This homemade barbecue sauce is easy to make and preserve. A copycat version of Sweet Baby Ray's, your family will love it!
The weather is starting to warm up in the last few days and my children even spent the weekend playing outside in their shorts! That may not seem like such a big deal, but if you live on the East Coast anywhere north of Washington DC, you know how welcome ANYTHING except another Snow Day is this year.
Brad even pulled the cover off of our wood-burning grill for the first time since the end of the Fall and grilled us some hamburgers for dinner tonight. We didn't do anything special (like my Jalapeno + Pepper Jack Burgers with Picante Mayonnaise recipe), just basic cheeseburgers, but they were oh-so good! I threw a batch of baked sweet potato fries in the oven and we had a meal that reminded us that warmer days are on the way!
It was good to get back in to our warm weather routine (and I like that I now will have a steady source of carbon-based items for my compost pile - the wood ash from the Egg!).
Jonathan (my younger son) likes to put barbecue sauce on his burgers ans as I pulled a jar of my homemade barbecue sauce out of the fridge - I realized that I never posted this recipe when I made it over the winter and it was time to do just that!
This recipe will make about 2 cups of barbecue sauce and is as close to being a copycat Sweet Baby Rays recipe as I can made so far. Jonathan is quite picky when it comes to his BBQ sauce and Sweet Baby Ray's is his favorite and he gave this 2 enthusiastic "thumbs up"
Whenever I make this, I multiply the recipe by a factor of 8 and use the water-bath method to can it. It usually gives me about 15 full pint jars and about a half a pint jar left over for the fridge! I would definitely try this recipe in a small batch before doing that - just to make sure that you really do LIKE this homemade barbecue sauce first (but I think you will)
Scroll down for the recipe!
Homemade Barbecue Sauce Recipe | Copycat Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce!
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups ketchup
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
- 3 teaspoons ground mustard
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or less, to taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon corn starch mixed with 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients except the water/cornstarch mixture in a saucepan.
- Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally and cook for about 5 minutes.
- If you want a thicker barbecue sauce, add the water/cornstarch mixture and stir and cook until the sauce starts to thicken.
- Serve and enjoy! Store any leftovers in the fridge
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