Sweet and Tangy BBQ Sauce

Not going to lie, but eating out sounds incredibly tempting during the summer months. I'm more inclined to stop and pick up food, order in, or just go out when it feels like it's 800 degrees outside. The thought of turning on my oven, even in a centrally-cooled house, makes me get hot flashes. 

Thankfully, the hubs loves to grill.  Actually that's bit of an understatement. The man's life wouldn't be complete without his grill.  I wanted to get him a monster sized grill for his 30th birthday earlier this month, but he objected because he's still head over heels crazy about his Weber grill he got for his birthday a few years ago.  Instead he got every grilling accessory known to man. 

I have zero complaints about the hubs and his grilling obsessions. Why? Because it's awesome during the summer to let the hubs do his thing with the grill and keep the house oven free. 

We're just a few weeks away from our third annual pig roast, which means the hubs is working on perfecting his BBQ sauces. Here's a quick and simple sauce that uses your basic pantry ingredients (as long as liquid smoke is a basic necessity in your house like it is in mine!) and can be stored in a mason jar if you make it a week in advance. 

Ingredients: yielded enough to smother 2.5 lbs of boneless chicken thighs and a small steak 

•  1 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 molasses
• 2 Tbs Cider Vinegar
• 3 Tbs Honey
• 1 1/2 tsp hot sauce 
• 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
• 1/4 tsp salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Heat for 10-15 minutes over low heat. Stir occasional.
2. Remove from heat. 
3. Let cool.
4. Use it

Seriously this sauce is that simple! The hubs made this sauce last week for steak and kept the rest in a mason jar in our fridge. Monday night he prepped the chicken and it marinated for 24 hours before cooking. 

The hubs was more than happy to try making baked beans on the grill using his new Lodge cast iron melting pot.  I'm happy I got him two for his birthday. Just make sure you don't pick one up first in store and try to carry it around for an hour. Those things might be small, but they're heavy! 

In case you were wondering - the hubs is a charcoal man and has pledged his allegiance to it for the foreseeable future. 

What's your favorite BBQ sauce? I'm a big fan of the sweet and tangy varieties.  The hubs likes his North Carolina (vinegar based) sauces for pork, but I'm more of a chicken fan and I think the sweet sauces go better with chicken.  The hubs is working on finalizing his BBQ sauces for our pig roast and he's tinkering with an Old Bay sauce and a sauce that uses "a lot" of liquid smoke. I imagine that means I'm going to be eating a lot of BBQ in the coming weeks and I'm okay with it!