Bourbon Barbecue Sauce

Bourbon and BBQ, a great combination!

This a great BBQ sauce. I’ve made many BBQ sauces over the years, but this is by far my family’s favorite. I've made this sauce many times without the Bourbon and it's a great BBQ sauce as is, but the Bourbon is a great addition.

Why Add Bourbon to Barbecue Sauce

The Bourbon adds a richness to the sauce. Because the Bourbon is added at the end, rather than during cooking, much of the alcohol remains in the sauce resulting in more flavor.

You'll want to use a good high proof Bourbon, with lots of flavor to carry through in the sauce. A sweet Bourbon like Knob Creek works well.

If you use the BBQ sauce as-is on a burger, or to dip wings then the alcohol will still be present. If you use it to glaze meat on the BBQ then the alcohol will cook off, but you will still enjoy the benefit of the additional flavour of the Bourbon.

If you do not want any alcohol in your BBQ sauce just add the Bourbon with all the other ingredients and the alcohol will cook off during the cooking process.

Bourbon Barbecue Sauce Ingredients

Cooking is all about layering flavours, and this sauce has many different flavour compounds, all working together to create a really good sauce. There are multiple sources of sweetness (molasses and brown sugar), acid (cider vinegar and mustard), and heat (paprika, chili powder, crushed red pepper, and black pepper). All these ingredients work together to create a really interesting sauce.

Butter: You only need the butter to fry the onions and garlic. 2 tablespoons of butter in this entire pot of sauce results in a minimal amount per serving, so it doesn't amount to a significant amount of saturated fat, and doesn't add any flavour. You can easily substitute olive, or some other oil to fry the onions and garlic if you're trying to avoid butter.

Onion: Regular white onions, or sweet Vidalia onions work well in this recipe. Fry the onions over medium heat for a few minutes until softened. They will cook more while the sauce simmers. The y do not need to be caramelized, but you could caramelize them if you want to.

Garlic: Just cook until fragrant, a minute or two. Garlic burns easily.

Ketchup: As with many barbecue sauces, ketchup is used as the base. Use a good quality ketchup, one you would normally use on burgers, or with fries.

Molasses: Molasses is much more than just a sweetener. It also thickens the sauce, and unlike white sugar, it's rich in iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and vitamin B6.

Brown Sugar: Most barbecue sauces are quite sweet. Here, you can adjust the amount of sugar to your taste. Don't substitute white sugar, it's sweeter and lacks the caramel flavour that comes from brown sugar.

Apple Cider Vinegar: Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) is an essential ingredient to balance the sweetness of barbecue sauce. You should not be substitute white vinegar, or any other type of vinegar for ACV. ACV is made from fermented apples, and adds a richness, a fruity acidity, and cider notes that are not present in other types of vinegar.

Yellow Mustard: Mustard adds an additional flavour element, and a little additional acidity to balance out the sweetness.

Chili Powder: Chili powder brings in a little smoky tex-mex flavour to this sauce. It contains cumin, oregano, garlic, other spices, and cayenne pepper to give it a kick. All great additions to a barbecue sauce.

Smoked Paprika: Paprika is made from ground red chile peppers. Smoked paprika is made by drying the peppers over a wood fire before grinding them into powder. Adding smoked paprika will add additional smoky complexity to the barbecue sauce, which will make for a more interesting sauce.

Black Pepper: Black pepper has a woody, piney taste and adds another layer of flavour, along with the little bit of heat it adds to the sauce.

Crushed Red Pepper: Bring the heat! You could substitute your favourite hot sauce. If you like a spicy sauce add a little more, or omit it all together. This sauce is great either way, with or without the red pepper.

Bourbon: This is what this recipe is all about, the bourbon. Add as much or as little as you like to add a richness to this sauce that only bourbon can provide.