Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce
ShareHomemade brown sugar barbecue sauce with a spicy kick.
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Now back to your regularly scheduled programming…
It’s raining. Again. I think sun is in the forecast but I’ll just wait it out and see for myself when that day comes.
In other news… Have you been watching The Voice? (spoiler if you didn’t watch this week) Sasha got the boot?! She was my favorite. Ahh well… I mean look what happened with American Idol this year? Ridiculous. Which is why I usually stop watching well before the end anyway. The results are rarely what they should be. You have a bunch of 12 year olds voting and of course they’re not going to vote for the best singer. You know… in my personal opinion of course.
Since we’re on this whole entertainment topic. I’m having a really hard time focusing on writing. I turned on Les Miserables earlier. Have you seen it? This is my first time watching this version. I saw it live with my parents when I was younger and it was fantastic. Nothing really beats seeing a live musical. Sure, movies give you the ability get comfy in your home, eat the snacks you want and pause when needed. But there is zero editing with a live show, no faking or retakes. Just amazing. But the movie version is so far totally living up to all of the hype it’s received.
Now the important part… the food. You’re hopefully planning on doing some fabulous grilling this weekend, so I wanted to share a really easy and delicious recipe for homemade brown sugar barbecue sauce. I was a bit appalled to find out that barbecue sauce is made with tomatoes so I was happy to find one that called for ketchup and played around with that one a bit. I can handle ketchup. I know it’s made of tomatoes but it’s less tomato-y in my eyes, if that makes any sense at all. This version whips up in mere minutes, is sweet and spicy and everything right. I bet you even have all of the ingredients on hand for this. You can of course leave out the red pepper flakes if you want to cut back on the heat. It isn’t too much but does give a nice slight lingering zing. It’s just necessary. As is making this sauce. Seriously – minutes! In just minutes you’ll have a super delicious barbecue sauce you can say you made. Brush it on your meat of choice or use it as a dipping sauce. You’ll be sure to love it!
Love barbecue sauce? Try these recipes:
Bacon and barbecue chicken pizza
Bacon wrapped barbecue chicken tenders
Spicy barbecue chicken salad
Barbecue chicken macaroni and cheese
Barbecue chicken tacos
Barbecue onion rings
Barbecue chicken French bread pizza
Barbecue chicken quesadillas
Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 C light brown sugar
- 1 1/4 C ketchup
- 1 1/2 Tbsp molasses
- 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp ground mustard
- 1 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to boil, stir frequently. Reduce heat to low, continuing to cook for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Use immediately. Alternately sauce may be cooled and transferred to an airtight container, store in refrigerator.
Notes
This is everything I love about BBQ sauce and more!!! Seriously, this sounds amazing. Sweet, a little spicy and a little zing. Perfect!
That leftover zing is the best!
That sauce looks so amazing and sticky sweet. I must slather it over everything I make… Yum!
I hope you do! :)
Yum! A BBQ you can eat ;)
Haha ;)
You fool. You should have kept the recipe a secret and sold bottles of it, mass produced as the world’s best BBQ sauce. This goes really well with smoked pulled pork btw
Hahaha! Thank you! So glad you’ve enjoyed it! :)
Mmm, I can’t remember the last time I made barbecue sauce but now I’m itching to make some! It looks amazing!
You should!
Two things I love to make on a regular basis are salad dressings and barbecue sauce and this one sounds great (thought why must I ALWAYS think a bit of bourbon would be nice too?). :)
Now I want a bourbon version ;)
I would slather this gorgeous stuff on everything! Awesome recipe, Rachel! Saving to try soon.
It’s absolutely necessary to slather this on everything in sight! :)
We are big BBQ fans and love making homemade sauce. My husband usually makes it and definitely adds brown sugar. This looks amazing, Rachel!
Thanks Cassie!
Ben is a BBQ sauce fiend!! I have to make this for him.
Haha and I might even approve of him putting this on his greens ;)
Um… yeah. You know Im all over this one. Duh!
Obviously! ;)
Your BBQ sauce looks so delicious. Your beautiful photos make it extra enticing!
Thank you, Marcie! :)
I’m a HUGE barbecue sauce fan! Love this Rachel!
Sounds so good! I need to make this right away! THANK YOU!
How amazing is this?! I LOOVE bbq sauce. Like obsessed-love it. Definitely need to make this and put it on a burger – YUM!
And dude, I really need to catch up on the voice. I was so sad when they kicked off Judith – I thought she would win!
Drool! This looks so yummy!
This looks so good! I’ve been craving anything bbq lately. I need this in my life.
I’m going to drink this…but of course, after i slather it all over EVERYTHING.
Homemade barbecue sauce is the best, I have been thinking about making some this weekend since it’s finally nice enough to grill! Hooray for sunshine :) Oh, and as for The Voice – this season hasn’t been my favorite. I thought a lot of the good people got voted off too early…
Oooooh…now I’m hungry :)
A few weeks ago I made brown sugar and bourbon baked beans in my slow cooker. THIS would have been AMAZING to use! I used the Guy Feiori bourbon brown sugar bbq sauce and it was good, but yours looks better!
I LOOOOOOVE homemade BBQ. And dang girl, you make it look SO good. I need to get on making some asap.
We love bbq sauce in our house (at least the grown ups do), my husband would LOVE this sweet one! Great recipe Rachel!
