Thursday, May 5, 2011

BBQ Sauce

Does anyone remember the local restaurant chain Rib-It. I loved their ribs, especially on Mondays for all you can eat. What made the ribs so good was their BBQ sauce. They even used to sell it in local supermarkets, and it was the only BBQ sauce we used at home. When Rib-It went out of business we struggled to find a decent BBQ sauce until Mom found her mother's (Mommom's) BBQ sauce recipe. Apparently we ate Rib-It's sauce because it was the closest tasting sauce to Mommom's.

Mom and I did some test batches, including a night where we made four different sauces and ate a LOT of chicken, and made some tweaks to the original recipe. I've also made some of my own "unauthorized" changes to get the recipe below. The recipe makes about a gallon of BBQ sauce, which I freeze in quart containers. I use so much I make three to four batches per year. You can easily half the recipe for a trial batch.


Ingredients



  • 2 cups minced onion (about 1 large onion)
  • 1 cup minced green pepper
  • 1/2 cup minced celery
  • 2 2/3 cup ketchup
  • 4 cups orange juice
  • 1 cup maple syrup
  • 2 cups cider vinegar
  • 2 - 8 oz cans tomato sauce
  • 2 - 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes
  • 3 tbsp worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tbsp Tobasco Chipotle sauce
  • 1 tbsp liquid smoke
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tbsp paprika
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1 tbsp pepper
  • 1 tbsp celery salt
  • 4 tsp garlic powder
  • 4 tbsp vegetable oil

Tools

  • Knives
  • Cutting board
  • Measuring cups
  • Measuring spoons
  • 8 qt Stockpot
  • 6 qt Stockpot
  • Blender
  • Wooden spoon
  • Ladle
Instructions



Heat oil in 8qt stockpot and sauté onion, green pepper, and celery until soft (about 3 minutes). Add remaining ingredients and simmer for two hours. Liquify in blender and move to 6qt stockpot. Simmer until desired thickness (about an hour or two).
Then get to the grill and Enjoy!
.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I remember Rib-It. I'm not sure if I ever ate there or not, though.

My sauce for ribs comes from a copycat recipe I found for a chain restaurant called Roadhouse. It has Jim Bean in it and it's fairly sweet. Very good on ribs, but I don't particularly like it just for bbq chicken.

How sweet does this recipe turn out to be? And, do you use real maple syrup or Aunt Jemimah?

We haven't done ribs yet this season, but now I'm thinking about it.

bilhelm96 said...

Robin,

I find the sauce pretty balanced and not really sweet at all. It can actually be a little spicy depending on how heavy handed I am with the Chipotle Tabasco, chili powder and Worcestershire. Real maple syrup (shop rite brand). I made this batch because Mom wants ribs for Mother's Day and I didn't have enough sauce.