Cook Out BBQ — Sandwich, Plate, Tray & Calories (2026)

Does Cook Out Have BBQ?

Yes. Cook Out sells chopped pork barbecue as a BBQ sandwich, as a BBQ Plate and as an entree on the Cookout Tray. Store menu listings describe the sandwich as coming with homemade slaw and Texas Pete, and the plate with homemade slaw, fries and hushpuppies.

Barbecue has been part of Cook Out’s identity since the chain was founded in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1989; Wikipedia describes the company as specializing in hamburgers, milkshakes and North Carolina-style pork barbecue. Cook Out is now headquartered in Thomasville, North Carolina, and its store locator listed 370 open restaurants in 11 states in October 2026, from North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia to Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Florida.

• BBQ Sandwich (regular): 368 calories, 29 g protein, 35 g carbs, 1,103 mg sodium; chopped pork with slaw and Texas Pete.
• BBQ Plate: 976 calories, 35 g protein, 105 g carbs, 2,445 mg sodium; chopped pork with slaw, fries and hushpuppies.
• BBQ Tray: barbecue as the entree plus two sides and a drink, usually about $7.39 to $7.99.

Most Cook Out stores open around 10:30 AM and stay open until about 3 AM Sunday through Thursday and 4 AM on Friday and Saturday, which makes Cook Out one of the few places in the Southeast where you can order chopped barbecue after midnight. Hours vary by store; see the Cook Out hours guide.

What Style of BBQ Does Cook Out Serve?

Cook Out serves North Carolina-style chopped pork barbecue; store menus list it under “Chopped Pork Barbecue” or “Chopped Pork BBQ.” Cook Out does not publish its barbecue recipe, cooking method or sauce, so we cannot confirm whether it is seasoned eastern-style with a vinegar sauce or Lexington-style with some tomato.

In North Carolina, “barbecue” means pork, and the state has two well-known traditions. Eastern North Carolina barbecue is classically whole hog with a thin vinegar-and-pepper sauce. Lexington or Piedmont-style barbecue uses pork shoulder and a vinegar sauce with ketchup or tomato added, often served with a red barbecue slaw. Both styles are usually chopped and served on a bun with slaw on top or on a tray beside hushpuppies.

Cook Out’s barbecue follows that North Carolina format in the ways we can verify: it is chopped pork, it comes on a sandwich with slaw, the plate is served with hushpuppies, and the sandwich gets Texas Pete, the hot sauce made in Winston-Salem. Beyond that, the details are not public. If you want to know how your store’s barbecue is sauced, ask; some customers add a cup of BBQ dipping sauce, which is a separate item.

The Cook Out North Carolina guide covers the chain’s home state, where barbecue is most at home on the menu.

What Comes on the Cook Out BBQ Sandwich?

The Cook Out BBQ sandwich is chopped pork on a bun with homemade slaw and Texas Pete hot sauce. That description appears on Cook Out store menu listings in Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro, NC and Spartanburg, SC, and Cook Out’s nutrition sheet describes the regular sandwich the same way.

The slaw goes on the sandwich by default, which is standard for a North Carolina barbecue sandwich. If you do not want slaw, ask for it without; like other Cook Out sandwiches, toppings can usually be left off. The official 368-calorie figure is for the standard build with slaw and Texas Pete.

• Size: Cook Out’s nutrition sheet lists a regular BBQ sandwich at 249.5 g. We found no official nutrition for any other size.
• Heat: the kick comes from Texas Pete hot sauce; ask for extra or none.
• Slaw: listings call it homemade slaw. Cook Out also sells slaw as a side, and it is one of the toppings on Cook Out Style burgers and hot dogs.
• Weight vs calories: at 1.47 calories per gram, the BBQ sandwich is one of the least calorie-dense entrees Cook Out lists, lighter per gram than a Big Double (1.69) or a plain char-grilled chicken sandwich (1.99).

