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Cooking meat low and slow over an indirect heat source—the only real qualifications for barbecue—is a truly American tradition, going back to and picked up by early Spanish colonizers who also gave it the name the cooking style goes by now: barbacoa. Today, barbecue is a wildly popular staple across the U.S., with many cities and regions (and all claiming to have the best). Because barbecue meat spends hours upon hours cooking, restaurants are a go-to source for many Americans who would rather not spend all day and all night tending to their flames. compiled a list of the highest-rated barbecue restaurants in Knoxville on . Tripadvisor rankings factor in the average rating and number of reviews. Some restaurants on the list may have recently closed.