Homemade BBQ Sauce is perfect for pulled pork, pizza topping, or as a dip for chips. This recipe is super simple and uses ingredients you’ve probably got in the cupboard.
Homemade BBQ Sauce for Pulled Pork is one of my favourite things.
An easy bbq sauce recipe is so much tastier than store-bought sauce, and there’s nothing better than covering your leftover roast pork in BBQ sauce, throwing it onto a flatbread, and topping it with cheese.
This makes a super simple flatbread pizza, that’s perfect for using up leftover pork.
BBQ Sauce from Scratch is also a perfect dip for chips or pizza, and there’s plenty more that you can do with it.
This Recipe for BBQ Sauce is my favourite. It’s sweet, easy, and tastes fantastic!
BBQ Sauce Ingredients
Most of the ingredients for this BBQ Sauce Recipe you’ve probably already got in your cupboards. It’s a for recipe BBQ Sauce without Brown Sugar, so a little different, but still sweet and tasty.
The base for my Easy Homemade BBQ Sauce is plain old tomato ketchup. I use butter to tone down the flavour and add a smoother taste. Then, there’s honey, vinegar, garlic, and Cajun seasoning, smoked paprika, and chilli powder to add a Smokey spicy flavour.
This is a BBQ Sauce without Worcestershire Sauce, but it has got a little Henderson’s Relish. You can skip this, or use Worcestershire if you don’t have it.
How to Sweeten BBQ Sauce
Most recipes for BBQ sauce use dark brown sugar and molasses or black treacle to sweeten the sauce.
But, I prefer to make BBQ Sauce with Honey. Unlike dark brown sugar and molasses, we’ve usually got some in the cupboard, I prefer the flavour, and Honey BBQ Sauce is deliciously sweet.
Homemade BBQ Sauce without Molasses still tastes amazing, better in my opinion.
This is a BBQ Sauce with Ketchup, like many others, and ketchup is a pretty sweet base for a sauce. So I don’t think it matters that much.
I use honey, but you could swap it for dark brown sugar, treacle, maple syrup, or even miss it altogether.
The best thing to do is to taste your BBQ as it’s simmering (blowing carefully first!) to make sure the taste suits you, you can always add more honey, or more ketchup, or even stir through a little more butter if it is too tart.
What Can You Make with BBQ Sauce?
I love this Easy BBQ Sauce on pulled pork or pizzas. It’s also a great dip, and BBQ sauce is always good on ribs.
Other things that you could do with BBQ Sauce include:
- Nachos
- BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
- Sauce for hotdogs and burgers
- Salad dressing
- Meatballs
- Pasta, with chicken, bacon, and cheese
- Burritos
- BBQ Beans
Check out some more ideas here.
How Long Does Homemade BBQ Sauce Last?
Your Homemade BBQ sauce will stay fresh in the fridge, in a sealed tub, for at least a week. Probably quite a lot longer with all of the ketchup!
However, to avoid any risk, I tend to just make as much as I need. This recipe is the perfect size for pulled pork.
Can You Freeze Homemade BBQ Sauce?
If you’ve got any BBQ sauce left, or you want to make a larger batch so that you’ve always got some in, you can freeze it.
Divide your Smokey BBQ Sauce into portions, pour into freezer bags, seal and squeeze the air out and freeze for up to two months, thawing in the fridge when you are ready to use it.
Homemade BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons Butter
- 3 Cloves Garlic (Crushed)
- 200 ml Tomato Ketchup
- 50 ml Water
- 50 ml Apple Cider Vinegar
- 5 tablespoons Honey
- 3 teaspoons Smoked Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Chilli Powder
- 1 tablespoon Henderson’s Relish
- 1 teaspoon Cajun Seasoning
- Pinch Black Pepper
Instructions
- Mix all of the ingredients together in a small saucepan.
- Simmer over a medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring often.
- Remove from the heat, and leave to cool.
- Once cool pour into a lidded jar or tub until you need it.
Notes
- Henderson’s Relish is a pretty Sheffield-specific ingredient. You can get it in many big supermarkets all over the country. You can use Worcestershire sauce instead, but it is not the same thing!!
- If you don’t have any Apple Cider Vinegar, white wine vinegar will work too.
Any nutritional information is given as a general guide only and may not be accurate. The information is provided using an online calculator and is specific to my ingredients. Please make your own calculations if you want precise information.
