The Best Barbecue Sauce

  • Level: Easy
  • Yield: about 1 quart
  • Total: 30 min
  • Active: 30 min
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Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)  

2 cloves garlic, smashed

3 cups ketchup

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup steak sauce

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

3 tablespoons molasses

3 tablespoons yellow mustard

1/2 teaspoon ground celery seed

Kosher salt

1 to 2 teaspoons liquid smoke, optional

Directions

  1. Heat the vegetable oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, until the onions are golden, 6 to 7 minutes. Stir in the ketchup, 1 cup water, the vinegar, brown sugar, steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, mustard, celery seed and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the onions are tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in the liquid smoke, if using. Strain the sauce, pressing on the solids to extract any liquid.

Let's Get Cooking!

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Nick R.

This is an excellent recipe!  However my no-cook version is a close second.  Instead of fresh garlic and onion that require cooking simply substitute a teaspoon of powdered onion and half teaspoon of powdered garlic.  A quarter cup of low salt soy sauce replaces the vinegar and omit the mustard, which does not get along well with ketchup ever.  As for all the sugars, stick to the recipe if you want but adding molasses and dark brown sugar together is a bit redundant.  Choose one or the other.  Add a splash of liquid smoke and there you have it in five minutes flat!

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