The Best Easy BBQ Sauce Recipe Ever (2024)

FAQs

How can I make homemade BBQ sauce better? ›

To me, a good BBQ sauce has the right mix of smokiness, tanginess, sweetness, and spice. If your sauce isn't sweet enough, add some brown sugar or molasses. If the sauce isn't tangy enough, add some apple cider vinegar. If the sauce needs some heat, add your favorite hot sauce or red pepper.

Adding garlic or onion powder are standard flavors for barbecue, but get a little creative and try out different chile powders, peppers, cumin, or dried herbs to add body to the sauce.

Combine brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar, water, and Worcestershire sauce in a blender. Season with mustard, paprika, salt, pepper, and hot pepper sauce. Blend until smooth.

Ingredients vary, but most include vinegar or tomato paste (or a combination) as a base, as well as liquid smoke, onion powder, spices such as mustard and black pepper, and sweeteners such as sugar or molasses.

Create depth by adding dark chocolate and coffee to your barbecue sauce. These two, feature a bitter-sweet combo that can truly enhance the blend of spices and flavors present in your bottled barbecue sauce. Enhance your Barbecue Sauce using almost anything, including your favorite beer.

Your grill needs to be hot, but not too hot – if you can't stand close, you shouldn't cook on it. Light it early enough so the flames have time to die down before you start cooking: the charcoal should have burned down and be coated in white ash. At the last second, season the meat well.

This sweet-and-savory Homemade BBQ Sauce Recipe tastes so much better than store-bought, and it's cheaper too. Best of all, you can make it with better ingredients and fewer preservatives.

Apple Cider Vinegar: Apple cider vinegar is a versatile choice for BBQ sauce. It has a slightly fruity and tangy flavor that pairs well with the smoky and savory elements of BBQ. It adds a pleasant acidity and a touch of sweetness to the sauce.

Tomato Puree (Tomato Paste, Water), Sugar, Vinegar, Molasses, Cornstarch, Salt, Smoke Flavoring, Worcestershire Sauce (Distilled Vinegar, Molasses, Corn Syrup, Water, Salt, Caramel Color, Sugar, Spices, Anchovy Puree (Fish), Natural Flavor (Soy), and Tamarind), Pepper, Caramel Coloring, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder.

You can get an outstanding two- or three-ingredient BBQ sauce with a vinegar base. Most of these rely on apple cider vinegar and crushed red peppers for the main flavor, plus salt because salt makes pretty much any food taste amazing.

What are the three types of BBQ sauce? ›

Generally, barbecue sauces is categorized into four varieties: tomato-based sauces, vinegar-based sauces, mustard-based sauces, and mayonnaise-based sauces. Each category can have a range of BBQ sauce styles, ranging from sweet and tangy to hot and spicy.

The base ingredients of barbecue sauce usually include tomato sauce or ketchup, vinegar, and sweeteners, such as molasses or brown sugar. Other common ingredients include Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic, onion powder, and various spices, which can include paprika, cumin, and chili powder.

As you might've guessed, these sauces use tomato as the primary ingredient. To that, other ingredients are added to create different flavors, for example: sugar, molasses, vinegar, and various spices.

Add a few glugs of Frank's RedHot or Louisiana-style Crystal. Or any other spicy condiment, really: swirl in some sambal oelek, gochujang, or harissa. Play with the smoky notes found in a can of adobo sauce, or the citrus flavors in Cuban mojo. Another source of smoky flavor: smoked paprika.

Add some hot sauce to cut some of the sweetness and add some Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce to thin out the sauce because it will thicken up quite a bit when you add the rub in. Sometime I will add a little apple cider vinegar too if it needs a little twang!!

Tossing in strips of basil, a sprig of thyme or some oregano can take your sauce to the next level. Although fresh herbs might pop a bit more, dried herbs and spices can work just as well. Sprinkling in some red pepper flakes, a pinch of parsley and a dash of salt and pepper can liven up your jarred pasta sauce.