BBQ Sauce Recipe
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My Homemade BBQ Sauce recipe started as a kitchen experiment with my husband, and after a few tweaks, it quickly became our favorite, go-to sauce for pork, brisket, and chicken. Made with molasses for a tangy, sweet, and slightly smoky flavor, it’s a foolproof favorite for grilling or smoking meats — and ready in just 30 minutes!
Sheila’s Recipe Snapshot for Homemade BBQ Sauce
If you’ve ever wanted to find an easy homemade BBQ sauce recipe that tastes just as good as your favorite bottled kind, this is it!
My husband first started tinkering with barbecue sauce one weekend while he was smoking a brisket. After a few rounds of taste testing, we realized we’d landed on something even better than what we could buy.
My husband prefers a sauce with a little more tang, while I lean toward something slightly sweeter. We tweaked the vinegar, balanced it with just the right touch of sweetness, and layered in spices until we found a version we both loved.
The result is a sauce that’s sweet and earthy from molasses with just enough tang to balance it out. Even if you’ve never made barbecue sauce from scratch, don’t worry — this recipe is super simple.
Best of all, you can tweak the ingredients to suit your taste, whether you like it extra tangy, a little spicy, or sweeter.
Different Regional Styles of BBQ Sauce
Barbecue sauce has deep roots in American cooking, especially in the South, where it evolved alongside regional barbecue traditions. Early versions were simple blends of vinegar, salt, and pepper used to season slow-cooked meats.
Over time, cooks began adding ingredients like tomato, molasses, and mustard, creating the signature sweet, tangy, and smoky sauces we know today!
There are four general categories of BBQ sauce: tomato-based, vinegar-based, mustard-based, and mayonnaise-based.
Memphis Style, Tomato-Based
Memphis is best known for its dry-rubbed ribs, where sauce is optional and often served on the side. When sauce is used, it’s typically tomato-forward, with a rich, almost gravy-like texture that balances subtle sweetness with a noticeable vinegar twang. Rather than one strict style, Memphis sauces reflect the city’s diversity—savory, bold, and never overly sticky.
Eastern Carolina, Vinegar-Based
Found in parts of North and South Carolina, vinegar sauce is considered the country’s oldest barbecue sauce. Made with vinegar and red pepper flakes — never tomato — it’s sharply tangy. It is used both as a tableside condiment and as a classic mop sauce during cooking, giving the meat bright, bold flavor without sweetness.
Carolina Gold, Mustard-Based
Carolina Gold is one of the most distinctive regional barbecue sauces, defined by its bold mustard base. The sauce is bright, tangy, and lightly sweetened with cane sugar, giving it a sharp, acidic bite.
Alabama White Sauce, Mayonnaise-Based
Alabama White BBQ Sauce is one of the most distinctive barbecue sauces, created in the 1920s at Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama. It’s a mayonnaise-based sauce brightened with vinegar, giving it a creamy yet tangy flavor that’s most often paired with smoked chicken and chicken wings.
Ingredient Notes for Homemade BBQ Sauce
- Apple Cider Vinegar | I recommend using raw apple cider vinegar, as it adds a sharp tang that balances the sweetness of the molasses. If you only have filtered apple cider vinegar, it will work too!
- Ketchup | Use ketchup as the standard tomato base for this BBQ sauce.
- Molasses | My secret ingredient! Molasses adds smoky-sweet notes to the sauce, complementing the natural flavors of BBQ pork, chicken, or brisket.
- Mustard | Yellow mustard adds a little spice and acidity.
- Brown sugar | Adds a bit of extra sweetness and helps the sauce thicken as it simmers. Dark brown sugar will make it sweeter than light brown sugar!
- Kosher salt and pepper | Balance the sauce flavors with sea salt and coarse ground black pepper. Add to taste, depending on how salty you want it.
- Chili powder | Add chili powder for a subtle hint of heat.
Variations and Substitutions
- Spicy BBQ Sauce. For a sauce with more heat, use cayenne pepper. Add a little at a time, tasting until you reach the desired spiciness.
- Extra Smoky BBQ Sauce. Add liquid smoke or a dash of smoked paprika to the recipe if you prefer extra smoky flavor in your BBQ sauce.
