Wow, ya’ll must think I’m crazy with all this homemade stuff this week. You may be wondering if I do nothing all day but experiment in my kitchen with marinades, homemade buns and sauces and butter…
I don’t, but I sure would like to!
I make time for the things that are important to me. Making our own bread is important to me. Cooking good food (both in taste and nutrition) is important to me. Having homemade bbq sauce on a tri-tip sandwich is very important to me.
So when I ran out of bbq sauce, I did what any other money-saving momma with buns in the oven (literally) would do. I found a recipe to make my own!
I opened up my handy-dandy all-purpose cookbook and located the one, lonesome bbq sauce recipe. I quickly scanned it and realized that of the eleven ingredients it calls for, I flat out didn’t have two, didn’t have enough of two others and then there was an ingredient that I think the editors missed because I would never put it in bbq sauce.
Plan B anyone?
I started by tossing the ingredients I did have into my saucepan and substituted everything else. If anything, I was going in the right direction (which was away from no sauce at all). The end result? A delicious, tangy bbq sauce that rivals any North Carolina bbq joint.
Hooray for accidental recipes that taste good!
One homemade bbq sauce batch made roughly 28 ounces – plenty for our 12 tri-tip sandwiches and even more in the fridge for future grilling. With my dump and whisk style (’cause that’s how I roll), anyone can make this and even adjust it to your own tastebuds!!
Homemade BBQ Sauce
Delicious, easy, simple, tangy, family favorite, smoky, and sweet homemade bbq sauce. Uses ingredients already in your pantry.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: About 3 cups 1x
- Category: Sauces & Condiments
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups ketchup (consider making it from scratch)
- 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar**
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar**
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp yellow mustard
- 1 tbsp spicy mustard
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground garlic
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp chili powder
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer, stirring often, for about 5-10 minutes. Whisk ingredients together to make the sauce smooth.
Notes
** The original recipe called for 1 cup of apple cider or red wine vinegar. I only had 2/3 cup of apple cider and was feeling stingy with the red wine vinegar, so I opted for the smooth, lighter taste of rice vinegar. Use what you have on hand, but I wouldn’t recommend using white. Feel free to adjust the ginger, garlic and chili powder to your liking!
Additional Recipe Options: The overall flavor of this sauce can be changed significantly with few, minor ingredient changes. Swap honey for brown sugar to get a sweeter flavor, or use molasses for a deeper taste. Use all spicy brown mustard, all yellow mustard or even double the quantity. Try fresh garlic and ginger instead of ground, or all apple cider vinegar instead of partly rice vinegar.
There you have it! If you’ve been with me all week, you’ve now got my innermost secrets to the best homemade bbq sauce and best bbq tri-tip sandwich ever. Anyone want to take a guess at what our complete sandwich rings up at?
The recipe above costs $2.20 to make. That seems high for bbq sauce (especially since it’s been on sale recently for as low as $1 cents per bottle), but it makes nearly twice as much as the bottles that have been on sale PLUS we know exactly what’s in our version. No weird xanthum gum or anything else to make our sauce “hold” together. I’m thinking our homemade batch generously sauces 20 sandwiches, making them 11 cents a piece. Add this to our running total and we’ve paid $1.30 for an amazing sandwich. Wow! Remember how I mentioned we paid $6.50 for the same sandwich at a bbq joint? It’s no wonder how we save money when we don’t eat out!
Now let’s assemble those puppies and eat!
Allow yourself about 2.5 hours total cooking time for these amazing sandwiches. In case you’re wondering, here’s how a typical night of bbq tri-tip sandwiches looks in our house. Assuming dinner is at 6pm:
- Start the dough – warm the milk and add to yeast.
- While the yeast is proofing, light the grill to get the charcoal hot.
- While waiting on the charcoal, finish the dough and let it rise.
- The grill should be hot so put on the meat.
- Make the butter.
- Make the sauce.
- Be productive for an hour… like make macaroni & cheese or sautéed green beans or greek pasta salad or chocolate raspberry cupcakes. 🙂
- Check the meat, flip if necessary.
- Check the dough. Turn out the dough, make buns and let rest.
- Be productive for 30 minutes, or check the meat and pull off the grill if it’s done. Let it rest.
- Put buns in the oven and bake.
- Be productive until the timer goes off.
- When the buns are done, cool slightly before using a bread knife to slice in half.
