I've been playing with making my own barbeque sauce. Why? you may ask. Frankly it's an effort to avoid some of the garbage that goes into store bought BBQ sauce, mainly high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). In my opinionated opinion, HFCS should be avoided as much as possible. I'm sure there will still be certain vices, perhaps a Dr Pepper or two, that I will partake in, but if there is an option without HFCS, that is what I will choose.
Anyway, I've come up with a recipe that is acceptable enough that it's worth repeating. It's not too spicy, which the rest of the family appreciates, not too sweet, which the wife appreciates. It tastes enough like a BBQ sauce to go ahead and claim that's what it is.
The first couple of times I made sauce, I then added in some canned roast beef (from CostCo) to make some BBQ beef sandwiches. Tonight chicken was on the menu and BBQ sauce was mentioned. The children all thought that sounded good, so I went with it. I had a bit of a mishap to start with, but our Vitamix solved that.
I'm going to divulge my secret sauce recipe to all my readers. That's right, to both of you. It's actually quite easy.
1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce
¼ cup brown sugar
1 – 1½ Tbsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1½ – 2 Tbsp. chili powder
Splash – 1 tsp. Liquid smoke
1 – 2 tsp. honey
Combine ingredients in small sauce pan over low heat. I turn the burner on as soon as the tomato sauce is in the pan. When the sauce heats up it will bubble and splatter, so use a lid to contain it. Cook for several minutes until heated throughout. Adjust seasoning and flavor to your preference.
Well, tonight I went to the pantry, grabbed out my tomato sauce and sugar. Then I searched for the can opener, found it and opened the can. It was at this point that I discovered that my can of tomato sauce was actually a can of diced tomatoes.
This is where the Vitamix comes in. Instead of getting too frustrated or upset, I just put the tomatoes and the other sauce ingredients into the Vitamix and turned it on high. The nice thing about the Vitamix is its ability to heat up liquids, soups, and sauces. After a few minutes running on high I had a nice steaming hot BBQ sauce, no sauce pan needed.
While I was getting the sauce taken care of, I also started some green beans in my Platinum Cookware and got the grill pan ready for the chicken. We had some chicken thighs that were neither boneless or skinless, so I pulled the skin off. I would probably take the bones out, but I really don't know how, it's been a few years since learning that in my home economics classes.
Once the grill pan was hot enough, I placed the chicken thighs in the pan to start cooking. After a few short minutes I turned the chicken over, sprinkled some seasonings on them, and spooned some of my hot BBQ sauce on top. After cooking for a few more minutes, I turned the chicken once more, spooning more of the sauce onto it. The pan was covered and allowed to cook for about 10 more minutes as such.
I have to admit, the green beans were probably the easiest part of the meal. That's the beauty of the Platinum Cookware, I put a few frozen beans into the pan, added about a tablespoon of water (I didn't measure it), put the lid on, and turned the burner to medium. Once the wonderful temperature control knob reached 40 I turned it to low and let them cook for 20 minutes. They were some of the best green beans I've had in a long time.
All in all it was a good dinner. I've already had a request from the oldest child to make this more often. That's always a good thing.
So, if you try my sauce recipe I'd love to know your results. If you make improvements on it, which I'm sure is possible, please let me know so I can try the adjustments too.
Sounds and looks yummy!
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