11 Best Buc-Ee's Foods You Can Find Under The Heat Lamps

Depending on the price of fuel, putting gas in your car may be a painful experience. But even if you don't have to pump away half your paycheck, it's hardly exciting – unless you find yourself at a Buc-ee's where you're practically obligated to step inside for a snack. This mega-convenience chain offers far more than the standard selection of chips and candy bars — there's an entire jerky counter (the ultimate road trip pit stop), not to mention so many flavors of fudge it's hard to decide on a favorite. Oh, and don't forget a bag of sweet, crunchy Beaver Nuggets! 

If you're hungry for an actual meal, though, you won't want to miss the hot bar, since this is where you'll find the sides and entrées that can make for one of the more memorable gas station meals you're likely to experience. (Memorable in a good way, that is ... while some gas station cuisine has a bad rep, Buc-ee's offerings earn rave reviews.) If you're starting your day at Buc-ee's, you can breakfast on a variety of hot sandwiches, tacos, or pastries along with the obligatory paper cup of coffee. Should your travels bring you there closer to dinner, though, Buc-ee's has got the meats that put Arby's to shame. To round out your hot bar feast, you can add a bag of still-warm house-made potato chips or glazed nuts along with some fresh peach cobbler. Here are 11 must-try items from Buc-ee's hot bar, and why you won't want to skip them on your next road trip.

Buc-ee's legendary brisket is one of its best-sellers, and for good reason. It's Texas barbecue done right, slow-smoked for up to 14 hours. It's also featured in four different sandwiches — sliced, chopped, XXL chopped Big Buckin' Brisket, and three-meat — and is also available in taco form. Most customers who try it seem to agree it's pretty amazing stuff, and one Facebook user can even testify to Buc-ee's commitment to quality. They informed the hot station worker that they follow a gluten-free diet, so that worker went to a different area of the store to specially prepare a portion of bun-free brisket.

Brisket may be Buc-ee's signature sandwich, but it also makes a darn good barbecue (or BBQ, as the chain styles it) sandwich. Well, two of them actually. There's a pulled pork BBQ sandwich and, for those who prefer poultry, a turkey version. These sandwiches, which are prepped in-house, are hearty, juicy, and smoky, and have a sufficient amount of tangy-sweet sauce to keep them from drying out under the heat lamps. One caveat, though: They may be a bit too messy to eat in the car.

If you don't want a sandwich made of meaty bits slathered in barbecue sauce, there's a neater option available to you: Buc-ee's fried chicken sandwich. It's pretty simple, really, just a fried chicken cutlet on a bun topped with a sweet, creamy condiment that some have compared to Raising Cane's iconic sauce. It may not get the same hype as the barbecue offerings, but it's the kind of sandwich that definitely grows on you and may even wind up as your go-to order.

So many sandwiches! We can't review them all, although there don't seem to be any duds in the bunch. The club melt, however, is not to be missed. The sandwich has both bacon and melted cheddar, which on their own would be enough to make it super-tasty, but it's bulked up with the addition of ham and turkey, too. The condiments also make for an intriguing mixture: tomato pesto plus a spicy mayonnaise that one former employee confessed on Reddit is made from regular mayo mixed with Sweet Baby Ray's Mango Habanero Wing Sauce.

Food on a stick is a staple of state and county fairs and Renaissance festivals, but who knew it could also be gas station grub? Buc-ee's, that's who. It serves a spicy smoked sausage impaled on a wooden skewer for your on-the-go noshing convenience. If you want to add any enhancements, such as mustard or hot sauce, they won't go sliding off, since the sausage is also wrapped in a flour tortilla that's perfect for condiment containment.

Who'd have thought a convenience store would be the place to find classic Eastern European baked goods? Well, Texans might. Kolaches, filled pastries introduced to the state by Czech immigrants, are a must-try Texas food, so of course, Buc-ee's carries both sweet and savory varieties. The former includes cherry, cream cheese, and strawberry cream cheese, while the latter features sausage cheese, sausage jalapeño cheese, and boudin served warm. While every bakery in the Lone Star State (as well as the Czech Republic) may claim to make the world's best kolaches, Buc-ee's version is also a pretty strong candidate to hold this title and may be one of the best items the chain has to offer.

Breakfast at Buc-ee's can be a beautiful thing, especially if you start the day with a biscuit. The biscuits themselves are as soft and fluffy as you could wish, and the fillings are worthy of their surroundings. They come in two varieties, one packed with scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese, and the other substituting sausage for the bacon. Unfortunately for minimalists, you can't buy a biscuit on its own, since the Buc-ee's hot bar no longer allows custom orders such as a biscuit sans filling.

If by any chance you're not a big biscuit fan, Buc-ee's has another super-solid a.m. offering: the breakfast taco. This item is available in bacon, egg, and cheese; bacon, potato, and cheese; brisket and egg; and sausage, egg, and cheese. Each one is as tasty as the others, although the fact that these fillings are wrapped in flour tortillas rather than corn ones may mean that some will consider them more akin to untucked breakfast burritos than true tacos. It doesn't matter what you call them, though, just slap on some tasty Buc-ee's salsa (something the chain also sells by the jar) and enjoy.

Buc-ee's famous Beaver Nuggets are a cold item similar to cereal (and can be eaten as such), but its Beaver Chips are something else entirely. They're essentially potato chips, but not the kind you get out of a bag. Instead, these super-thick chips are fresh-fried and still hot and taste a lot more like actual potatoes than do ordinary chips. Eat them as a snack, alongside a sandwich, on a train, or in a tree — you will like them, you will see! (With all due apologies to Dr. Seuss and Sam-I-Am for mangling  "Green Eggs and Ham.")

While Buc-ee's hot bar smells strongly of barbecued meat, you may also get a whiff of something sweet and familiar: cinnamon-sugar-glazed roast nuts like the ones you may have enjoyed at a carnival or other outdoor event. Buc-ee's offers both pecans and cashews cooked in-store every day. These still-warm nuts are served in paper cones that only add to the festival vibe.

No gas station gourmet meal would be complete without something sweet, and Buc-ee's is happy to oblige. The chain is known for delicious desserts, but the peach cobbler is a real standout. The fruit is soft and sweet, while the brown sugar topping is nice and crunchy. It may actually be more of a crumble than a cobbler, but semantical quibbles apart, it's warm and gooey and oh, so good. In fact, you might even say it's peachy keen.