Popular ways to customize

• No slaw, extra Texas Pete for a hotter sandwich.
• Add a side of slaw on a tray if you want more.
• Add a BBQ sauce cup if you like a sweeter sandwich; about 60 calories (approximate) per 1 oz cup.
• Double up where your store allows two entrees on a tray instead of a second side; two BBQ sandwiches total 736 calories and 58 g of protein.

More custom-order ideas are in the Cook Out secret menu guide.

What Comes With the Cook Out BBQ Plate?

The Cook Out BBQ Plate is chopped pork barbecue with homemade slaw, fries and hushpuppies. It is the single highest-calorie item on Cook Out’s nutrition sheet at 976 calories, with 35 g of protein and 2,445 mg of sodium.

Store listings in Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro and Spartanburg all describe the plate the same way. Cook Out does not state the portion of each component, and the listings do not say whether a bun is included. The nutrition sheet gives a total weight of 491.6 g, almost exactly twice the 249.5 g regular sandwich.

Is the plate a better deal than building it yourself?

Here is the plate next to a BBQ sandwich with regular fries and a hushpuppy tray-side portion, all using Cook Out’s official figures:

The two are close: same protein, similar calories and sodium. The plate weighs a little more and has 22 g fewer carbs, which is consistent with a plate that has less bread, but Cook Out does not publish that detail, so treat it as an inference. The plate’s 10 g of fiber is the highest of any entree on the sheet.

Plate or tray?

If you want the classic barbecue-joint plate exactly, order the plate. If you want a drink included or lighter sides, the tray is the more flexible order. See the hush puppies guide and fries guide for those sides on their own.

How Many Calories Are in Cook Out BBQ?

A regular Cook Out BBQ sandwich has 368 calories and the BBQ Plate has 976, according to Cook Out’s published nutrition sheet. Both include the slaw and toppings as served.

How much of your day is that?

Against the FDA Daily Values used on U.S. nutrition labels (78 g fat, 20 g saturated fat, 300 mg cholesterol, 2,300 mg sodium, 275 g carbohydrate, 28 g fiber, 50 g protein):

• The sandwich is lean for fast food. 12 g of fat and 3 g of saturated fat is less than a plain Big Double burger (13 g and 4 g).
• Sodium is the catch. The sandwich carries about half a day’s sodium, and the plate passes the full-day 2,300 mg figure on its own.
• The plate adds 608 calories over the sandwich, almost all from fries and hushpuppies, but only 6 g of protein.
• Sugar: 9 g in the sandwich, likely from the slaw dressing and bun; Cook Out does not break it down.

By label arithmetic (9 calories per gram of fat, 4 per gram of carbohydrate or protein), the sandwich’s macros add to about 364 calories, matching the official 368. For the whole menu, see the Cook Out nutrition guide or Cook Out calories.

Is Cook Out BBQ a Good Source of Protein?

Yes: the BBQ sandwich has 7.9 g of protein per 100 calories, the best ratio of any entree on Cook Out’s nutrition sheet. It edges out the half-pound Huge Hamburger (7.8 g) and beats every chicken sandwich.

All values are from Cook Out’s nutrition sheet; burgers are shown plain, before a topping style. The per-100-calorie columns are simple division.

• Sandwich vs plate: the plate has 6 g more protein for 608 more calories, so its ratio falls to 3.6 g per 100 calories. For protein, the sandwich is the far better order.
• Sandwich vs burgers: the BBQ sandwich has more protein than a plain Big Double (29 g vs 20 g) for 57 more calories, but more than three times the sodium (1,103 mg vs 334 mg).
• The sodium tradeoff: at 300 mg per 100 calories, the BBQ sandwich is one of the saltiest entrees per calorie. If sodium matters, a plain burger or char-grilled chicken is the better pick.

Compare chicken options in the chicken strips guide and burgers in the Big Double guide.

Can You Get BBQ on a Cook Out Tray?

Yes. Barbecue is one of the Cookout Tray entrees: you get the BBQ entree plus two sides and a drink, usually for about $7.39 to $7.99. A Cook Out store menu lists a “Regular Barbecue Tray,” and Food & Wine lists barbecued pork, by itself or as a sandwich, among the tray’s main choices.

