The Fast Food Chain That Uses The Best Selling BBQ Sauce In History
When it comes to dipping sauces, you usually associate fast food chains with their own in-house kinds, like Chick-Fil-A's popular sauces (which you can buy for home) or McDonald's elusive Hot Mustard. But sometimes, it's impossible to deny a sauce its own popularity, which is why it's interesting to see one chain serve the most consistently best-selling barbecue sauce on the market: Sweet Baby Ray's.
The popular Midwestern fast food joint in question would be Culver's, which is famous for its Wisconsin-style ButterBurgers. While Culver's also sells its own Signature Sauce, it's hard to deny Sweet Baby Ray's smoky, sticky, and sweet appeal. If you're looking for a dipping sauce for your chicken tenders at Culver's, you'll be getting a tub of Sweet Baby Ray's original version. Culver's also partners with another popular dressing brand, Ken's, and sells its Boom Boom sauce, though that one is decidedly lesser-known than Sweet Baby Ray's. Aside from good old Heinz ketchup, it's not often you see a fast food chain sell an original sauce by name, but Sweet Baby Ray's has already won the popularity contest so it's easy to understand why it's on the menu.
Sweet Baby Ray's was also born in the Midwest
Culver's is based in Wisconsin, while Sweet Baby Ray's was born in a large city not far away: Chicago. It's named after chef and founder Larry Raymond's younger brother, David, who received the nickname of "Sweet Baby Ray" on the basketball courts of their youth. After the original recipe beat over 700 competitors in a barbecue contest, the brand has gone on to now sell over 30 flavors of sauce, but it isn't owned by its founders any longer. Sweet Baby Ray's was sold to Ken's Foods in the early 2000s.
Go to any supermarket and you'll find Sweet Baby Ray's hot sauces, teriyaki, Buffalo, and other varieties of condiments on the shelves alongside the barbecue sauce. Of course, you could also stop by Culver's, which sells a rainbow of sauces (you'll have a hard time wrenching its Wisconsin cheddar sauce from my hands), and get it there for your tenders. At this point, Sweet Baby Ray's doesn't need an introduction, and even Culver's knows not to bother betting against it.