Kansas City-style Barbecue

Kansas City-style Barbecue

For the restaurant of the same name, see Kansas City Barbeque.

Kansas City barbecue refers to the specific style of slow smoked meat that evolved from the pit of Henry Perry in the early 1900s in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City barbecue is slow smoked over a variety of woods and then covered with a thick tomato- and molasses-based sauce.

The Kansas City metropolitan area is renowned for barbecue. Kansas City, Missouri, has more than 100 barbecue restaurants. The area is home to several large, well attended barbecue cooking contests, the two most notable being in nearby Lenexa, Kansas and at the American Royal.

Kansas City barbecue is characterized by its use of a wide variety of meat - pork, beef, chicken, turkey and sometimes fish - and an equally wide variety of methods of preparation. Slow-smoking - traditional barbecue - is the most common method, but dishes cooked by other means, such as grilled chicken, also can be found on the menus of local barbecue restaurants. Just about any type of barbecued meat served in the country's other barbecue capitals, from Carolina pulled pork to Texas brisket, is served here, though burnt ends - the crusty tips of a brisket of beef or pork - are distinctive to the city.

As in St. Louis, barbecue sauce is an integral part of Kansas City barbecue. The sauces found in the region are tomato-based, with sweet, spicy and tangy flavor profiles. Most local restaurants offer several sauce varieties but the staple sauce tends to be both spicy and sweet. Ribs are mostly pork, but also come in beef varieties and can come in a number of different cuts. Burnt ends, the flavorful pieces of meat cut from the ends of a smoked beef or pork brisket, are a popular dish in many Kansas City-area barbecue restaurants. Kansas City barbecue is also known for its many side dishes, including a unique style of baked beans, French fries, cole slaw, and other soul food staples.

In 2000, Kansas City restaurant chain Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue began shipping their barbecue nationwide. Efforts by Arthur Bryant's to export Kansas City barbecue beyond the metro area have not been as commercially successful.