We’ve told you about our favorite Alabama barbecue joints, opined about our state’s greatest pitmasters, and reminisced about those old barbecue joints we miss the most.
Today, we’re here to shout out some of Alabama’s signature barbecue dishes — ones which, if you haven’t tried them already, you should. And if you have, then you know what we’re talking about.
From ribs to brisket, pulled pork to smoked chicken, banana pudding to red velvet cake.
Think of it as a “Greatest Hits of Alabama BBQ,” a mixed tape of favorites that never get sick of listening to – or, in this case, you never grow tired of eating.
Advertisement
[Want good news about Alabama delivered to your inbox each week? Sign up for This is Alabama’s weekly newsletter.]
The pork ‘n’ greens at Saw’s Soul Kitchen started almost by accident, but it has become the signature dish at the Birmingham barbecue joint. (Birmingham News file/Hal Yeager)
Pork ‘n’ greens at Saw’s Soul Kitchen
With its combination of Alabama’s own McEwen & Sons grits, spicy collard greens and slow-cooked pork barbecue, the signature dish at Saw’s Soul Kitchen is like a medley of Alabama’s greatest culinary hits in a single serving. “It outsells everything we do here,” says Brandon Cain, who came up with the pork ‘n’ greens, almost by accident, not long after the Avondale barbecue joint opened in 2012. “We could stack multiple menu items up against this one, and it would still win.”
Saw’s Soul Kitchen is at 215 41st St. North in Birmingham. The phone is 205-591-1409. For more information, go here.
The story behind one of the most Alabama dishes ever
Advertisement
The smoked turkey sandwich with chow-chow is a favorite of Full Moon Bar-B-Que owners David and Joe Maluff.(Photo courtesy of Full Moon Bar-B-Que; used with permission)
Smoked turkey sandwich with chow-chow at Full Moon Bar-B-Que
Full Moon Bar-B-Que boasts of being “The Best Little Pork House in Alabama,” but owners and brothers David and Joe Maluff can talk turkey, too. The smoked turkey sandwich topped with Full Moon Bar-B-Que’s signature chow-chow and a generous dousing of barbecue sauce is so good it will make you forget you’re not eating pork. The turkey sandwich has long been a favorite of the Maluff brothers, and it has become our go-to order, as well. Pro tip: Order a side of Full Moon’s marinated slaw and pile it on top of the turkey to elevate your sandwich to another level.
Full Moon Bar-B-Que has 15 locations throughout Alabama and one in Mississippi. For more information, go here.
The secret behind Full Moon’s beloved carrot cake
This pork sandwich with coleslaw from Whitt’s Barbecue was selected Alabama’s Best BBQ Sandwich in a statewide search conducted by AL.com. (Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)
Pork sandwich with slaw at Whitt’s Barbecue
Whitt’s Barbecue is a northwest Alabama tradition that goes back nearly 60 years, and Whitt’s famous pork sandwich, which is served with a sweet coleslaw and a choice of sauces, was selected “Alabama’s Best BBQ Sandwich” in AL.com’s statewide barbecue hunt in 2016. Find out for yourself why our Haley Laurence called it “a near-perfect ‘cue sandwich.”
Whitt’s Barbecue has six locations in North Alabama and 19 in Tennessee. For more information, go here and here.
Advertisement
5 things to know about Whitt’s Barbecue
A slab of ribs at Archibald’s Bar-B-Q in Northport is a must on any serious barbecue lover’s bucket list.(Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)
Ribs with white bread at Archibald’s Bar-B-Q
A must on any serious barbecue lover’s bucket list, Archibald’s Bar-B-Q in Northport, as we have said before, is the Wrigley Field of rib joints. And a pilgrimage to this 62-year-old, soot-scorched, cinderblock swine shrine that is not complete without getting a half or full slab of Archibald’s revered ribs, which are grilled over a bed of hot hickory coals and served with slices of white bread and a Styrofoam cup of Archibald’s atomic-orange barbecue sauce. For the full effect, we recommend you wash it down with an ice-cold Grapico.
Archibald’s Bar-B-Q is at 1211 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Northport, Ala. The phone is 205-345-6861. For more information, go here.
