Best Barbecue

1. Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que

Multiple locations; lucillesbbq.com

What makes this Southern California chain the category dynasty it is is simple: Lucille’s manages to please every picky palate there is. There’s no other way to explain how the chain topped this category for a 19th consecutive year.

Ribs? Three types: baby backs, St. Louis-style and beef ribs. Chicken? There’s a smoked barbecue halfchicken and the Alabama half chicken, featuring apple cider marinade and a creamy, white barbecue sauce. Brisket and tri-tip? Lucille’s brings you Angus beef cuts in both. It also brings you Louisiana hot links that complement any other meat you choose.

Lucille’s covers it all. And it does so via a hand-rubbed, marinading process that takes upward of 12 hours. From there, the meats spend another day in a smoker before they end up in the kitchen. True to many restaurants, you get a view of the process. Each restaurant displays a rack of brisket, tri-tip or ribs being cooked in a dining room smoker.

Where things get tricky is when you look at the numerous sandwiches on the menu: There are 11, ranging from the Nashville Hot Chicken to a Hatch Green Chile pulled pork melt. Deciding on which one of those to go with is far more difficult than deciding on a barbecue sauce you prefer. And Lucille’s offers several, including a Memphis-style, hot-and-spicy, original and apple butter.

A plethora of salads, appetizers and other Southern dishes are available, including a New Orleans gumbo.

One thing Lucille’s makes clear is it’s in no hurry to make their barbecue. The same goes for its restaurants, where long waits are the norm.

BRITTANY KEENE, COURTESY OF LUCILLE’S SMOKEHOUSE BAR-B-QUE Lucille’s rubs and marinates its meats for more than 12 hours then cooks them in a smoker for as long as 24 hours.

— Brian Robin

2. Bad To The Bone BBQ

31738 Rancho Viejo Road, San Juan Capistrano; 949-218-0227; badtothebone-bbq.com

You could say that barbecue is in the blood of owners Marty and Mary Wells. Marty is a former professional rodeo cowboy and Mary used to train show-jumping horses. Together, they’ve jumped into creating one of the fastest-growing barbecue restaurants in the county.

The leap began in 2005, when the Wells’ turned their popular catering business into Bad To The Bone. Their foundation came from cooking their meats in all wood-burning pits, with Pecan wood as the fuel. They smoke their meats upward of 16 hours with this “real pit” style.

Bad To The Bone offers the usual barbecue suspects: ribs (St. Louis and baby back), brisket, tri-tip, chicken, pulled pork and pulled smoked chicken and sausages. But the restaurant stands out with an array of side dishes so imposing they could serve as a meal. That starts with a baked potato topped with butter, sour cream, green onions and cheese — then stuffed with either pulled pork or pulled chicken.

3. Heritage Barbecue

31721 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano; 949-218-0227; heritagecraftbbq.com

Get here early. Oh, and bring a chair and reading material. You could be here awhile, because the only way to get this authentic Texas barbecue is to line up. When owner/chef Daniel Castillo sells out of his succulent brisket or Fred Flintstone-sized beef ribs (available weekends), he closes up shop.

As it is, Heritage is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, runs on a cash-free basis, doesn’t take reservations or delivery app orders and funnels both dine-in and take-out orders into that same line.

What they line up for is Castillo’s Central Texas (think Austin) barbecue, featuring melt-in-yourmouth, peppery brisket, in-house-created sausages, spare ribs, smoked chicken and turkey breasts and pulled pork. Sides like brisket borracho beans and brisket sun-dried tomato mac-and-cheese.

Castillo creates his masterpieces in 1,000 gallon smokers. He changes his specials and sides daily, so it’s best to check ahead.