We like the Stubbs smokey mesquite bbq sauce... but it's a bit
expensive and it doesn't really have anything in it that I can't find
in my cupboards. So the first time I used it I cooked just in the
sauce. The next time I 'stretched' the sauce with a can of tomato
sauce and added extra spices. Then I made my own bbq sauce with
everything except smokiness, and I added one third sauce from the
bottle to get that smokey taste...
Last week I bit the bullet and bought a bottle of 'liquid smoke' and I
made my own bbq sauce from scratch and we didn't end up using the
bottled sauce at all. I didn't write down quantities but I started out
with a small tin of tomato paste and a small tin of tomato sauce mixed
together and I used balsamic vinegar and worcestire sauce(sp?) for the
vinegary part. Then I added honey and dark corn syrup for sugar,
garlic and onion powders (we were out of real garlic), smoked paprika
and cajun spice and lastly a little hot sauce and liquid smoke. Then I
slow-cooked some boneless but fatty pork chops in it for three hours
on low, and boy was it good! The only thing was DH told me to use
twice as much smoke next time - it was too subtle for him.
Chicken drumsticks were on sale for 49c a pound this weekend so I
bought two trays and next time I want bbq I'll do them 🙂 Yum!