Copycat Lawry’s Hickory Brown Sugar Marinade (15 Min)

Sweet brown sugar, deep molasses, and real hickory smoke flavor come together in this Copycat Lawry’s® Hickory Brown Sugar Marinade — a sticky, smoky-sweet wet marinade that turns chicken, pork, ribs, and salmon into a caramelized, barbecue-style dinner using pantry staples in about 15 minutes.

If you have ever grabbed a bottle of Lawry’s® Hickory Brown Sugar Marinade off the shelf and wished you could make it fresh at home, this is the recipe for you. This homemade version rebuilds that signature blend of brown sugar, molasses, onion, garlic, and hickory smoke — without the preservatives, the modified corn starch, or the trip to the store. Whisk it together in one bowl, pour it over your favorite protein, and let the marinade do all the heavy lifting.

It is the kind of marinade that makes a weeknight sheet-pan dinner taste like it came off a smoker, and it has quickly become one of our go-to bottles-without-the-bottle. If you love a good copycat sauce, you will also want to bookmark our Copycat Lawry’s Honey Bourbon Marinade for a boozy, spiced take on sweet-and-smoky, and our Copycat Lawry’s Hawaiian Marinade when you are craving something tropical instead.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Sweet meets smoky. Brown sugar and molasses do the deep-caramel heavy lifting, while hickory liquid smoke delivers real barbecue flavor without ever lighting a grill.
• The secret note is cinnamon. Just like the bottle — the label lists cinnamon alongside black pepper, and that whisper of warm spice is exactly what most homemade versions miss.
• 15 minutes, start to marinate. Whisk, pour, and you are done — just like the bottle promises.
• No preservatives or fillers. The original leans on sodium benzoate, xanthan gum, and modified corn starch. Ours is just pantry ingredients.
• Incredibly versatile. Chicken, pork chops, ribs, steak, salmon, even tofu and roasted vegetables. It is right at home next to everything in our 10 Easy Chicken Marinades roundup.
• Caramelizes beautifully. All that sugar means gorgeous grill marks, sticky glazed edges, and that lacquered barbecue look.

What Is Lawry’s Hickory Brown Sugar Marinade?

Lawry’s® — the same brand behind the famous red-capped Seasoned Salt — makes a whole line of 15-minute bottled wet marinades, and Hickory Brown Sugar is their answer to classic backyard barbecue. Reading the label tells you almost everything: distilled vinegar, brown sugar, molasses, black pepper, cinnamon, onion, garlic, red bell pepper, and natural hickory smoke flavor.

Unlike the citrus-forward Lemon Pepper or the pineapple-based Hawaiian, this one is built on a vinegar-and-sugar backbone — closer to a thin Carolina-style barbecue mop than a soy marinade. The vinegar tenderizes, the sugars caramelize, and the hickory smoke ties it all together. Our copycat rebuilds that exact profile from scratch so you control the sweetness, the smoke, and the salt.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Makes about 1½ cups — the equivalent of one 12 fl oz bottle.

• Distilled white vinegar: the first ingredient on the real label. It tenderizes the meat and balances all that sugar.
• Water: mellows the acidity, just like the bottle.
• Dark brown sugar: the star. Packed with molasses flavor and responsible for the caramelized, sticky finish.
• Molasses: doubles down on that deep, almost-smoky sweetness. Use unsulphured (not blackstrap).
• Hickory liquid smoke: the “hickory” in Hickory Brown Sugar. A little goes a long way.
• Salt: the savory backbone.
• Onion powder: mellow allium depth.
• Garlic powder (or 2 cloves finely minced garlic): the other half of the aromatic base.
• Coarsely ground black pepper: a touch of bite against the sweetness.
• Ground cinnamon: the secret ingredient straight from the label. Just a small pinch adds the warm, can’t-quite-place-it note that makes it taste like the bottle.
• Finely minced red bell pepper (or dried bell pepper flakes): subtle sweetness and those little red flecks you see in the original.
• Cornstarch (optional): the bottle uses modified corn starch for a clingy body; a small slurry recreates that texture. Skip it for a thin, pourable marinade.

How to Make Copycat Lawry’s Hickory Brown Sugar Marinade

Step 1: Whisk the base. In a bowl or jar, combine the vinegar, water, brown sugar, molasses, and salt. Whisk until the sugar fully dissolves — about a minute.

Step 2: Add the smoke and seasonings. Stir in the liquid smoke, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, cinnamon, and minced red bell pepper.

Step 3: Thicken (optional). For that bottle-like, clings-to-the-meat body, whisk the cornstarch with 1 tablespoon cold water, then stir it in. For extra cling, warm the marinade gently for 1–2 minutes until it just thickens, then cool completely before using.