A quick history of Archibald’s Bar-B-Q
The hickory-smoked chicken with Alabama white sauce at Miss Myra’s Pit Bar-B-Q in Cahaba Heights is a favorite of TV personality Andrew Zimmern, who says it’s the best he’s ever eaten. .(AL.com file photo/Beverly Taylor)
Smoked chicken with Alabama white sauce at Miss Myra’s Pit Bar-B-Q
None other than the globetrotting gourmet Andrew Zimmern has proclaimed the smoked chicken at Miss Myra’s Pit Bar-B-Q in Vestavia Hills’ Cahaba Heights neighborhood the best that he has ever eaten. (He’s a huge fan of Miss Myra’s banana pudding, too.) Zimmern first visited Miss Myra’s in 2013 for a legendary episode of his “Bizarre Foods America” food and travel show, and he’s been singing the praises of the suburban barbecue joint’s hickory-smoked chicken drizzled with Alabama white sauce ever since. “When I’m there, I usually polish off two orders of the best BBQ chicken in America first,” Zimmern wrote in a story for Delta Airlines’ in-flight magazine. “Brittle golden skin, sweet, smoky, moist yardbird and her famous ‘white sauce.’ Miss Myra’s tangy, creamy version of the Alabama state BBQ sauce is a perfect dip for the expertly smoked chicken.” We wholeheartedly agree.
Advertisement
Miss Myra’s Pit Bar-B-Q is at 3278 Cahaba Heights Road in Vestavia Hills, Ala. The phone is 205-967-6004. For more information, go here.
Birmingham’s best barbecue chicken: Our top 5
The famous pulled pork sandwich at Lannie’s Bar-B-Q Spot in Selma is served between layers of white bread, doused with a house-made sauce and topped with a crispy pork skin.(Photo by Art Meripol, from the book “Alabama Barbecue: Delicious Road Trips”)
Pulled pork sandwich with crispy pork skin at Lannie’s Bar-B-Q Spot
Regulars at Selma’s historic Lannie’s Bar-B-Q Spot know to order the pulled-pork sandwich, which comes soaked in a fiery house-made sauce, topped with a bark of crispy pork skin and stuffed between two slices of white bread that can’t begin to hold it all together. For long-time customers, that crunchy pork skin takes the Lannie’s sandwich to another level. “That skin makes it for ‘em,” Floyd Hatcher, a grandson of founders Lannie and Will Travis, says. “The skin and the sauce.”
Lannie’s Bar-B-Q Spot is at 2115 Minter Ave. in Selma, Ala. The phone number is 334-874-4478. For more information,go here.
Historic Alabama barbecue restaurant reopens in new building
Advertisement
The Texas-style brisket, paired here with smoked sausage, is the star of the show at ChuckWagon BBQ in Madison, but the baked beans, which are seasoned with chucks of brisket, make a great supporting act. Art Meripol
Smoked brisket and baked beans at ChuckWagon BBQ
Transplanted Texan Mike Holley brought real-deal Lone Star State beef brisket to North Alabama when he opened the original location of his ChuckWagon BBQ in Athens 20 years ago. (The restaurant has since relocated to Madison.) “ChuckWagon’s brisket is as meaty, tasty and satisfying as a Billy Gibbons guitar solo,” AL.com’s Matt Wake writes, referring to the ZZ Top singer and guitarist who also happens to be a big ChuckWagon BBQ fan and occasional customer. While the smoked brisket is the headliner, the baked beans, which are flavored with chunks of brisket, are a solid supporting act. The beans are from a recipe handed down by Holley’s grandfather, George Washinton Gray, who prepared them as a cook on an epic Western cattle drive, Matt writes.
ChuckWagon BBQ is at 8048 U.S. 72 in Madison, Ala. The phone is 256-772-5179. For more information, go here.
The Texans who brought killer beef brisket to North Alabama barbecue
Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q serves more than 50,000 cheese biscuits every day at 48 locations across the Southeast, according to the company. (Photo courtesy of Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q)
Cheese biscuits at Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q
To anyone who’s ever bitten into one of those addictive little cheese biscuits they serve at Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q restaurants, it’s no surprise they’re as popular as the Birmingham-based chain’s pulled pork sandwiches and coconut-cream pies. The sweet, cheesy mini-muffins come with every meal served at Jim ‘N Nick’s, and they’ve become such a customer favorite that the Jim ‘N Nick’s folks sell the bagged biscuit mix at their restaurants, on their website and in about 3,500 grocery stores around the Southeast. Who knows? One day, they might even bring about world peace. “If we took those cheese biscuits and went around the world, it would solve a lot of differences,” Jim ‘N Nick’s founder Nick Pihakis said in a 2020 interview with AL.com. “That’s what food does.’’ Go ahead, we bet you can’t eat just one.
Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q has 48 locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. For more information, go here.
Advertisement
Jim ‘N Nick’s cheese biscuits are beloved nationwide
Sharon Mayes, who started working at Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q in Bessemer in 1988, bakes all of the restaurant’s pies and cakes, including her signature red velvet sheet cake with chopped pecans and cream cheese icing. (Photo by Art Meripol/art@artmeripol.com)
Red velvet sheet cake at Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q
The daily dessert menu at Bessemer’s venerable Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q features chocolate, coconut, pecan and lemon icebox pies; caramel, chocolate lemon and red velvet cakes; as well as a rotating selection of sweets that, depending on what strikes dessert queen Sharon Mayes’ fancy that day, might include strawberry shortcake, peach cobbler, banana pudding or key lime pie. Mayes’ signature dessert, though, is her single-layer red velvet sheet cake with cream cheese icing and chopped pecans. Mayes says, however, that it’s not what she puts into her cake recipe that makes it special but what she leaves out. “The key to it, to me, is leave that cocoa out,” she says. “Everybody puts cocoa in it, but I stopped putting cocoa in mine because (leaving it out) makes it a pretty, bright color.”
Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q is at 1724 Ninth Ave. North in Bessemer, Ala. The phone is 205-426-1400. For more information, go here.
Legendary Alabama pitmaster a finalist for national BBQ Hall of Fame
Readers of Southern Living magazine voted Dreamland Bar-B-Que’s banana pudding the best in Alabama.(Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)
Banana pudding at Dreamland Bar-B-Que
OK, so banana pudding wasn’t on the menu back in the day when the late John “Big Daddy” Bishop served only hickory-fired ribs, Sunbeam white bread and his secret-weapon sauce at the original location of his Dreamland Bar-B-Que in Tuscaloosa. But we’re pretty sure he would approve. The dense, creamy pudding — which Southern Living readers voted the best in Alabama — is chock-full of banana slices and flecked with bite-sized vanilla wafers from Birmingham’s Bud’s Best Cookies instead of the usual Nabisco Nilla Wafers. It’s the best thing since your grandmother’s — maybe even better. But don’t tell her we said that.
Advertisement
Dreamland Bar-B-Que has eight locations in Alabama and two in Georgia. For more information, go here.
The Philadelphia 76ers selected Alabama guard Labaron Philon Jr. with the 22nd overall pick of the 2026 NBA draft Tuesday night.
Philon is the first pick of the Mike Gansey era after he replaced Daryl Morey as the team’s president of basketball operations.
Who is Labaron Philon Jr.?
Philon, 20, led the Crimson Tide in scoring last season, averaging 22.0 points on nearly 40% shooting on 3-pointers. He was the focal point of one of the nation’s most potent offenses, as Alabama led the country in points per game in the 2025-26 season. The Crimson Tide (No. 16) finished the season with a 25-10 record and went 13-5 against conference opponents.
Philon, who helped lead Alabama to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, earned Third-Team All-American and First-Team All-SEC honors in his sophomore season.
Advertisement
In 33 games last season for Alabama, Philon scored 725 total points, which is ranked third-most by a player in a single season in program history.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver shakes hands with Labaron Philon Jr. after he is drafted twenty-second overall by the Philadelphia 76ers during Round One of the 2026 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 23, 2026 in New York City.
Arturo Holmes / Getty Images
Philon was the 34th-ranked basketball recruit in the country entering his freshman season at Alabama, according to 247sports. The four-star guard initially committed to playing at Auburn, but decommitted. He then signed a letter of intent to play at Kansas, but didn’t play there, either. He then committed to the Crimson Tide in April 2024.
Advertisement
Philon impressed as a freshman at Alabama and averaged 10.6 points in 37 games. He declared for the 2025 NBA draft but then withdrew and returned for his sophomore season, where he saw his scoring average jump more than 10 points.
Philon is a Mobile, Alabama, native and played at Baker High School in Mobile County, where he scored 2,334 points in three seasons. He was named the Class 7A Player of the Year twice.
