With just 4 simple ingredients, you can make this delicious Homemade BBQ Sauce. It’s sweet and smoky and goes perfectly with grilled meat.
If you love this sweet barbecue sauce, make sure to try it on this beef brisket or these pork ribs.
Table Of Contents
Homemade BBQ sauce
With only 4 simple ingredients, you can make your own honey barbecue sauce. It’s as easy as pouring everything into a saucepan and letting it simmer. My family uses this recipe on almost all of our barbecued meats like garlic chicken kabobs and grilled pork kabobs. This portion is rather large, but that’s because you can store it in the refrigerator for later use. It’s always nice to have ready to use homemade barbecue sauce at home.
If you love homemade sauces, you’ll definitely enjoy our 3 ingredient chick-fil-a sauce and buttermilk ranch.
Ingredients
- 2 cups ketchup– this is the tomato base of most barbecue sauces
- 2/3 cup honey– this brings a light sweetness to the sauce
- 2/3 cup molasses– it thickens and sweetens the barbecue sauce
- 2 tbsp liquid smoke– adds the smoky flavor
How to make homemade bbq sauce
- Add ingredients together. In a saucepan, combine the ketchup, honey, molasses, and liquid smoke. If you have other ingredients on hand that you want to add, or if you need to make a substitution, go for it. This is a very versatile recipe.
- Simmer the sauce. Heat the saucepan over medium-low and let the sauce simmer for about 1 hour. Make sure not to simmer it on high heat because it can splatter all over your stovetop.
- Serve or store. If it will not be used the same day, store the barbecue sauce in the refrigerator. Otherwise, serve it on top of your favorite protein, like these BBQ wings or short ribs, or on the side for dipping.
Recipe Variations
- Tangy– Add some apple cider vinegar, mustard, or citrus juice, like lemon or orange to make a tangier version.
- Spicy– If you prefer a spicier homemade sauce, you can add crushed red pepper flakes, Tabasco, Frank’s Red Hot, or cayenne pepper.
- Bourbon– Add some bourbon to the sauce and allow the alcohol to cook off, leaving that sweet, delicious flavor behind.
- Low carb– Use any kind of keto or low carb liquid sweetener, like monkfruit sweetener.
- Thinner- Just use less molasses and more honey, or add some apple juice.
- Smoky- Add some smoked paprika (much smokier than regular paprika) to your barbecue sauce.
How to store it
This barbecue sauce can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container. It’s a great sauce to have on hand when you’re cooking and this will keep it fresh.
How long does it last
Homemade bbq sauce will last for up to 1 week in the fridge. It won’t stay for much longer than that because it is not pasteurized.
More delicious barbecue recipes!
- Easy Homemade Barbecue Meatballs
- Barbecue Pork Ribs
- BBQ Air Fryer Chicken Legs
- Easy BBQ Wings Recipe
- Grilled Pork Kabobs (Shashlik) VIDEO
Full Recipe Instructions
Homemade BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups ketchup
- 2/3 cup honey
- 2/3 cup molasses
- 2 tbsp liquid smoke
Instructions
- In a sauce pan, combine ketchup, honey, molasses, and liquid smoke.
- Heat the saucepan over medium low and let the sauce simmer for about 1 hour. If not used the same day, store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted on May 16, 2016, but we have adjusted it a bit to improve the recipe.
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LINDA says
THIS RECIPE IS SO YUMMY!!! VERY EASY TO MAKE!
THIS COULD HAVE WHISKEY OR WHATEVER. SO GOOD!
Dina says
Thank you Linda! So happy to hear you loved this bbq sauce so much! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave your feedback! I hope you find more recipes to enjoy from my food blog. 🙂
Joyce says
Love the taste of it. We will not cook the sauce as we are making barbecue ribs. Added a little chili powder and dry taco seasoning. We tasted before cooking was very good we may add a little bourbon. Thanks for the recipe
Dina says
You are very welcome Joyce! 🙂 Very happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for your support and feedback! 🙂
Peggy says
I just found this recipe and i am so thankful.
Dina says
Hi Peggy 🙂 Glad you found this BBQ sauce! I hope you love this recipe! Let me know how it goes 🙂
Bruce Camplin says
Why not wait until your favorite ” NON- HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP” ketchup is on sale then make this up in pint or half pint jars and can it up properly. Fill to 1/4 inch from top and use a 10 minute boiling water bath. It will last for a year. Adding a pound of chopped yellow onions sauteed in vegetable broth then run thtough a blender would make it perfect. I won a contest in 1960 with this recipe. Of course we had no liquid smoke then. We used a pan of water boiled slowly in an oak smoker.
Olga says
This is a great recipe. Tastes much better then store bought. My husband doesn’t like barbecue sauce but this one he was pouring over grilled ribs and shashlik. Never will buy barbecue sauce again.
simplyhomecooked says
Wow Olga that’s awesome! I’m glad your husband is a fan of my barbecue sauce!