Sauces are one of those things that seemed hard or mysterious to me. After all, if they weren’t hard, why is buying them pre-made such a prevalent practice, even among those who consider themselves good cooks? Why do we surrender the biggest flavor payload in our dish tos omething that makes a gloopy sound as it oozes out of plastic or glass jars? A few weeks ago when I hosted my late summer BBQ, I decided to make my own sauce and it was really pretty easy.

Sweet Heat BBQ Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 cup organic or reduced-sguar ketchup
• 1/4 cup white or apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 molasses
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1/4 cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Prep

• Finely chop your onion and garlic.
• In a medium saucepan, heat your EVOO. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, for about 3 minutes until soft.
• Add the remaining ingredients and stir.
• Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes. Keep scrapping and folding the sauce off the sides of the pot and stirring. If the sauce seems a little thin you can simmer for another 2 minutes, but keep stirring and folding so it doesn’t get gooey.
• Taste the sauce and add a little more salt and pepper, as needed.

The end result should be a crowd pleasing, sticky sauce with a nice balance between sweet, savory, and heat. I personally prefer ridiculously spicy sauces like Famous Dave’s Devil Spit or the Memphis/Kansas City varietals, which are hotter and more vinegary, but this sauce was lovely and hit the right notes for a crowd where you can’t go to far in one direction or another. You know a sauce is great when people lick their fingers instead of using a napkin and I saw a lot of that going on.

~Enjoy the bragging rights for making your own sauce and Nom On