While slaw, beans, and potato salad remain a mainstay on backyard barbecue menus across the country, a new breed of chefs and pitmasters are challenging the status quo, using sides to put their unique culinary spin on these open-air cooking events. They're crafting sides that showcase regionalities, personal journeys, and distinct talents.

Unlike central dishes such as brisket and ribs, which are burdened with certain regional expectations and critical judgment, sides offer a broad canvas for culinary innovation. Starting from well-known staples like collard greens and cornbread, chefs now infuse unexpected flavors to create a gastronomic experience beyond the traditional barbecue expectations.

Chef Shuai Wang took this approach of culinary innovation in his quest to introduce Chinese barbecue to the Carolinas. Born and bred in New York City, Wang's experience of barbecue didn't involve the sides that are quintessential to the Southern barbecue tradition. According to Wang, Chinese barbecue was all about the meat, served with rice or a lightly salted cabbage. However, when he and his wife launched King BBQ in Charleston, South Carolina, they realized that sides played a pivotal role in the Southern barbecue experience.

"Traditional sides like baked beans and mac and cheese didn't feel right to us," Wang admits. But, he found common ground in slow-cooked, broth-based collard greens, which paralleled the deep-rooted, spice-heavy hot pot cooking of his childhood.

King BBQ’s Sichuan collards, braised in dark soy and ginger, and finished off with a sauteed spiced oil featuring bird's eye chilies, black cardamom, anise, cinnamon, and a medley of peppercorns, offers the same depth and complexity as traditional Southern collard greens but with an Asian spin. The rest of the restaurant's side options also reflect this east-meets-west philosophy. Instead of mac and cheese, they serve dan dan noodles. They provide a broccoli salad finished off with wasabi, prioritizing texture and brightness.

Similar culinary fusions can be found at Southern Junction in Buffalo, New York, where pitmaster Ryan Fernandez merges his Texas roots with his Indian heritage. Fernandez's cornbread, inspired by the traditional Indian rice pudding, 'payasam,' is conjured up with brown butter, honey, and freshly toasted cardamom which offers a familiar comfort with an aromatic twist.

"At first, I was quite apprehensive as I wasn't sure how customers would respond," confesses Fernandez. "However, our cardamom cornbread and brisket biryani have become incredibly popular."

This open-minded approach is reflective of a wider shift in the traditional American barbecue scene. A forward-thinking wave of pitmasters is restructuring the classic barbecue meal entirely.

Evan LeRoy, co-owner of the Michelin-starred LeRoy & Lewis barbecue restaurant in Austin, Texas, refers to this gastronomic revolution as "new school barbecue," which is also the title of his forthcoming cookbook. In his perspective, this approach respects traditional barbecue while evolving in step with modern culinary trends. For him, barbecue is a technique, not a preconceived set menu.

Within his establishment, this innovative philosophy is embodied through whole-animal cooking and locally-sourced ingredients. Several of their side dishes are meat-based, like the Texas red chili Frito pie, utilizing cuts that would otherwise be wasted. The Grain-bow Salad, made up of hearty rye and wheat berries from Barton Springs Mill, substitutes traditional starches like pasta salad, providing a satisfying, nourishing contrast to the richness of barbecue.

There seems to be a growing acceptance among barbecue traditionalists to explore unfamiliar flavors and dishes. As LeRoy notes, "As long as it looks and tastes good, people will eat it."