QUICK 3-Ingredient Barbecue Sauce (So GOOD…You’ll Never Use Store-Bought BBQ Again!)
If you love southern-style home cooking, then don’t miss this easy homemade barbecue sauce! It’s super quick and easy, and everyone has the ingredients right in their pantry! So, if you find yourself with an empty bottle of Sweet Ray’s BBQ or Kraft sauce, no worries! Because, you can make this in a snap.
Barbecue sauce is a tasty addition to a whole bunch of favorite dishes. You can use this to marinade meat or as a dipping sauce. It’s perfect for chicken, beef, fish, hamburgers, seafood or even vegetables!
Why Make Your Own Barbecue Sauce?
There are lots of reasons to make your own barbecue sauce. Firstly, you’ll save a ton of money. For example, this recipe costs pennies to make compared to pre-made sauce which costs dollars. Typically, we pay for convenience and that holds true for prepared sauces as well.
Secondly, have you ever read the ingredients list in barbecue sauce? If you want simple ingredients to avoid those long chemicals you can’t pronounce — then make it yourself! It’s better for you to avoid all that stuff. If you’re thinking prepared mustard and ketchup has preservatives, then you’re right. Some do! However, you can buy ketchup with no high fructose corn syrup. Or, better yet — make your own!
Now, mustard on the other hand is much cleaner. For example, French’s brand prepared yellow mustard contains only: Distilled Vinegar, Water, #1 Grade Mustard Seed, Salt, Turmeric, Paprika, Spice, Natural Flavor, Garlic Powder.
Of course, brown sugar is pretty straight-forward. The ingredients in brown sugar are refined white sugar and molasses.
And thirdly, this is a great recipe to have on hand when you run out of store-bought barbecue sauce! It’s quick, easy and uses ingredients on hand.
About the Ingredients
As I mentioned above, one of the reasons to make your own DIY Barbecue Sauce is to avoid a lot of bad ingredients. Another reason is that you can alter it to get the taste you want.
I used light brown sugar this time, but if I have it I’ll use dark brown sugar. Dark and Light Brown Sugar are mostly interchangeable in recipes. Dark Brown Sugar just has a richer concentration of molasses in it. So, in this recipe, using dark brown sugar will give you more flavor.
Storing Homemade Barbecue Sauce
Unlike store-bought BBQ sauce which may contain a lot of preservatives, homemade barbecue sauce is going to be fresher and healthier depending on the ingredients you use to make it. But, as great as that sounds, you will want to remember that you can’t store this as long as name-brand barbecue sauces. Of course, you’ll want to store it in the refrigerator, similar to those big name brand bottles. But, unlike the name-brand sauces, your homemade sauce will not last for a year in the fridge. We’re talking a week to 10 days for homemade, versus 7-10 months for prepackaged after its opened. So, don’t make too much. But, don’t worry, it’s yummy and it’ll get eaten up!
QUICK 3-Ingredient Barbecue Sauce (So GOOD…You’ll Never Use Store-Bought BBQ Again!)
- Total Time: 2 minutes
- Yield: 1.5 cups 1x
Description
This quick & easy homemade barbecue sauce has only 3 simple ingredients. Save time, money and eat cleaner with my tips!
Ingredients
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
Instructions
Add ingredients to a medium-size bowl.
Whisk together until smooth.
Use in your favorite recipe!
Notes
Dark brown sugar will give a richer, deeper flavor because it contains a higher concentration of molasses.
- Prep Time: 2 minutes
- Category: Sauces
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: barbecue, bbq, sauce, sauces, easy, quick, simple, clean