With just four simple ingredients, you can make this delicious Homemade Barbecue 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 these tasty meatballs or these pork ribs.
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
What else can I add to barbecue sauce?
There are a lot of ways to customize barbecue sauce to your personal preferences. Some great flavor enhancers include brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, garlic powder, and melted butter. You can add or subtract ingredients to change the flavor profile, so if you prefer your homemade sauce to be tangy or spicy or smoky, you can easily make that happen.
How to make homemade barbecue 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.
More variations of flavor
There are so many ways to tweak this homemade barbecue sauce with your favorite flavors. For those who prefer a spicier homemade sauce, they can add crushed red pepper flakes, Tabasco, Frank’s Red Hot, or cayenne pepper. For a tangier barbecue sauce, add some apple cider vinegar, mustard, or citrus juice, like lemon or orange. If you like it a little thinner in texture, you can use less molasses and more honey, or add some apple juice. For more smoke flavor, use smoked paprika (much smokier than regular paprika) in 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 barbecue 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.
Homemade Barbecue Sauce Recipe
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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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!