Level Up Your Coleslaw With A Saucy Mayo Swap

Coleslaw is a classic barbecue side dish, the crunchy shredded cabbage and carrots melded with creamy mayonnaise into a tasty match for smoky grilled goods. But if you want to kick this side dish staple up a notch, swap its usual dressing for homemade Alabama white sauce, a tangy, white barbecue sauce (and Alabama food tradition like camp stew) popular in the South.

The sauce's two key ingredients are mayonnaise (like Julia Child's favorite Hellmann's), which makes it creamy and smooth, and apple cider vinegar, giving it tang with a little fruity sweetness and keeping the sauce from being too thick. Many ingredients can be added like black pepper or chili powder for spiciness, horseradish (a popular choice) or cayenne for heat, Worcestershire sauce for depth, and sugar or honey for sweetness. But you don't necessarily need a lot of additions. Food Republic's recipe, developed by Miriam Hahn, keeps it simple with only five ingredients, punching up the mayo and vinegar with horseradish, which can be spicy or mild, zesty yellow mustard, and pungent garlic salt.

Using Alabama white sauce in coleslaw maintains the dish's creaminess since it's mayo-based like traditional dressing but gives a more complex flavor. Add spicy horseradish or cayenne to the sauce to turn up the heat against the coolness of the cabbage. Use cracked black pepper in it to play up cabbage's bitterness, some of which it loses when it's shredded. Amplify the carrots' sweetness with a pinch of white or brown sugar in your sauce.

Don't stop at just switching to Alabama white sauce if you really want to shake things up with your coleslaw. Match the flavors in your white barbecue sauce with add-ins to the shredded cabbage and carrots. If you've got heat in your sauce and want more, add jalapeño to the coleslaw, or cool things down with cucumber, celery, or radish. Round out black pepper-heavy sauce with the citrusy green notes of cilantro or earthy parsley. Play off sweetness of sugar or honey in the sauce with the addition of colorful red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, or fruits like apple, mango, and pineapple.

Just as with coleslaw, you can experiment with using Alabama white sauce instead of regular mayonnaise in other dishes too. Blend it with spuds for potato salad, mix it in to make chicken, tuna, or egg salads – best served on sturdy, multigrain bread – or smear it on a fried chicken or roast beef sandwich. You can use it as a dipping sauce, dunking anything from chicken fingers to fries to raw veggies, or use the white barbecue sauce the traditional way by serving it with smoked or grilled chicken or pork.