- Molasses Substitute. Molasses adds depth and sweetness to your homemade sauce, but if you don’t keep it in the pantry, maple syrup is an easy substitute.
- Customize the Flavor. Feel free to experiment with common BBQ sauce ingredients, such as garlic cloves, Worcestershire sauce, and spices like garlic powder, dry mustard, or onion powder.
How to Make Easy Homemade BBQ Sauce
Skip the grocery store trip and make this simple best BBQ sauce recipe following these easy steps!
BOIL THE INGREDIENTS. First, add all ingredients to a heavy saucepan, bringing them to a boil over medium heat. Continuously stir until the brown sugar dissolves.
SIMMER, THEN SERVE OR STORE. Then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes until the desired thickness is achieved. Serve warm with your choice of meat, or cool and refrigerate for the next time you make BBQ chicken tostadas, saucy chicken wings, or slow cooker pulled pork!
More Recipe Success Tips
Storage and Reheating Tips
- To store: Homemade BBQ sauce will last up to 2 weeks when it is stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Store leftovers in a microwave-safe glass container to heat the sauce quickly!
- To freeze: You can also store your homemade barbecue sauce in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Before using it again, thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat or warm it before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
The longer it simmers, the thicker it gets. You can adjust the cooking time depending on your preference for a thicker or thinner sauce. You might want a thinner sauce for mopping ribs as they smoke, but I like my sauce a little thicker for dipping and basting.
Most start with a simple base of ketchup, vinegar, and a sweetener like brown sugar or molasses, then build on it with spices and seasonings. Common additions include mustard, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, garlic, onion powder, and black pepper.
A traditional southern-style BBQ sauce with a balance of tanginess, sweetness, and a hint of heat is a popular choice for smothering pulled pork sandwiches.
Looking for More Homemade Sauce Recipes?
Why use a store-bought sauce when you can make it at home for less? Try this yum yum sauce recipe the next time you make fried rice, Greek yogurt sauce for wraps and burgers, or this fun BBQ ranch dressing for dipping fries!
What to Serve with Homemade BBQ Sauce
It’s delicious brushed over smoked ribs in the electric smoker, chicken skewers, electric smoker pulled pork, slow cooker pulled chicken, or my bacon wrapped shrimp.
You can also use it as a glaze for smoked meatloaf or as a dipping sauce for chick fil-a chicken nuggets or air fried onion rings!
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How to Make Homemade BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup tomato ketchup
- ⅔ cup molasses
- 4 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the brown sugar dissolves.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the desired thickness is achieved. Serve warm with pork, or cool and refrigerate to use later.
Notes
- Use raw apple cider vinegar for brightness. The raw vinegar has a deeper tang and complexity that makes the sauce pop.
- Simmer low and slow. Giving the sauce at least 20 to 30 minutes on low heat helps the flavors meld and the texture thicken naturally.
- Taste as you go. Everyone’s idea of the perfect BBQ sauce is different! Feel free to adjust sweetness, salt, or spice before cooling.
- Store it properly. Once cooled, pour the sauce into a glass jar and refrigerate. It keeps for up to two weeks — it tastes even better after a day or two.
- Use it beyond the grill! Brush it on roasted veggies, use it as a glaze for meatloaf, or stir a spoonful into baked beans for a major flavor boost! Or use it as a dipping sauce with Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries!
- To store: Homemade BBQ sauce will last up to 2 weeks when it is stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Store leftovers in a microwave-safe glass container to heat the sauce quickly!
- To freeze: You can also store your homemade barbecue sauce in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Before using it again, thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat or warm it before serving.
Nutrition
Life Love and Good Food does not claim to be a registered dietician or nutritionist. Nutritional information shared on this site is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
Perfectly sweet and tangy!
SO good! Just the right tang, spice and sweetness!
It looked good. Walked to the kitchen and made it. I determined it’s not just good, but delicious. Plan to make more to store. I will keep this for more of my bbq recipes when in a hurry. I used it for a sweet n bbq smoker recipe.
Hi Sheila, this recipe looks so delicious! I love a good BBQ sauce so I am so happy to share it to my Pinterest for you and all our readers. 🙂
Happy 4th of July to you and your family,
Barb 🙂
This looks delicious! Will have to give it a try!