I don’t know about you but I am so over sickly sweet bottled ‘American’ BBQ sauce. It seems that the average BBQ sauce now competes with soft drinks over sugar content.
I’ve developed my smoky chipotle BBQ sauce recipe to keep the sugar rush under control with just a couple of tablespoons of honey and treacle. It’s also finished with some fresh squeezed orange juice.
The chipotle chillies in adobo sauce create a background warmth rather than heat. The sauce is best made a few days in advance so the depth of flavour has a chance to develop. And its happy doing just that in the freezer if you want to make it in bulk.
This barbecue sauce recipe doesn’t need any specialised equipment but I’ve added a Thermomix and smoker method in case you have either or both.
Ingredients
This BBQ sauce recipe uses a combination of fresh ingredients and pantry items.
It only uses a small amount of treacle. So, if treacle is not something you’d ordinarily have in the pantry, it’s fine to swap in molasses, golden syrup, maple syrup, or some dark brown sugar.
You could get away with dried oregano and tinned tomatoes but I think fresh is best with both these ingredients.
And I hear you, is there really a difference between ketchup and Australian tomato sauce? Apparently, ketchup is sweeter and that may explain my continued preference. Who am I to lecture about BBQ sauces! Please go with your own personal preference here and feel free to swap in Australian tomato sauce.
Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
It goes without saying a smoky chipotle BBQ sauce recipe needs some chipotle chillies. Chipotle chillies are dried and smoked jalapeno chillies. The La Morena brand of chipotle chillies braised in Mexican adobo sauce is a well-known brand in Australia. They come in convenient 100g tins.
I have also found the larger 230g bottles of the La Costena brand of Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce at my local supermarkets.
I keep any leftover chipotle chillies in adobo sauce in my freezer and cut off chunks to add to the pot when I’m cooking Mexican or just want an extra bit if heat in a pasta sauce.
Roasted or smoked tomatoes
Preheat your oven grill to high, with the rack directly below the grill. Halve the tomatoes and place cut side down on an oiled shallow roasting pan. Place directly under grill on high and cook until skins start to blister and burn. You want to see quite a bit of char and blistering on the skin as that is going to help with the smokiness of your BBQ sauce.
Don’t let me discourage you from lighting up your BBQ or smoker to get the tomatoes roasted. It is my routine to prepare the tomatoes in my smoker and I crank the temperature up as high as it goes. You do need to keep an eye on them though as they can quickly go from charred to burnt beyond recognition!
But while using a smoker gives an extra smoky depth, you get a pretty good result from charring the tomatoes under the grill or on your BBQ. And, if using a smoker or BBQ, I would still use a roasting pan so you don’t let any of the tomato juice escape.
Set tomatoes aside to cool.
Roasting a garlic bulb
I use the more subtle flavour of roasted garlic in this BBQ sauce recipe. But you can leave this step out if you want a punchier garlicky result in your sauce.
After you’ve finished grilling the tomatoes, preheat the oven to 230°C / 210°C fan forced.
Put the whole bulb of garlic bulb on a sheet of aluminium foil, shiny side up. Drizzle it with some olive oil and then wrap the bulb loosely with the foil and seal. You can bring the corners of the foil up, gather up the edges and twist to seal. Basically, it will look like a big Hersey’s Kiss!
Bake for 20-30 minutes until the bulb feels soft or a skewer or sharp knife goes through it easily. Set aside to cool.
If using the BBQ or smoker to cook the tomatoes you can also pop the garlic in at the same time. It will need to stay in a bit longer and its probably best to turn the heat down after taking the tomatoes out.
Simply blend and simmer
Try it out on USA style pork ribs!
I think this smoky chipotle barbecue sauce is perfect for my Brown Paper Bag Ribs recipe. It works just as well chicken and beef.
The BBQ sauce is naturally vegetarian and you can make it vegan by swapping out the honey for maple syrup or another vegan syrup. Then you can use it on any meat alternative you want to BBQ. I can see it slathered over a cauliflower steak and I will definitely be trialing it on my tofu burgers.
Smoky Chipotle BBQ Sauce
Equipment
- Food processor, blender or Thermomix
Ingredients
- 1 large bulb of garlic (10 large cloves)
- 600 g vine ripened tomatoes (5-6 large)
- 1 cup loosely packed fresh oregano leaves
- ¼ cup chipotle chillies in adobo sauce.
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon treacle
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 large orange (zest and juice)
- 2 teaspoons salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven grill to high, with rack directly below the grill.
- Halve tomatoes and place cut side down on an oiled shallow roasting pan.
- Place directly under grill on high and cook until skins start to blister and burn. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat oven 230°C / 210°C fan forced.
- Drizzle garlic bulb with olive oil on a sheet of aluminium foil, wrap loosely and seal. Bake for 20-30 minutes until cloves are soft. Set aside to cool.
- Zest and juice orange, reserving the juice for the end of the cooking process.
- Wash and dry fresh oregano and pick one cup of leaves.
- Squeeze out roast garlic from cloves into food processor bowl.
- Add remaining ingredients to food processor, except orange juice.
- Process on high until the ingredients are fully broken down and there are no lumps of tomatoes.
- Transfer the sauce to a large pan and cook on medium high heat, stirring as required.
- Reduce sauce by about one-third. It should start to look glossy.
- Add orange juice and cook another minute.
- Remove from heat to cool and store in fridge until required.
