Homemade BBQ Sauce - All you need is just 15-minutes to make this sweet, tangy, smoky Kansas City-style Homemade BBQ Sauce.

Imagine you're planning a barbeque Sunday, but suddenly you find out you're all out of BBQ sauce!

Obviously you can always buy a new one, but what if we tell you there's another better option?

What if you make a perfect BBQ sauce at your own kitchen with half the price and effort? Doesn't that sound like the best thing ever? Imagine wowing all your guests with your delicious barbeque slathered with your very own BBQ sauce!  Try my BBQ Chicken in Instant Pot (Pulled Chicken) & BBQ Pineapple Chicken Kabobs - Oven / Air Fryer / Grill

What is BBQ Sauce? 

BBQ sauce is many things in just one bottle. You can use it as a marinade, a condiment, as a topping for your meat (even vegetables) and whatnot.

The sweet and spicy flavour of BBQ sauce can win over anyone's taste buds. Not to mention the so many variations of BBQ sauce you can get! There is Korean BBQ sauce to a Japanese style BBQ sauce. When it comes to BBQ sauce the sky's the limit. Especially when you make it yourself. That way you get to control what you want your BBQ sauce to be like!

Jump to:

• What is BBQ Sauce? 
• Ingredients
• Instructions - How do you make your own Barbeque Sauce?
• Variations
• How to store BBQ sauce? 
• Tips to Make the Best BBQ Sauce
• Recipe
• Homemade BBQ Sauce

Ingredients

Use a clear shot of the ingredients for this recipe, prepped, and labeled if necessary. Insert the ingredients into the list below, omitting quantities.

• Ketchup - you can replace this with tomato paste.
• Apple Cider Vinegar - you can replace this with red wine vinegar.
• Molasses - It's a must for Kansas city BBQ Sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Spices - onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper
• Maple Syrup - I like Maple Syrup for that distinct taste of Maple. You can also use Honey if you want.
• Lemon Juice - Freshly squeezed lemon juice adds a depth of flavor to the sauce.

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions - How do you make your own Barbeque Sauce?

Making BBQ Sauce is so easy. It's just one step where you have to simmer ingredients until thick and then your Homemade BBQ Sauce is ready.

Step 1: Whisk all ingredients in a Sauce Pan

Whisk all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Allow the sauce to simmer for quite some time so that the sauce becomes thick and flavorful.

Variations

You can make the following changes to your Barbeque sauce and suit it as per your taste.

BBQ sauce is one of the most adjustable sauces out there. There is plenty of room for you to experiment with it.

Even better, you can come up with your own variations and make your own perfect BBQ sauce! But first, let's introduce you to some basic variations for BBQ sauce! 

• Most BBQ sauce uses ketchup as a base, but you don't have to limit yourself just to that. There are other options available in the base category for your BBQ sauce. Some of them include (i) vinegar which will give you a thinner but sharp BBQ sauce; (ii) mustard base which will make the sauce spicy like never before; (iii) and finally mayonnaise base. You need to try the last one! You can also add extra seasonings like paprika or dried garlic powder to increase the flavour of your BBQ sauce. 
• You can make a hot and spicy BBQ sauce by balancing out the sweet as spiciness in the sauce. Just use habanero peppers for the heat and molasses for the sweetness!
• You can make a Asian style BBQ sauce by using Asian ingredients like soy sauce and even kimchi seasoning! 

How to store BBQ sauce? 

This BBQ sauce is so good that you'll finish all of it off immediately. But if you want to bottle up this deliciousness for future use, then that's also totally an option. Just let your BBQ sauce cool down first before you bottle it up. Make sure you use an airtight bottle that is preferably made of glass.

A glass jar that is airtight will also work just fine. Store the BBQ sauce containing the bottle in the fridge's sauce shelf for about a week to ten days. 

If you want a longer method of storage then that's also available to you. Just use a freezable and airtight container to store your BBQ sauce in the freezer of your fridge.

Frozen BBQ sauce lasts upto three months easily this way. If you ever want to use it, then just let it thaw at room temperature and then heat it up on the stove. 

Tips to Make the Best BBQ Sauce

When it comes to choosing ketchup for the BBQ sauce, it's best to go with the most natural product.

• Make sure you use a brand of ketchup that avoids preservatives and has no corn syrup in it. 
• Apple cider vinegar is good for giving your BBQ sauce a sweet and tangy taste. But if you don't have apple cider vinegar in your kitchen then you can replace it with orange juice instead. 
• Use only brown sugar in your BBQ sauce. Not only will it give sweetness to the sauce but it'll also impart a nice molasses flavour to it. 
• Worcestershire sauce is a good way to balance out the sweetness and savoury flavours of the sauce. But if you are conscious of gluten then you can replace it with alternatives like coconut aminos instead. 
• If you feel like the BBQ sauce is not spicy enough for your taste buds, then you can always include more spices like cayenne pepper. Or you can increase the amount of hot sauce instead! 

Recipe