Homemade Barbecue Sauce

If you've ever looked at the ingredients list on your favorite bottle of BBQ sauce, you might have noticed in the first three ingredients is always at least one (usually two) types of sugar, including High Fructose Corn Syrup. Does it bother any one else that I'm paying four dollars for a sixteen ounce bottle of artificially flavored corn syrup? So after dabbling around a bit, I came up with a highly customizable recipe for Barbecue Sauce, and have vowed off store bought barbecue sauce forever.

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

1 onion
4 slices bacon
1 (big) can chopped or crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar (or Red Wine Vinegar)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 cup brown sugar or molasses
~ other optional ingredients: 1/2 tsp red pepper flake, 2 tsp hot sauce, 1 red pepper or jalapeno pepper, 1 tsp cumin, 2 tsp smoked paprika, on and on and on...

1) Chop the bacon into small pieces. Also chop the onion and any other vegetables (grated carrot, red pepper, etc).
2) Cook the bacon in a large skillet until the fat renders out and bacon starts to crisp up. The bacon can stay in the sauce, or be removed for other yummy purposes.
3) Cook the onion/other veggies in the bacon fat for 3 to minutes until it starts to soften.
4) add the canned tomatoes and all other seasoning ingredients. Bring to a boil.
5) taste for seasoning. Add more sugar for sweeter, more vinegar for more tart, hot sauce for heat, liquid smoke for smokiness, until the sauce is the way you like it.
6) simmer until thick; probably about 10 to 20 minutes.

This sauce can be blended up at the end if you want it less chunky. Can be used as a meat marinade, as a topping on burgers or grilled meats. Try pouring 2 cups of BBQ sauce on a pork roast and cooking in the crock pot all day. Then shred the pork and put on hot biscuits for pork sandwiches! The possibilities are endless! See the next recipe on this blog for BBQ grilled pizza.

Ingredient clarification: Liquid Smoke is a product of the smoking process--they actually distill the vapor from hickory smoke and bottle it. It can be purchased in the BBQ sauce/Condiments aisle of your grocery store. A small bottle is all you need, and isn't too expensive. It's really tasty in all kinds of sauces and marinades. However, if you simply don't want to pay three bucks for liquid smoke, you can use smoked paprika (something I would HIGHLY recommend having in your house), or just leave it out. Be sure, though, that you get the real concentrate and not artificial. At my store they were the same price. I checked the ingredients, and one had carmel coloring and artificial flavors, one had hickory smoke concentrate. I'll bet you can guess which one I bought!