This recipe is a little late coming to the blog, but better late than never. Late this summer I was craving some barbecue and decided to experiment with my own sauce. I made peach bourbon barbecue sauce with this years bumper peach crop!
Barbecue sauce comes in soooo many varieties, there is no one way to make it. This barbecue sauce recipe is a little sweet, but still balanced with savory flavors like onion, garlic, and tomato.
You could use this recipe as a base, and change it to suite your tastes. Like a sauce thats a little thicker and more tomato-y? Add more tomato paste. Want a more vinegar based sauce? Increase the vinegar, and perhaps decrease the tomato paste.
I used just a splash of hot sauce at the end to round out the flavors. You could use more to make it spicy, or omit it completely for a sweeter tasting sauce.
Variations to the Peach Bourbon Barbecue Sauce recipe:
- No alcohol: I didn’t try it, but you should be able to replace the bourbon with broth if it is not your thing.
- Vegetarian: Worcestershire sauce is not always a vegetarian ingredient!! Be sure to read the label looking for anchovies. Some brands use them, and others don’t.
- Simple pantry swaps: Try honey, maple syrup, or mollases in place of the brown sugar. Use any vinegar you have, such as white vinegar or red wine vinegar, in place of the apple cider vinegar.
- ⅓ cup diced onion
- Splash olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 ½ - 2 cups diced peaches (from 3 medium)
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg
- ⅓ cup bourbon
- ½ cup water, divided
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 3 TBS apple cider vinegar
- 1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
- 1 TBS prepared yellow mustard
- 1 TBS brown sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- Hot sauce to taste (2 dashes)
- Saute onions in olive oil until they start to soften. Add garlic and stir until fragrant. Mix in peaches, nutmeg and bourbon. Bring to a simmer.
- Mix in tomato paste, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, brown sugar, black pepper, salt, and 2-4 TBS water. Bring back to a simmer and cook covered for 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add hot sauce and enough remaining water so that you can blend the sauce. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Let sit overnight for flavors to develop.
Recipe inspired by Sweet Cayenne.