Step 4: Marinate. Pour over your protein in a zip-top bag or shallow dish, turning to coat. Even 15 minutes makes a difference — that is the whole promise of the bottle.

Step 5: Cook. Grill, bake, air fry, or slow cook, basting with fresh (unused) marinade as it cooks. Always discard marinade that touched raw meat.

How Long to Marinate

Protein	Minimum	Sweet Spot	Max
Chicken breasts or thighs	15 minutes	2–4 hours	24 hours
Pork chops or tenderloin	15 minutes	2–6 hours	24 hours
Ribs	30 minutes	4–8 hours	24 hours
Steak	15 minutes	1–4 hours	12 hours
Salmon or shrimp	15 minutes	30 minutes	1 hour
Tofu or vegetables	15 minutes	1–2 hours	8 hours

Because this marinade is vinegar-based, do not push past the max times — the acid can turn the surface of the meat mushy.

Pro Tips

• Watch the heat. All that brown sugar and molasses means this marinade burns faster than most. Grill over medium rather than high heat, or finish over direct flame just for the last few minutes of caramelization.
• Reserve some before it touches raw meat. Set aside ¼–½ cup for basting or glazing so you never have to toss the good stuff.
• Make it a glaze. Simmer the reserved portion with a 1-teaspoon cornstarch slurry until glossy and thick, then brush it on during the last 5 minutes of cooking.
• Don’t skip the cinnamon. It sounds odd in a barbecue marinade, but it is on the real ingredient label — and it is the difference between “close” and “tastes like the bottle.”
• Start light on the liquid smoke. Brands vary in strength. Begin with ½ teaspoon, taste, and add more if you want a deeper smokehouse flavor.

Variations

• Spicy hickory: add ¼–½ teaspoon cayenne or a teaspoon of chipotle in adobo.
• Bourbon brown sugar: swap 2 tablespoons of the water for bourbon — or just make our Copycat Lawry’s Honey Bourbon Marinade.
• Maple hickory: replace the molasses with real maple syrup for a lighter, breakfast-sausage sweetness.
• Gluten-free: this recipe is naturally gluten-free as written — just double-check your liquid smoke label.
• Lower sugar: cut the brown sugar to 3 tablespoons; the molasses will still carry the flavor.

What to Use It On

This marinade was practically made for pork — try it on anything in our 10 Best Pork Marinade Recipes lineup, from chops to tenderloin. It is equally at home on grilled or air-fried chicken thighs, wings, flank steak from our 10 Easy Steak Marinades collection, and a sheet pan of salmon. For a full barbecue-night spread, finish with fries dusted in our Lawry’s French Fry Seasoning.

Storage

• Refrigerator: store unused marinade (that has never touched raw meat) in an airtight jar for up to 1 week. The bottle keeps longer only because of preservatives.
• Freezer: freeze in ice cube trays or a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and re-whisk.
• Marinate-and-freeze: pour the marinade over raw chicken or pork in a freezer bag and freeze up to 3 months — it marinates as it thaws.
• Used marinade: always discard marinade that has been in contact with raw meat, or boil it for a full 5 minutes before using as a sauce.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is homemade hickory brown sugar marinade as good as the bottle? Better, honestly — because you control the smoke, the salt, and the sweetness, and you skip the xanthan gum, modified corn starch, and preservatives.

Can I make it without liquid smoke? Yes — substitute 1 teaspoon smoked paprika. The flavor leans more “smoky-sweet paprika” than true hickory, but it is still delicious. Or skip the smoke entirely and let a charcoal grill do the work.

Why did my marinade burn on the grill? Sugar and molasses caramelize fast. Cook over medium heat, keep the meat moving, and save direct high heat for the final minutes.

Is this the same as barbecue sauce? Close cousins. This is thinner and more vinegar-forward, designed to penetrate and tenderize raw meat. To turn it into a brush-on sauce, simmer it with a cornstarch slurry until thickened.

Can I use it as a slow cooker or Instant Pot sauce? Absolutely — pour the full batch over 2–3 pounds of chicken thighs or pork shoulder and cook as you normally would. The vinegar keeps the long-cooked meat from tasting flat.

More Fork To Spoon Recipes You’ll Love

Loved this smoky-sweet marinade? Keep the copycat collection going:

• Copycat Lawry’s Honey Bourbon Marinade — its boozy, spiced sibling
• Copycat Lawry’s Hawaiian With Tropical Fruit Juices Marinade — sweet pineapple and citrus island flavor
• Copycat Lawry’s Lemon Pepper Marinade — bright, zesty, and reader-favorite
• Copycat Lawry’s Seasoned Salt — the 5-minute classic that started it all
• Lawry’s French Fry Seasoning — restaurant-style fries in seconds
• 10 Best Pork Marinade Recipes — because this marinade and pork chops are a match made in heaven