We are head over heels in love with KFC’s “Georgia Gold” BBQ sauce. With a base of yellow mustard and vinegar, it’s like honey mustard for grown-ups; not too sweet, and bringing tons of flavor without adding heat.
So what do you do if, like us, the nearest KFC is a forty minute drive away, and your chicken gets soggy by the time you get it home to eat it in private in a windowless room, silently and quickly, like a feverish rodent? You make it yourself.
Making KFC’s famous “Georgia Gold” copycat BBQ sauce is easier than you think, and it uses ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, if your pantry is both well-stocked and you have a pantry. You don’t even need to turn on the stove. If you even have a stove.
Use this sauce as a baste for cooking ribs, brush it onto fried chicken, or hell, dip frozen microwaved chicken tenders into it. This Georgia Gold BBQ sauce recipe has the power to elevate any meal to rockstar status. Enjoy.


- 1 cup yellow mustard (French's or similar)
- 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1⁄4 cup molasses
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons mild hot sauce (Frank's Red Hot or similar)
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Stir or whisk to combine thoroughly.

Something is missing from this. The sauce that I got from KFC was very oily. This recipe has next to no oil.
Exactly.
I’ve tried a lot of the copycat recipes for Georgia Gold and not a single one has gotten even remotely close to the original…at least not yet.
It’s not even that the ones I’ve tried were bad per say.
The problem is they are absolutely nothing like KFC’s sauce in either taste or consistency.
While that bums me out, I imagine the chefs at KFC are pretty stoked that no one has cracked their recipe yet.
I didn’t notice a huge difference in consistency, but flavor-wise, I would put this head-to-head with KFC’s version any day.
Oil based sauce.. dry mustard, powdered vinegar, cayenne pepper, brown sugar
What do you mean?
I have seen recipes with butter used. This would definitely make sense.