Just made this sauce to pour over pulled pork I’ve been cooking all day! So much better than anything from a bottle! Thanks for the recipe :)
Enjoy! :)
Hi I was woundering I found smoke do you thinknI could add some smoke to the recipe. An maybe a little bit of Captain.Morgans . If I do I will let younknow how much and how it comes out ok. Thsnk You
I haven’t personally done that but you’re welcome to try it out and see! :)
I’ve made plenty of homemade barbecue sauce in the past, and honestly…this is hands down the best. I’ve been looking for something of this nature for a very long time. Thank you!
So glad to hear it! :)
Just came across this recipe today on Pinterest and made it to go on our smoked chicken legs. AWESOME!! I was looking for a change to the usual BBQ sauce I make. This will definitely be our new go-to recipe. Perfect balance of sweet, tangy and spicy. Thank you!!
So glad you enjoyed it! :)
Since almost ALL BBQ sauce sold in stores has the first ingredient as High Fructose Corn Syrup, this is going to be AWESOME…but can I process it in batches for pantry storage?
If you’re familiar with hot water bath canning, you should be able to process batches of bbq sauce this way to store in the pantry. Good luck!
Made this when I thought I was out of barbeque sauce. I used this sauce to cook pork ribs in the slow cooker. This sauce was very good. It’s gonna go on my Tried it and LIked it board on Pinterest. Thanks for the recipe.
Awesome! I’m glad you enjoyed it! :)
this sounds yummy!! Can this recipe be canned???
I haven’t personally canned it but I imagine it could work well.
I’ll have to give this a try!
As much as I barbeque I know I can find something wonderful to test this out on from ribs, to chicken, to burgers or even brats!
Thanks for sharing!!!
I hope you enjoy it!
I just wanted to tell you I made this with the molasses from lambert Cafe in Ozark Mo. It was to die for I could not stop dipping my fingers into the pot it was cooking in, Will Always make this instead of buying store bought from now on. I might even give out as christmas gifts jarred up.
So glad you enjoyed it, Theresa! Such a great idea to jar and gift it! :)
So… tonight’s plan for supper was meatloaf with just a brown sugar and ketchup topping… as much as I love my grandmother’s old recipe, I wanted something with a bit more kick to it.
The sauce is ABSOLUTELY delicious, I am so glad I found this recipe, even if I am a few years behind the time. Meatloaf is still in the oven, but I am SO looking forward to trying the end results. I fudged it just a bit, as I didn’t have ground mustard or red pepper flakes, so mustard and a bit more chilli powder was all I could do. But so dang good…. I want to eat it with a spoon.
Definitely checking out more recipes.
So glad to hear you enjoyed it so much! Thanks for sharing, Dezzi! :)
Today I made pulled pork for the first time in my life! The smell of it cooking was almost more than I could stand. While it was cooking I realized I needed a sauce, I had none so of course I went to Pinterest and started searching. I wanted a sweet BBQ sauce and found this one Yay!! Looking at the list I was short on a couple things so instead of molasses I used honey and I didn’t have any ground mustard so I used regular. I have to say This is the best recipe I’ve ever had. Thank you so much for posting it. :)
I’m so glad you found me and even more so that you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for sharing! :)
Yum! This sounds amazing. I can’t ever find molasses. Would it make a huge difference to leave that out??
You could substitute with honey or maple syrup. Another option would be to use dark brown sugar instead of light, since it has a stronger molasses flavor. Good luck! :)
My family loved this barbeque sauce – they liked it better than any store bought they’ve had. Will be making this again! Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed it! :)
I have never made BBQ sauce before, but I had pulled pork in the instant pot and no sauce in the fridge so I gave this a go….so much better than bottled! I won’t go back. Thank you for sharing this easy recipe!
I read that another commenter suggested giving it as gifts too-I think that’s a great idea!
So glad to hear you enjoyed it, Laura! :)
Just made this to use in another recipe and it was amazing! I made just one change because I did not have paprika (almost never do) and I loved it! I had read when looking for substitutions that I could use 1/2 tsp of chili powder for every 1 tsp of paprika …. so since this already had chili powder I just increased it to 1 1/4 tsp instead of 1/2 tsp.
So glad you enjoyed it, Allison!
Omg so good! I didn’t have chili powder so I substituted old bay ( this is the eastern shore after all) and added a little raw honey…. *DROOL…..
So glad you enjoyed it, Kati! :)
I have honestly been trying out recipes for bbq sauces every weekend for months hoping to find the perfect recipe … and this is the winner! We had a party last weekend and I made this for the pulled pork sandwiches and everyone loved it. I went home after the party and actually threw away all the other recipes that I thought were ok. This is the ONLY one that will be in my recipe book. My son also takes a small container of it into a local restaurant to use on his sandwich there because he hates the bbq sauce that they serve … it’s that good!! Thanks so much for posting it!
So glad everyone enjoyed it so much! Thanks for sharing, Carole! :)
I was wondering if you could make the sauce, then hot water bath/can it?
I’m sure that would work just fine. Good luck! :)
Made this sauce it was very good. Just enough sweetness. My ribs were perfecto
So glad you enjoyed it!
Hi,
Is it just the red pepper flakes that give this sauce the heat or the other ingredients like the paprika and chilli powder also add to it? I’m not into heat so just trying to judge which way to proceed. I’m attempting to make pizza for the very first time and considering I can barely boil water, I’m nervous. :-)
Chili powder will give a touch of heat, but definitely omit the red pepper flakes if you don’t want it spicy.
Really good sauce. How long will it keep in a jar in the refrigerator?
So glad you enjoyed it! The sauce will easily keep for a few weeks or longer. You should be able to freeze it as well.