As a junior, he averaged 35 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists and was named Alabama Mr. Basketball, which is given to the best high school boys’ basketball player in the state. Philon transferred to Link Academy, a boarding school in Missouri, for his senior year of high school.
Philon now joins a backcourt headlined by Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe heading into the 2026-27 season. Quentin Grimes could return to Philadelphia next season and add even more depth, but he’s an unrestricted free agent.
The pick the Sixers used to pick Philon was acquired in the deal that sent Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the trade deadline.
Advertisement
Labaron Philon Jr. scouting report
CBS Sports had Philon ranked as the 14th-best prospect in the 2026 NBA draft.
Here are his strengths and weaknesses, according to CBS Sports:
Strengths
On-ball creator who made an extreme leap as a sophomore, ranking in the 99th percentile in isolations (was 24th percentile as a freshman) and 94th as a pick-and-roll handler (was 32nd percentile as a freshman). Combines smooth attack with sudden change of speed and direction, dexterity, and finishing craft in the lane.
Shot-maker who can make tough shots off both the catch (36% on contested catch-and-shoot 3-pointers), dribble (38% from deep), and has extreme gravity when he’s spacing the floor (46% on unguarded catch-and-shoot 3-pointers).
Shown pliability to thrive in different roles over the years and is a similarly versatile creator, because he’s a scoring threat at multiple levels and also an accurate, and somewhat creative, passer with both hands off the dribble.
Weaknesses
Inconsistent defensive approach. Showed more engagement and potential as a freshman, but couldn’t maintain that as a sophomore when taking on a bigger offensive role.
Lacks overwhelming physicality or highest level explosiveness, and didn’t add any notable muscle mass between his freshman and sophomore seasons (175 pounds at 2025 combine and 176 at 2026 combine).
Unclear how well his creation scales to the NBA level when he will have less usage and volume coupled by more physicality in opposing defenders.
Alabama football hosted a hometown kid for an official visit last weekend when it got Jeremiah Beverley on campus for an official visit.
Beverley attends Hillcrest High School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and ESPN currently has him rated as a four-star recruit. He is considering Alabama, Cincinnati, Wake Forest and others.
The Crimson Tide offered Beverley earlier this month and got him on campus for an official visit last weekend. The Alabama target told Touchdown Alabama he used the visit to learn what the Tide has planned for him if he commits.
Advertisement
“I’m truly happy that I went on that official visit,” Beverley said. “Blessed for that. All I was talking about was the next step, what I got to do? So, just knowing what they have planned for me, knowing what they have set for me.”
At 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds, Beverley makes plays for Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa as a defensive end. Alabama has plans to use him similarly at the next level.
“They’re going to have me at wolf mostly,” Beverley said. “I know coach (Kane) Wommack and coach (Christian) Robinson, I think they see me at other positions, but I know it is guaranteed they’re going to see me at Wolf and me working my way up on special teams, and they expect that out of me.”
Beverley is expected to announce a commitment decision on Friday.
Watch Jeremiah Beverley’s Highlights Below:
Advertisement
Justin Smith is the Managing Editor and Lead Writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine with over 10 years of writing experience & expertise. Smith has consistently delivered high quality, extensively researched information on the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide football team that fans can trust. Smith is official credentialed media with the University of Alabama under Touchdown Alabama Magazine. He is also the Director of Recruiting for Touchdown Enterprises, specializing in scouting and analyzing high school recruits around the nation, specifically focusing on recruits within the state of Alabama.
Alabama football is hiring Noah Fisher to be its assistant tight ends coach, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz.
Fisher spent two seasons as a graduate assistant working with the offensive line and tight ends at Louisville before joining the Tide’s staff. He played three years on the offensive line at South Alabama and spent one season with Tulane. The Jaguars started Fisher along its offensive line when he was a player for multiple games.
The Crimson Tide appear to want to use their tight ends in multiple ways in the future including as extra blockers along the line of scrimmage. Fisher looks as if he can assist the Tide with this mission.
Advertisement
Justin Smith is the Managing Editor and Lead Writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine with over 10 years of writing experience & expertise. Smith has consistently delivered high quality, extensively researched information on the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide football team that fans can trust. Smith is official credentialed media with the University of Alabama under Touchdown Alabama Magazine. He is also the Director of Recruiting for Touchdown Enterprises, specializing in scouting and analyzing high school recruits around the nation, specifically focusing on recruits within the state of Alabama.
