Sweet and Tangy BBQ Sauce

This easy homemade BBQ sauce recipe is made with pantry staples like ketchup, brown sugar, and cider vinegar and is ready in about 15 minutes. This is better than anything you can buy at the store! The sweet and smoky flavors will make your mouth water, and it’s perfect with chicken, ribs, or even tofu.

I love this quick homemade barbecue sauce, which is a cross between Kansas City and Memphis style. It is a little thicker than Memphis style, but not as sweet as Kansas City style. It has a base of ketchup, vinegar, and brown sugar but isn’t too sweet! It’s the perfect DIY replacement for those bottles at the grocery store. So stop buying the store-bought sauces, and try making this easy bbq sauce instead! Bonus, this sauce is easily made vegan; see our tips below!

Homemade BBQ Sauce Recipe Ingredients

If you can add ingredients to a saucepan, you can make this easy bbq sauce. Once it is made, try it slathered onto these fall-off-the-bone ribs or stir it into our pulled pork (amazing!). The detailed recipe is below, but here’s a brief explanation of how to make it:

Ketchup is our base, you can use homemade ketchup if you like, but this sauce works beautifully with most store-bought brands. We have found that organic or natural options tend to be thicker and are made with no high fructose corn syrup.

To sweeten the sauce a bit, there’s brown sugar and molasses. I love how the molasses adds a richer flavor. Then, to balance things out, there’s pineapple juice, apple cider vinegar, and a mouth-watering list of spices.

Until trying this bbq sauce recipe, we had never used pineapple juice when making barbecue sauce. But, after tasting the sauce, we are sold! It’s sweet and tart. I love it! Bonus, after looking at a few store-bought nutrition labels, this homemade version has significantly less sugar added. Less sugar, but with more flavor! Win-win.

You probably already have most (if not all) of the spices you need in your kitchen. You’ll need:

• Smoked paprika adds the most beautiful smoky aroma and flavor to the sauce
• Mustard powder, we use Coleman’s (you can substitute prepared mustard)
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Ground turmeric

The last pop of flavor comes from either Worcestershire sauce or Pickapepper sauce. They are both umami-rich condiments used as a seasoning in soups, stews, and sauces.

Pickapepper is a little thinner, slightly sweeter, and more aromatic than the savory Worcestershire. Still, in most circumstances, they are interchangeable. As a bonus, Pickapeppa sauce is naturally vegan, so if you want to make vegan barbecue sauce, use Pickapepper sauce.

How to Make BBQ Sauce

To make bbq sauce, simply whisk everything together in a saucepan until it bubbles. Once it bubbles, reduce the heat and cover for eight 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 bbq sauce with pork ribs, pork chops, barbecue chicken, pulled pork, and roasted tofu!

This recipe is part of our chef series, where we share recipes from our friend and renowned chef, Richard Hattaway. We asked Richard to develop a barbecue sauce that is better than anything at the store, and we think he knocked it out of the park! We genuinely love it, and we hope you do too.