No liquid smoke in this bourbon bbq sauce recipe. Instead, this recipe uses smoked ketchup in order to impart a subtle smokiness to the resulting sauce. Yes, smoked ketchup. Believe it. Better yet, taste it. Whether by the spoonful or slathered all over ribs that are cooked low and slow. [Editor’s Note: Yes, we know, smoking ketchup may seem sorta fussy. But why not just toss it in the smoker along with your ribs or pork shoulder (or whatever you happen to be making and that you intend to slather this sauce all over) for the first couple hours? And if you do that, you may want to slip a drip pan under the meat and swap out the bacon fat in the recipe below for a tablespoon of the drippings.]–David Leite
Spicy Bourbon BBQ Sauce FAQs
There’s a significant difference between most marinades and sauces. And that difference is usually sugar. A marinade infuses the meat, while a sauce goes on at the end so that it doesn’t burn up in the cooking process. In general, you can start brushing your barbecue sauce on the meat about 20 to 30 minutes before it’s ready to come off the grill, especially if you’re using indirect heat.
If you’ve got a big old fire raging, you might want to wait until the last 10 minutes. With a sauce that’s as tasty as this, you’re likely going to want to slather it all over everything you’re cooking. But restraint is key—brush on just enough to get the flavor and pass more at the table. No burning, just lip-smacking taste.
You don’t need to break the bank when buying bourbon for a bbq sauce, however, do buy something that you enjoy drinking. The flavor will be present in the sauce, and there will be leftover bourbon in the bottle for you to enjoy.
This sauce will keep for up to 2 weeks when refrigerated in a covered container.
Spicy Bourbon Barbecue Sauce
Equipment
- 2 to 3 handfuls hickory chips, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes
Ingredients
- Two bottles ketchup
- 2/3 cup bourbon
- 2/3 cup Dijon mustard
- 2/3 cup dark molasses
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 1/3 cup store-bought or homemade hot sauce
- 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 4 teaspoons onion powder
- 4 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon rendered bacon drippings
- 1 tablespoon salt
Instructions
- Prepare a barrel smoker. You want the temperature to be between 225°F and 250°F (107°C and 121°C).
- Place the ketchup in a large metal bowl, place the bowl in the smoker, and add a handful of the soaked hickory chips to the coals. Smoke the ketchup for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Be mindful of maintaining a consistent temperature inside the smoker, adding charcoal as needed to keep it in the 225°F to 250°F range (107°C and 121°C). You may need to add more soaked hickory chips to keep the smoke flowing.
- Dump the smoked ketchup into a large pot. Add the bourbon, mustard, molasses, water, hot red pepper sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, bacon drippings, and salt and stir well to combine. Place over low heat and cook, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes, or until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce has thickened and darkened slightly.
- Immediately slather the sauce over some ribs or other meat of some sort. Any leftover sauce will keep, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
This bourbon bbq sauce recipe makes a ridiculous amount of barbecue sauce, so if you’re just cooking up a couple of racks of ribs, I’d recommend not just halving but quartering the recipe. Either that or plan to freeze the leftovers. That said, it’s a delicious, very robust sauce, and definitely worth doing if you’ve got the smoker going anyway. Smoking the ketchup is an interesting touch. The ketchup can smoke right alongside your meat, and once that’s done, the sauce comes together quite easily. The resulting sauce is not overwhelmingly smoky but simply tastes more like barbecue. Using liquid smoke instead of actually smoking the ketchup wouldn’t give the same result, so don’t even think about it. This is a very intense sauce, so use it sparingly. You want the meat to be the star.
how much liquid smoke should be added if using liquid?
Bonnie, we don’t recommend it for this recipe. Also we didn’t test it with liquid smoke, so we don’t want to hazard a guess. If you chose to do it, I suggest going drop by drop.