From the low-and-slow-cooked Kansas City burnt ends and Hawaiian luau kalua pork to the grilled flavors of Jamaican jerk and South African braii, barbecue is all about the heritage recipes and traditional cooking techniques passed down from generation to generation. It’s a shared, interactive experience that invites diners to mix and match craveable sauces and sides to create the perfect meal. Nowadays, the nuances of marinades, sauces and rubs, as well as the equally important multitude of sides, are imperative to any memorable barbecue experience.

The four major slow-smoked styles of American barbecue—Memphis, Texas, Kansas and Carolina—are meat-centric, and served with very regional-style sauces: tomato- or vinegar-based, sweet or tangy, thick or thin. These varieties pair beautifully with the most belly-satisfying sides you can think of, such as mac and cheese, baked beans, Texas toast and coleslaw. There are also the micro-barbecue varieties, including Alabama style, which differentiates itself with a white mayonnaise-based sauce that can be used in place of blue cheese dressing for a twist on the classic wedge and Cobb salads.

For inspiration with sides, one need only look to the sword-skewered meats of the Brazilian churrasco with its noteworthy selection of sides: buttered Brazilian rice, feijoada (the famed black bean dish), deep-fried bananas and pão de queijo (chewy cheesy bread). Sides play such a pivotal role in Korean barbecue that they’re essentially a category—and almost a meal—unto themselves. Banchan, which translates to “small plates,” include kimchi, other fermented vegetables, tiny fish and scallion pancakes, just to name a few.

Modern chefs have respectfully loosened the grip on time-honored traditions, embracing the global pantry and modern cooking methods now available to them. And it shows, as a growing number of restaurants serve inventive twists on traditional barbecue fare.

In Tomball, Texas, Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue specializes in both barbecue and chocolate confections. On the savory side of the operation, the brand serves smoked meats and house-ground sausages, along with three signature sauces. In addition to a classic red sauce, Tejas Chocolate leans into Mexican cuisine: Salsa verde meets smoky barbecue in the green sauce, while the mole sauce is prepared with the brand’s own chocolate in a traditional cazuela. The selection of sides includes staples like mac salad, green beans and cornbread salad, as well as a carrot soufflé. And with the chocolate operation housed in the same building, guests can also grab bonbons and sipping chocolate for a most unusual barbecue accountrement.

Kemuri Tatsu-ya in Austin, Texas, takes Asian-style barbecue to the next level, with an umami-packed miso barbecue sauce cropping up in dishes past and present, including smoked salmon collar and a brisket. But in terms of visual cues, the cornbread is the showstopper. The whimsical cornmeal Taiyaki is a fish-shaped cornbread filled with sweet bean paste that’s served with honey-sesame butter.

Also in Austin, KG BBQ’s Egyptian Cowboy transforms one of the most iconic barbecue sides into a rich entrée. Creamy mac and cheese is topped with pulled lamb shoulder, sumac-pickled onions, pomegranate-barbecue sauce and za’atar spice. In similar fashion, Brisket and Rice in Houston turns a side into a bowl base, albeit with a less common barbecue accompaniment—one that hardly crops up beyond Louisiana joints with dirty rice. The restaurant’s namesake dish features one-third pound of brisket atop fluffy jasmine rice, while the BBQ Fried Rice serves cubed brisket, eggs and onion over wok-fried rice with Chinese sausage.

Far from barbecue country, newly opened Stateline Road Smokehouse in Napa, Calif., can trace its brick-and-mortar origins back to a sauce. A decade ago, when chef and co-owner Darryl Bell was still working in Michelin starred-restaurants, he created 816 BBQ Sauce—a nod to the Kansas City area code and its barbecue. Now, the sauce can be found in the restaurant’s pulled pork, while a dry-rub version seasons curly fries. Other sides at Stateline Road enjoy similar upgrades: the mac and cheese features aged cheddar Mornay, kale crisp and parsnip crumbles, while jicama makes an unlikely, but most welcome, appearance in the coleslaw.

As these handful of examples demonstrate, the American barbecue scene is in the midst of a renaissance. With the lines between regional and even global styles falling away, chefs have an unprecedented opportunity to explore different ingredients, cooking techniques and more. In terms of low risk and potentially high returns, sauces and sides are a good place to begin. Both are crucial to the flavor and presentation of barbecue offerings and can be easily adapted as menu developers explore new culinary horizons. After all, what modern barbecue showcases most of all is the growing need to stir America’s proverbial melting pot.