BBQ Season Part 4 – Make your own barbecue sauce

After last weeks dry rub recipe, this week we will tackle BBQ sauce. Sure, you can get an untold amount of bottle sauces in shops and supermarkets now, but there is real kudos if you can make your own delicious, sticky sauce. I guarantee your BBQ guests will be super impressed!

As you will see I have used ribs with the sauce, but of course the beauty of BBQ sauce is you can use it with almost anything from the grill. From chicken to mushrooms and even onto your homemade burgers, it adds something special. So get making it so you can start pouring it :)  Ingredients

•  50g Butter
• 1 Small Onion or Shallot
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 500ml Tomato Ketchup
• 3 Tbsp Black Treacle
• 1 Tsp English Mustard Powder
• 1 Tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• 1 Tsp Paprika
• 1 Tsp Sugar

Optional

• 1 Tbsp Red Chilli Flakes

Mince your onion/shallot (chop as finely as you possibly can), then melt the butter in a pan on a gentle heat and add your fine chopped onion. We want to soften the onion and let it release its flavour into the butter, so about 10 minutes. Then add your garlic either crushed or minced and stir in for about 1-2 minutes. Take you ketchup (yes we are using the whole bottle!) and pour it into the pan, again keeping the heat low. Now add in the black treacle and again gently stir it in.

Once you have stirred enough for the contents of pan to be completely combined add all of the other ingredients and stir in thoroughly. If you like it spicy add the tablespoon of chilli flakes as well. You could use a teaspoon of chilli powder instead, but I think the flakes add a smokiness and texture to the sauce. Warning – We are now going to turn up the heat and the sauce will bubble and spit. Put a lid on the pan, then turn up the hob, we want to get a good blast of heat through the sauce, it should take only a minute or two. Once bubbling away turn the heat down again, remove the lid and give a good stir. Replace the lid and leave on a low heat for about 15 minutes. It’s going to be seriously hot in there so don’t be tempted to taste just yet! So remove from the heat and leave to cool. That’s it, you’ve done it…your very own homemade barbecue sauce! When the sauce has cooled give it a taste, you will see the main flavours are the tomatoes from the ketchup and the molasses from the treacle. These flavours are a real trademark of Southern USA, the home of the barbecuing. You can use it as a marinade, as you can see from the pictures I brush on a thin even coating of the sauce and then leave in the fridge for 2 hours minimum. You can leave for longer of course, but I don’t feel the need for an overnight marinating as the sticky sauce doesn’t penetrate that much more. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article you can use the same marinating technique above for chicken, beef or lamb. I then cooked my ribs using the same method as the how to marinate ribs recipe.

Once cooked I then pour over the extra sauce, smothering the meat in its sticky goodness and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes. The meat will become tenderer and the sauce will warm through at the same time. You can store the sauce for a month if you put the hot sauce from the pan into a sterile jar and seal immediately. If you like this recipe you’ll love my bestselling Kindle BBQ book! http://myBook.to/ManVsFire Remember to share how you got on with this recipe and if you tried the options  in the comments below. Michael Robinson