At the speaker, a BBQ tray order sounds like: “Cookout Tray, BBQ sandwich, hushpuppies and onion rings, regular Cheerwine.” Some store menus say you can choose two sides or “double up” on the entree, so ask if you want two sandwiches instead of a second side. The Jr. Tray, from about $5.29, has a smaller entree list that varies by store; ask whether barbecue is on yours.

Every total adds Cook Out’s official figures item by item. Sides are tray-side portions except regular fries, which use the regular-size figure. Drinks are regular 16 oz fountain sizes, and drink sodium is included. The side of slaw is shown as published (405 calories), which is high for a slaw portion, so treat that row with caution.

• The sides decide everything. The same 368-calorie sandwich makes a 640-calorie tray or a 1,309-calorie tray depending on what you pick.
• Swap hushpuppies for nuggets to save 156 calories and gain 8 g of protein.
• Sodium stays high. Even the lean tray is 1,756 mg, about 76% of the Daily Value; the plate-style tray passes the full-day figure.
• The drink is the easiest cut. Regular sweet tea adds 236 calories; unsweet tea, Diet Coke and Coke Zero Sugar add none. See the drinks menu.

Try your own combination in the Cook Out calorie calculator, and see the tray menu guide for every entree and side.

Is Cook Out BBQ Good?

Cook Out BBQ is a fast, inexpensive, late-night take on a North Carolina chopped pork sandwich, and it is judged best on those terms rather than against a dedicated barbecue restaurant. Whether you like it comes down to what you want from barbecue.

Taste is personal, so here is what the menu and nutrition data say rather than a verdict:

What regulars tend to like is the combination: a chopped pork sandwich with slaw, a side of hushpuppies, a Cheerwine and a milkshake from a list of more than 40 flavors, all from a drive-thru window long after barbecue restaurants have closed. What barbecue purists tend to want, such as pit smoke and a specific regional sauce, is not something Cook Out advertises.

Tips for the best Cook Out BBQ

• Keep the slaw on. It is how the sandwich is designed and adds crunch and moisture.
• Get hushpuppies on the side. They are the traditional barbecue pairing in North Carolina.
• Eat it soon. Slaw softens the bun the longer it sits; on long drives, ask for slaw on the side.
• Try it late. The value of Cook Out barbecue is that it is there at 2 AM; see the late-night food guide.

Is Cook Out BBQ Gluten-Free, Low-Carb or Keto?

The BBQ sandwich is not gluten-free as served because it comes on a bun, and the plate includes fried hushpuppies; Cook Out does not publish a gluten-free claim for either. The chopped pork itself is the low-carb part, but Cook Out does not list its nutrition separately.

• Low-carb and keto: the sandwich has 35 g of carbohydrate, most likely from the bun and slaw. Ordering the pork without the bun is an option to ask about, but there is no official nutrition for that, so treat it as an estimate.
• Gluten and wheat: buns, hushpuppies and many fried foods contain wheat, and fried items typically share oil. Ask the manager and read our Cook Out allergen guide.
• Egg: coleslaw dressings are commonly mayonnaise-based, which usually contains egg; confirm at your store.
• Pork: the barbecue is pork, so it does not fit halal or kosher diets.
• Sodium-restricted: the sandwich is 48% of the Daily Value and the plate 106%. A plain hamburger or char-grilled chicken sandwich is far lower.
• Vegetarian and vegan: not suitable; see the vegan menu guide.

Cholesterol is moderate: 66 mg for the sandwich (22% of the Daily Value) and 96 mg for the plate (32%).

Where Can You Find More Cook Out Menu Guides?

Use the calorie calculator to build a BBQ tray, then the sides guides to pick what goes with it. These pages cover the items most often ordered with barbecue.

Find a store near you with the Cook Out locations finder, or see the full Cook Out menu.

Cook Out BBQ FAQs

Answers to the questions people ask most.