Do you have your own BBQ sauce? Perhaps a family recipe that never fails when it comes to grilling? If not, you may want to consider making your own. There are many benefits to making your own signature sauce. It’s easy, healthier than most store-bought options, and you can customize it to suit your tastes and those of your family. With this article, you’ll learn why having your own custom sauce is a good idea, as well as get the recipe for a starter sauce and learn a secret to a great blend of flavors.
Store Bought Sauces – Sugar Overload!
Have you looked at the ingredient list for a store bought or well-known brand BBQ sauce lately? Where you might expect tomato paste or roasted red bell peppers, you will usually find high fructose corn syrup. Sometimes corn syrup is even the first ingredient … and these are not necessarily the “sweet” style sauces. The hottest and most salty sauces can also contain a surprising and unnecessary amount of sugars. If you check “honey barbecue”, you will hardly ever find real honey. Whether they replace it with malt, HFCS, cane juice, etc., it is still sugar. Adding a batch of sugar to meat is not the answer for the best flavor.
Custom Sauce – Eliminate Preservatives, Add More Flavor
When you customize your own sauce in a small batch, there is no need for preservatives. When you are not forced to heat anything (pasteurize, can, preserve or bottle) the food you use will retain more nutrients. By doing your own, you know exactly what it entails. Use your favorite local honey for a real honey bar-bq. Customize how spicy it tastes, the thickness, the level of spiciness, and the level of sweetness. So a homemade sauce will not only taste better, it will also be better for you.
How hot do you like it?
You can turn up the heat exactly as much as you want for each dish you prepare. Choose from red pepper flakes, cayenne powder, or your favorite chili peppers and hot sauces. Capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers taste hot, is actually good for you. When you use real natural heat sources like chili peppers, you get the benefits of capsaicin, such as anti-inflammatory properties, ability to fight hunger (great if you want to lose weight). Making your own sauce is quick and easy too.
A secret for a better mix of flavors
The different flavors work together in harmony, so season your dishes and complement the flavors of your food. A great way to help the flavors blend is to add chia gel to the sauce. Chia gel is the soluble fiber on the outside of the chia seed. The seed itself and the fiber are tasteless. However, the soluble fiber in the seeds clings to liquids and mixes the flavors. If you add chia gel to your sauce, it’s best to refrigerate for at least half an hour before serving or using, so the chia has time to do its job.
When you make your own special sauce and serve it, you will impress your guests. They will know that it has been customized for this meat, this food, and they will also know that it is fresh. You can get started right away with this simple recipe for a starter sauce. This recipe provides a basic sauce, but is meant for you to tweak it by adding a little of your favorite ingredients. For example, you can replace molasses with honey or add hot sauce in place of chili powder for a spicier sauce.
Basic BBQ sauce recipe
BBQ sauce ingredients
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons lime juice
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon molasses
1 tablespoon dried chia
¼ cumin
¼ chili powder
To make, simply mix all of the above ingredients well, in a measuring cup or small bowl. Stir well to make sure the chia is fully mixed. Let the sauce sit for about half an hour before using it. This will give the chia seeds time to do their job of blending the flavors, for a smooth and flavorful sauce. Then taste some sauce. If you need any adjustments, now is the time. Otherwise, you’ll be good to go with your favorite grilled dishes.
Where else is the mix of flavors important?
Once you start with your own sauce and see how easy and tasty the results are, you may want to try making more at home. Salad dressings for sweet or savory salads, mixed berry sauces for your ice cream, and even stir fry marinade, pasta, or your favorite soups. Chia seeds work great in all of these applications. They add two types of fiber, complete protein, omega 3 oils, and many different trace minerals. So when you use chia seeds in your cooking, you not only help improve the taste, but you also help improve the quality of nutrition.
