Easy Homemade BBQ Sauce Recipe with Ketchup and Brown Sugar (2024)
A homemade BBQ sauce recipe with ketchup and brown sugar that’s not only delicious, it’s also easy to make. You’ll never go back to store-bought BBQ sauce after you have tried this homemade BBQ sauce!
We go through so much BBQ sauce in our house it’s crazy. My kids eat it with pretty much everything, especially my son. If he can dip it in sauce, he will. This includes everything from chicken to potatoes.
We use this homemade barbeque sauce for dipping fries, chicken, and other finger foods. We also use it for ribs, hamburgers, pork, and to make BBQ chicken. We typically even put some extra BBQ sauce on the side, so we can have extra BBQ sauce to dip the food in.
The one thing we have not tried it on was chicken cooked in the air fryer. So if you do, please let me know how it goes!
This BBQ sauce recipe is a huge it at our 4th of July and holiday gatherings. We always have a cookout with tons of delicious food and drinks that we have with friends and family and then we watch the fireworks that night.
The drinks and desserts are my favorites! If you are looking for a festive 4th of July drink, I have an extremely easy red, white and blue drink you will love.
We also use this ketchup-based BBQ sauce for our Labor Day get-togethers and weekly barbecues that we have.
Homemade BBQ Sauce Recipe with Ketchup and Brown Sugar
If you’re looking for a homemade BBQ sauce recipe, it doesn’t get much easier than this. Made with common ingredients and spices you most likely already have at home, this comes together super quick.
BBQ Sauce Ingredients
You will need:
2 cups ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
3 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon mustard powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
Here is the easy part of putting it all together.
Now, before we go further, my daughter and I have had a bit of a debate about how to mix the sauce properly. She has her way and I have my easier way.
I’ll list both below, even though the only difference is the order of how you mix the ingredients!
Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix it until everything is all nice and stirred up.
The preferred way:
First, mix the ketchup and the brown sugar together. Make sure it’s stirred well so that everything is combined.
Next, add the mustard powder and paprika and stir until it’s all combined. The last part would be to add the Worchestershire sauce, stir, then add the vinegar. Add any salt or pepper to fit your taste.
If you happen to try it both ways, please let me know if you like it better one way or another. It’s something I really need to know!
What To Use BBQ Sauce for:
BBQ sauce for ribs
BBQ Chicken (or as a dipping sauce for chicken)
Meatballs
Holiday appetizers
As a dip for meat, chicken, or fries
For BBQ pizzas
Turkey (my son loves dipping any meat, even turkey, in BBQ sauce)
As a meatloaf glaze
Grilled Foods
Tailgating recipes (don’t forget the tailgating dips!)
I have known some to use this BBQ in sweet potato recipes (not sure how I would feel about BBQ and sweet potatoes though)
When to add BBQW sauce while grilling?
As a tip for grilling, wait to put on any BBQ sauce on your meat until you have about 10 minutes of cooking left. This will allow the BBQ to glaze over the meat well without having the sugar burn or not soak up the BBQ flavor.
Using Homemade BBQ Sauce In A Smoker
If you are using it in a smoker, since the smoker slow cooks the meat, putting the sauce on early is OK since it won’t burn the sauce.
With this simple barbeque sauce recipe, you can taste and adjust to your personal preferences which is great for picky eaters or those who like their BBQ with a certain zing to it.
How to store homemade grilling sauce?
Store the sauce in a mason jar in the fridge for up to 2 months. You can also use these fun BBQ sauce bottles.
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Print and save this recipe for future use!
Easy Homemade BBQ Sauce with Ketchup & Brown Sugar
A simple, easy homemade BBQ sauce that can be whipped up in a matter of minutes.
2 c ketchup
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
3 tsp paprika
1 tsp mustard powder
salt & pepper to taste
Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix it until everything is all nice and stirred up.
Store the sauce in a mason jar in the fridge for up to 2 months.
Ketchup is the base of the sauce, Worcestershire sauce adds umami, light brown sugar brings sweetness, vinegar brings tang, and two spices, paprika and cayenne pepper, add a smoky flavor and some heat.
Adding garlic or onion powder are standard flavors for barbecue, but get a little creative and try out different chile powders, peppers, cumin, or dried herbs to add body to the sauce.
The base ingredients of barbecue sauce usually include tomato sauce or ketchup, vinegar, and sweeteners, such as molasses or brown sugar. Other common ingredients include Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic, onion powder, and various spices, which can include paprika, cumin, and chili powder.
Brown sugar, white sugar, and honey are all common sweeteners in the pitmaster's arsenal. They're great in a pork rub or on chicken to accelerate the browning of the skin.
Ingredients vary, but most include vinegar or tomato paste (or a combination) as a base, as well as liquid smoke, onion powder, spices such as mustard and black pepper, and sweeteners such as sugar or molasses.
What Is Barbecue Sauce Made Of? Every red barbecue sauce starts with a tomato base. In this recipe, ketchup makes a fantastic foundation. Classic barbecue sauce gets its signature sweetness from brown sugar.
This sweet-and-savory Homemade BBQ Sauce Recipe tastes so much better than store-bought, and it's cheaper too. Best of all, you can make it with better ingredients and fewer preservatives.
You might try 2TB Flour and a 1/4 cup cold water and mix thoroughly before adding to the BBQ sauce. Depending on the type of BBQ sauce you are wanting, other ingredients can be added as well to some mixtures to add a bit of thickness, such as; tomato paste, or honey.
Add a few glugs of Frank's RedHot or Louisiana-style Crystal. Or any other spicy condiment, really: swirl in some sambal oelek, gochujang, or harissa. Play with the smoky notes found in a can of adobo sauce, or the citrus flavors in Cuban mojo. Another source of smoky flavor: smoked paprika.
Generally, barbecue sauces is categorized into four varieties: tomato-based sauces, vinegar-based sauces, mustard-based sauces, and mayonnaise-based sauces. Each category can have a range of BBQ sauce styles, ranging from sweet and tangy to hot and spicy.
Found in the eastern half of both North and South Carolina, Eastern-style vinegar sauce has the unique honor of being the oldest barbecue sauce in the country. Given its origin in the 13 colonies, it's literally where American barbecue was born, at the hands of enslaved chefs.
That added molasses in dark brown sugar is what gives it more depth of flavor, which is why you'll see it in recipes where it's an important ingredient like when you make barbecue sauce.
Brown sugar adds a rich, sweet, and nutty flavor to baked goods, desserts (and even some savory dishes, too). Molasses is the key element that distinguishes brown sugar from granulated sugar, and it's this ingredient that makes brown sugar shine in banana bread, gingerbread cookies, and scores of other recipes.
Table sugar isn't the only ingredient you can add to mellow out the taste of your tomato sauce. A pinch of brown sugar or an unrefined sweetener such as coconut sugar can add a nice layer of flavor that'll still balance the acidity.
The most typical type of barbecue sauce is tomato-based. The tomato in these concoctions is almost always in the form of ketchup, although there are exceptions to that. Tomato-based BBQ condiments became the most common in America during the middle 20th century.
Brown sauce is typically made with vinegar, molasses, dates, tamarind, spices, and tomato paste. This gives it a slightly more complex flavor than ketchup. It also tends to be saltier and sweeter than ketchup.
First, let's clear this up right away: no, BBQ sauce is not just ketchup. Not even close. The difference here is that ketchup is tomato puree and sugar (with vinegar and some other flavorings), and BBQ sauce is art (with a whole host of flavor-filled ingredients).
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