Homemade BBQ Sauce

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had the opportunity to host a dinner party.  I wanted the theme to be a "classy tailgate" and take backyard tailgate foods and scale them up for a dinner party.  We decided to serve sliders with classy toppings (arugula, blue cheese crumbles, avocado, etc) along with some chicken for those that didn't want to eat red meat.  I wanted to make this chicken special, and when I found this recipe for Ina Garten's homemade BBQ sauce I knew I had found exactly what I was looking for.

I know this looks like a huge laundry list of ingredients, but believe me, it's worth it!  This BBQ sauce is incredibly dynamic.  It starts off somewhat smoky, then tangy, and then it has this little kick at the end from the red peppers.  This BBQ recipe would probably work best with chicken.  The longer you leave it in the fridge, the more time the flavors have to meld together and the more delicious your recipe will be.   It is time consuming, but the results are certainly worth the effort, especially if you want to add a little something special to your backyard BBQ (or classy dinner party).

BBQ Sauce

Yield:  1 quart

Prep Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

-                1 lg onion, chopped

-                3 cloves garlic, minced

-                ½ c vegetable oil

-                1 c (10 oz) tomato paste

-                1 c cider vinegar

-                1 c honey

-                ½ c Worcestershire sauce

-                1 c Dijon mustard

-                1 c soy sauce

-                2 tbsp chili powder

-                1 tbsp ground cumin

-                1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Directions

In a large saucepan over low to medium heat, sauté the onions and garlic in vegetable oil until the onions are translucent.  Add the tomato paste, vinegar, honey, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, soy sauce, chili powder, cumin, and crushed red pepper flakes.  Simmer uncovered on low heat for 30 min.  Store in refrigerator if not using right away. 

Source: slightly adapted from Ina Garten

Posted by Ali B at 10:01 PM