandmother and grandson holding bottles of Bachan’s

The sauce, which uses less than 10 ingredients, hits somewhere between a less-sweet teriyaki and a more-complex shoyu sauce. Its ingredients are all non-GMO and mostly organic, and it's cold-filled, which means they don't need to use preservatives or additives. And of equal importance, it has ridiculously cute packaging.

What makes Bachan's sauce different

What makes Bachan's so much better than other pre-made sauces is it's able to retain the nuances of its ingredients, like ginger and green onion, and it's incredibly well-balanced, delivering the perfect amount of umami without being too sweet.

I was originally sent Bachan's as a press sample when the brand was first launched in 2019, and my boyfriend, exhausted from cooking at the restaurant all week, was so obsessed with the flavor that we went through a single bottle in under two weeks. I quickly signed us up for auto-order to get three new bottles every two months (I had to put my foot down on pacing him) to make sure we always have it on hand when we need to throw dinner together on a time crunch.

Cooking with Bachan's sauce

The real reason you should buy Bachan's, though, is because this sauce tastes good on literally all food. Obviously, it makes a killer stir-fry sauce and meat or tofu marinade, but it also elevates any vegetable (I especially love it on pellet-grilled broccoli). It's a bowl-licking-good glaze on salmon. My boyfriend likes to douse his morning egg-and-rice bowl in it, and we've also combined it with cream cheese for a super easy, super delicious cracker dip. (The company's website has a bunch of great recipe ideas, too.)

Person putting Bachan’s sauce onto food being grilled

If you're not the best cook or short on time, this bottle is an easy way to score the complexity of a homemade sauce when you don't have the time or skillset to know which flavors to combine.

In addition to my household's praise, Bachan's is highly regarded by chef and editor Chris Kimball; Water Robb, the former CEO of Whole Foods; and has more than 2,200 five-star reviews on Amazon. In fact, it's the #1 and #3-selling barbecue sauce on Amazon and the #5 sauce overall.

In addition to its Original flavor, Bachan's also offers a gluten-free option and a Hot and Spicy. The brand is also set to release an exciting new flavor in early November, which I've previewed and is maybe even better than the Original.

$11.95 from Amazon

Rachael Schultz

Health, Fitness, and Outdoors Updates Editor

Rachael Schultz is the health & fitness updates editor for Insider Reviews, covering all things health, fitness, and outdoors.Before joining Insider, Rachael was on staff at Men's Health and Shape, and then spent seven years freelance writing for national outlets like Men's Journal, Gear Patrol, Outside, Women's Health, Cosmo, InStyle, and Real Simple. She focuses on why our bodies and brains work the way they do and how we can optimize both. She's most passionate about mental health, exercise physiology, cooking, the science of cannabis, and making the outdoors more accessible for all (but actually).After growing up in Atlanta and living in New York, Rachael wanted out of cities so she packed up her belongings into her Honda Element to van-lifed around the country. She settled in a small mountain town in Colorado where she now spends most of her time trying to keep up with a gang of rad adventure ladies and her dog Crocodile. In the winters, you can find her skiing and skinning, and in the summers, happily rafting, mountain biking, and hiking. Year-round, she's trying not to have an asthma attack at CrossFit and almost always ending the day with a glass of red wine. See below for some of her work: The best pieces of plus-size outdoor gear, according to athletes and influencers The best gear for hiking with your dog Your ultimate guide to summer camping trips, including how to find a campsite and everything you need to bring The 5 best cross-training shoes for agility, traction, and high-intensity workouts The best healthy, non-alcoholic drinks and mixers that actually taste good Contact info: rschultz@insider.com // Instagram @RachaelSchultz Learn more about how our team of experts tests and reviews products at Insider here. Learn more about how we test health, fitness, and outdoor products.