My BBQ Sauce Recipe

My son and I bought a smoker a couple of weeks back. Today we are preparing to smoke some baby back ribs tomorrow. Nothing like picking one of the hardest things for our first venture into smoking.

This summer, I stopped buying barbecue sauce in a jar and starting making my own. I just thought it would be fun to make my own sauce, plus there is a lot of preservatives in store bought sauces that I can do without.  I'm actually cooking some of this sauce right now and it is making the house smell so good that I thought I'd share.

This recipe is a fairly simple barbecue sauce, adapted from the Neely's Recipe on Food Network.  I'm finding more and more that I prefer simple recipes because they are easier to make and they always seem to taste good.  Sometimes a ton of ingredients just muddies the flavor.  If you follow the link to the Food Network, you'll see that I haven't changed this recipe much. 

Ingredients:
2 cups ketchup (I prefer Hunt's)
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
5 TBSP brown sugar
5 TBSP white sugar
1/2 TBSP black pepper
1/2 TBSP onion powder
1/2 TBSP ground mustard
1/2 TBSP garlic powder
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 TBSP liquid smoke

In a saucepan, combine all ingredients.  Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, for 1 hour 15 minutes.

I've tried a few other barbecue sauce recipes and this one is the best, and it's super easy.  If you like tomato/ketchup based barbecue sauce, you will like this.  It ends up being sweet and tangy with a peppery kick at the back of your throat.  I think this recipe tastes very similar to Famous Dave's Rich and Sassy, just not quite a sweet.