Welcome back to No Free Lunch! It's been a while, but hopefully I can get back in the saddle during what has turned out to be one of the most stressful years since I started the blog. On the food front in the last six months, we continued to adapt to life without dairy and soy. Luckily, we have been able to slowly reintroduce foods and getting soy sauce back was a huge relief. We haven't fully gotten back to normal, and one of the items still forbidden is ranch dressing. Like a lot of people in the Midwest, we once used it as a dip for many things, but it contains buttermilk and had to go. We tried a few different vegan ranches but none of them were very good. Enter Alabama-style white barbecue sauce. It's not vegan (if you care about such things), but it is dairy free and hits those creamy, tangy notes excellently. Since I first made it a couple months ago, it quickly became a staple that we put on everything. I only wish I'd thought to try it sooner!
Alabama white sauce is one of the many regional barbecue sauces, traditionally served with smoked chicken. We most often have it with grilled chicken, but it's incredibly versatile. It also works well as a salad dressing, topping for gyro or kebab sandwiches (as pictured; these are from Costco), or sauce for fish tacos. There are a lot of recipes out there, that differ quite a bit. The commonalities are a mayonnaise base with some kind of vinegar and seasonings, usually quite heavy on black pepper. Mine is most closely inspired by one from Southern Living. Different mayo brands will give different results and will affect the best ratios of other seasonings. Duke's (apparently a popular choice in the south) is a common recommendation, but I've balanced my recipe around homemade mayo using Kenji's recipe. Soybean oil is cheap and very neutral, which is ideal for the base of the mayo. For the vinegar, I've found the best results from plain old distilled white vinegar. I've also had good results with Filipino cane vinegar (Datu Puti). Many recipes suggest apple cider vinegar, which I've yet to experiment with myself. For the rest of the seasonings, I don't usually measure and just taste and adjust. Try it yourself and make it your own!
