This easy homemade BBQ sauce recipe uses pantry staples and is ready in about 15 minutes. It’s so much better than anything you can buy at the store and is perfect with chicken, ribs, or even tofu!
This quick homemade BBQ sauce is a delicious blend of Kansas City and Memphis styles, offering the best of both worlds. It’s slightly thicker than the tangy Memphis style but not as sugary sweet as the classic Kansas City version.
Our recipe is the perfect DIY replacement for those store-bought bottles. It tastes better, and after looking at a few store-bought nutrition labels, this homemade version has significantly less sugar added. Less sugar, but with more flavor! Plus, it’s easily adaptable for a vegan diet with a few simple swaps (check out our tips below!).
Key Ingredients
- Ketchup: We recommend using organic or natural ketchup for a thicker, less sweet sauce. Homemade ketchup also works!
- Brown Sugar and Molasses: These add a rich sweetness to the sauce. I love how the molasses adds a richer flavor than brown sugar alone.
- Pineapple Juice: Until testing this BBQ sauce recipe, we had never used pineapple juice in barbecue sauce. But after tasting the sauce, we are sold! It’s sweet and tart. I love it! Look for pineapple juice with no sugar added.
- Worcestershire or Pickapepper Sauce: You can use either, but my favorite is Pickapepper sauce. If you’ve not heard of it before, you’ll find it near the condiments and where Worcestershire is sold. Pickapepper is a little thinner, slightly sweeter, and more aromatic than more savory Worcestershire. It’s also vegan, so if you hope to make a vegan BBQ sauce, use Pickapepper.
- Apple Cider Vinegar: I love tangy BBQ sauces, so we add some apple cider vinegar to balance the sweetness from ketchup, brown sugar, molasses, and pineapple juice.
- Spices: You probably already have most (if not all) of the spices you need in your kitchen. We add smoked paprika, mustard powder (or mustard, see our tips section), garlic powder, onion powder, and ground turmeric. For spice, which is optional, add cayenne pepper or Aleppo pepper.
How to Make Homemade BBQ Sauce
If you can add ingredients to a saucepan, you can make this easy BBQ sauce. Once you make it, try it slathered onto these tender baked ribs or stir it into our oven pulled pork (amazing!).
Simply whisk everything together in a saucepan until it bubbles. Once it bubbles, reduce the heat and cover for 8 minutes. Then uncover the sauce and transfer it to jars so its ready for your next meal.
At first taste, you might find the sauce too sweet or vinegary, but as it sits in the fridge, the flavors will bloom and become one. I love this sauce immediately, but it gets even better after an hour or two if you can wait. We love this homemade bbq sauce with pork ribs, pork chops, barbecue chicken, pulled pork, and roasted tofu!
Tangy Homemade BBQ Sauce
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- TOTAL
If you can add ingredients to a saucepan, you can make this easy homemade BBQ sauce. This homemade sauce is better than anything you can buy at the store! It’s made with pantry staples like ketchup, brown sugar, and cider vinegar and is ready in under 20 minutes. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 month!
You Will Need
1 ½ cups (390g) ketchup, see tips
5 tablespoons (65g) packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
6 ounces (177ml) pineapple juice with no added sugar (3/4 cup)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce or Pickapepper sauce, see tips
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons mustard powder, like Coleman’s, see tips
1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or cayenne pepper, optional for heat
Directions
1Whisk all the ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Continue to whisk as you bring the sauce to a simmer. Since the saucepan is over lower heat, this will take a few minutes, but keeping the heat low prevents the sugars in the sauce from scorching.
2Once the BBQ sauce bubbles, cover the saucepan with its lid and reduce the heat to the lowest flame or setting. Leave the sauce covered for 8 minutes.
3Transfer to jars and let cool. Keep refrigerated for up to one month.
4At first, this homemade barbecue sauce tastes sweeter and vinegary. However, after it has cooled, the flavors mellow a little, and the sauce becomes one.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Ketchup: This sauce is best when made with thicker varieties of ketchup with no high fructose corn syrup added. You can use homemade ketchup, or we have found that organic or natural options like Hunt’s 100% Natural or Heinz Simply work nicely in this recipe.
- Pickapepper and Worcestershire sauce: These umami-rich condiments are used as seasonings in soups, stews, and sauces. Pickapepper is a little thinner and a bit sweeter than the more savory Worcestershire, but in most circumstances, they are interchangeable. As a bonus, Pickapeppa sauce is naturally vegan, so if you want to make vegan barbecue sauce, Pickapepper is the right choice.
- Dry mustard: Coleman’s dry mustard is excellent here, but you can substitute it with other mustard powders, such as prepared Coleman’s mustard or Dijon mustard. When substituting prepared mustard for dry, you will need a bit more. Start with one tablespoon of prepared mustard and go from there.
- Making BBQ sauce on the grill: You can also make this BBQ sauce on the grill. Be mindful of the hotter areas of your grill. Keep the sauce over the coolest, most indirect heat so the sugars don’t burn.
- Making vegan BBQ sauce: Use vegan-reviewed brands of ketchup, sugar, and molasses, as well as Pickapepper sauce, instead of Worcestershire.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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Best BBQ sauce ever – made with your ketchup recipe. Lots of compliments from guests & requests for the recipe.
I made your delicious bbq sauce so yummy! I used homemade tomato sauce because I have loads after the warm summer of 2023. I had to simmer it about twice as long but its really good and thick. You recipes look wonderful and I look forward to getting more. Thanks for the inspirational foods.
Wonderful! We are so happy you loved your bbq sauce 🙂
I’m never buying store bought bbq sauce again! The perfect mix of sweet, smoky with an after-kick. And it made the whole house smell great. My new “go to” recipe. Yum.
So happy you enjoyed it 🙂