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This Homemade Barbecue Sauce……it’s just like Sweet Baby Ray’s and it totally has me wishful thinking…Come on. We were almost there, we even had some nice warm sunny days. I could feel spring!
Not!
But then, yeah you guessed it. It totally snowed last night.
I am not going back to my winter ways. I am rebelling against this weather!
It is April gosh darn it!
Technically I know April is a little early to be breaking out the grill, but let’s just say I am getting you guys ready for that hot spring day when you decide it is time to break out the grill.
Before you know April will be over, mid May will hit and with it will come (hopefully) warm temps! Or maybe you are lucky enough to be in one of those spots where the warm weather has already arrived…lucky you.
Really is there a better way to prepare for outdoor cooking than homemade BBQ sauce!
It’s pretty much any griller’s favorite sauce.
Heck whether you are griller, broiler, Gorge Foreman lover or baker, it is still probably your favorite sauce.
Over here we grill all year round. The boys CANNOT live without their grilled chicken or steak and my dad only likes his fish grilled. Not seared, not baked and not fried. Grilled.
So our grill gets a whole lot of use.
Therefore, we also go through a whole lot of BBQ sauce. Obviously.
Hands down, around here the family favorite is Sweet Baby Ray’s.
The problem? It is filled to the brim with high fructose corn syrup! Barf.
So I made my own. And oh fudge it is good! And like ridiculously easy. It takes me ten minutes to throw together! Yes, just 10 minutes! You definitely can’t get to the store and back in 10 minutes! Plus, my guess is you have every single ingredient in your kitchen right now. Honestly, it could not be simpler and it could not taste better. Even the texture is stop on. Sweet Baby Ray himself would not be able to tell the difference.
Yeah, I am serious. It is that good.
Homemade Barbecue Sauce....Just Like Sweet Baby Ray
Servings: 2 cups
Calories Per Serving: 497 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups ketchup preferably organic
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup pineapple juice or you can sub apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon worchestire sauce
- 2 1/2 teaspoons ground mustard
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper use less if you don't like the heat
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients size sauce pot. Bring to a boil and reduce and simmer for five minutes or until all the sugar has dissolved. Serve immediately or cover and store in fridge.
Notes
Nutritional values are based on one cup of sauce
Bone suckin’, lick the spoon (jar, bowl, table, whatever), good!
This post was originally published on April 7, 2013
Yummy. I made this and then hand my husband do a taste test between this and the original Sweet Baby Rays. Color is spot on. The only real taste difference is the flavor of smoke in the original Sweet Baby Rays and if you make this with pineapple the taste is sweeter ( maybe 1/2 pineapple juice and 1/2 apple cider vinegar next time) I added about a 1/2 teaspoon of smoke and about 1/4 teaspoon cumin. So good. Thanks for a really good recipe.
Im glad that worked for you and was good! Thanks for reading and commenting!! (:
Cooked it several times last year and yes! It is soooo good! I’m using it for pulled pork, burgers, ribs and and and…
Thank you so much!
This is just fantastic sauce!!! I made pulled pork for the first time for my husband and he raved about it! Wonderful recipe! Now, if I can figure out how to can it…
Thank you! SO happy you enjoyed it!
What a simple and quick recipe. How long does it keep?
Thank you! At least a month in the fridge.
I think it would be closer to SBR without the cayenne. Great sauce though, thank you
So happy to find this recipe. I love SBR sauce but the HFCS is a turnoff. I’ll be making this today to go with some BBQ wings I’m making. Thanks?
It was hard to get the melasse in holland, but have to say. WAUW, that is a fantastic sauce… Never tested sweet baby rays, but this is the best sause I ever had.
SO happy you loved it! THANKS!
Yes SweetBabyRay is our favorite &HFCS is Not!!! So this is an Awesome recipe *hi5*
I personally love “honeyBBQ” more than reg bbq, any ideas how I can adapt it n quantity?
Your forgetting the tamarind paste!
OMG!! Thank you for this recipe! I made it today, and it is fabulous! I made a couple of substitutions. I was out of garlic powder, so I used minced garlic. I didn’t have molasses, so I used honey. My husband and I LOVE it! Next time I will make it even spicier because we really love the heat. It was so quick and easy. This is a winner!
America’s Test Kitchen recently tested BBQ sauces and Bull’s Eye tested number one. Since I last commented, yours is the only sauce I make. But of course, you run out of homemade from time to time. So I bought a bottle of Bull’s Eye and tried it.
It has the same flavor profile as SBR with a more pronounced vinegar note. So, on my most recent batch I doubled the vinegar from 4 to 8 oz. and a perfect match. Two nationally known sauces with one adjustment. RE: My first post said that I doubled the recipe, hence 8 oz. vs 4 oz.
I made a few alterations to this wonderful, delicious recipe. I quadrupled the ingredients adding extra garlic powder and paprika. Instead of cayenne pepper, I minced about 10 habanero peppers (mine weren’t that hot this year) and also added additional corn starch. I put the bbq in canning jars and gave them a 10 minute hot bath. I’m going to see how long this will keep. Of course, I did try it before canning and it was fantastic!!! Thanks for the recipe!
I love the sugar! Not one thing wrong with it in moderation. I highly doubt anyone here will consume the entire recipe worth of surgar at any one time. I wish people would keep that nonsense to themselves and do what they want without bragging to the world that they are just sheep on the kook bandwagon. Let me guess, you all shop at trader Joe’s or whole foods right? I am shocked that it was not announced/broadcast here to show everyone just how obsessed with fads you are.
I’ll continue my moderation and enjoy life as that is the key, not this obsessive compulsion.
I came across this recipe while prepping for a church cook-out. I like Sweet Baby Rays, but like my BBQ a little sweeter.
I followed the recipe, with the only exceptions being no water-cornstarch mixture, a pinch of Cayenne Pepper, and I added a 1/4 cup of Honey on top of everything else!
My family loved it, my daughter even said it should be called Sassy Sauce!
SO happy you all loved it, thanks!
Do you use blackstrap molasses?
Yes. Enjoy the sauce!
Thank you so much for your speedy response! The sauce is fantastic, we’re enjoying it slathered over baby back ribs 🙂