Assembly: Coat each half of the bun with ample garlic butter – don’t skimp out! Layer the thinly sliced tri-tip on top, douse with homemade bbq sauce and bite.
The official best homemade bbq sauce and best tri-tip sandwich on the face on the earth.
And no, I’m not biased. 😉
Savor the sandwich and let your taste buds devour!
Enjoy with sides like Baked Beans, Broccoli Salad, and Pasta Salad!
What’s your favorite homemade bbq sauce?
Get the full scoop on homemade tri-tip sandwiches:
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Oh my gosh this was amazing!!! I’m never buying it again! Quick question, how long will this keep in my fridge?
And on another note you personally are responsible for my success in the kitchen. I’ve been married almost 10 yrs and my cooking has been touch and go…mediocre at best and now my husband is over the moon thrilled about the flavor and lower spending budget!!!!! So, I can’t thank you enough or sing your praises enough!
★★★★★
Aw, what a compliment! Thank you so much Erin – you just made my week!! ♥
Made pulled pork and couldn’t find just the right sauce until this recipe! It was exactly want I wanted. It will become our standard bbq sauce from now on. So very good.
★★★★★
Thanks Lisa!
Wow This was so good … my daughter whom does not like meat ate a full pork chop wiht the bbq sauce ! Thank you so much
That’s great news Monique – so glad she liked it!!
So happy you posted this recipe and there is no sugar, honey, molasses etc in it! We’re trying to cut out sugar at our house. Thank you!
You’re most welcome April!
Thanks for the recipe. Looking forward to making it within the next couple of days. You may have already addressed this and I missed it, but I was wondering how long will the sauce last in the fridge?
Hi Aaron! The sauce should be good for 1-3 weeks in the fridge. The vinegar will help preserve it a bit. 🙂
Just started following your blog this month and LOVE it! Made these sandwiches for the first time tonight and my husband’s exact words were, “Did you write this recipe down?! This is the BEST bbq sandwich I have EVER had!” Thanks!
Hi Tiffany,
What an awesome sandwich, that sauce is heavenly! Hope you are having a great week and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
I’m saving this recipe!! The BBQ sauce looks sooo darn YUMMY!!!!
Thanks so much for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer.. From Dream To Reality!
Sounds delish. The perfect summer flavor. Thanks for sharing on BeColorful this week.
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Looks so good. What a great blog you have makes me hungry lol. have a great day
Oh my word.. YUM!!!
Great post. I found this through Turning the Clock Back’s What’s Cooking Wednesday. I have linked in a post about some home-made steak burgers I did. Have a lovely week.
Mmm, this sounds perfect. I’ve been itching to try making my own BBQ sauce for pulled pork sandwiches, and this recipe sounds killer. I think I need to give it a try sometime this week!
I think this would go well with pulled pork. You can add your own liquid smoke if you were wanted some of that rich-type flavor – we just didn’t have any in the house. I hope you like it!
Yummy! Stopping by from Creative Me Link Up . I love your blog!
Oh my, my mouth is watering! Thanks for sharing at Church Supper. Have a blessed week & come back soon.
This looks so yummy.
PS: Thank you for linking up to Show Me What You Got Tuesday’s @ ODH!
Mrs. Delightful
Yay, yay, yay! My favorite’s always anything prepared by someone else…so this will be a new experience for me. 🙂
Please! I beg you, send 3 sandwiches right over. I’ll pay for them!! 🙂
Have a great day.
Leona
Leona, you crack me up! We miss you dearly. If you were here, I’d make you an entire batch so you could enjoy them all week long!
Thanks for the recipe, I will definitely try it. The one I buy has Guinness Stout as an ingredient so I might add that. How about some home-baked beans? It’s something I make regularly, it’s inexpensive, healthy, and an amazing transformation of simple ingredients into something totally different and delicious. Goes well with BBQ and I’ve been adding some BBQ sauce to the bean mixture. (I’ll post my basic recipe when I’m at my home computer.)
Mmmm… beans! Mr. Crumbs isn’t a huge fan of beans, but as we inspect our diet and the nutrition of foods more, I’ll venture to say they’ll be included more often in our meals. Guinness sounds yummy in a bbq sauce!
I noticed you have mustard and ketchup in your sauce. Is there any xantham gum in those products?
Great recipe – i’ll have to try it : )
I checked both labels and there’s no xantham gum, but the ketchup does have high fructose corn syrup. Thanks for the catch! My family and I plan to buy organic ketchup from here on out!