Strawberry Barbecue Sauce is a luscious concoction of some of my favorite flavors ~ fresh berries, rum, raw sugar, cider vinegar, and molasses. Grill with it, slather it on meatloaf, or use it as a French fry dip!
We’ve been making Strawberry barbecue sauce on repeat all summer!
Today I’m cooking from Soul | A Chef’s Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes by Todd Richards as part of my effort to introduce myself to black American chefs, culinary writers and restauranteurs. The book is gorgeously illustrated and the photos make me want to make literally everything, from grits croutons and salmon croquettes to the pickled plum and mustard greens salad ~ yum! This book will definitely ease you out of your culinary comfort zone in the most delicious way.
(Earlier I cooked incredible peanut butter biscuits from the Queen of soul food ‘Princess’ Pamela Strobel, you’ll definitely want to check those out.)
No cheffy skills required to make fabulous homemade barbecue sauce
Barbecue sauces are always fun to make not only for the sheer number of powerful flavors that go into them, but because it’s usually a chop and drop method, with a final pass of a hand blender to finish it all off. All you really have to do is keep dipping your finger in to make sure it’s just perfect. This one is.
Fruit makes an excellent base for all the rich spicy flavors in barbecue sauce.
Strawberries cook down and provide a sweet juicy base that will balance the rest of the ingredients. You can use many different types of fruit to make barbecue sauce, you might try blackberries, mango, or fig in this recipe.
I’ve got other fruity barbecue sauces on the blog, one of my faves is Slow Cooked Peach Barbecue Smothered Pork Chops, I’ve never had such explosive flavor come out of my slow cooker before.
Recently I made Pulled Pork with Pineapple Barbecue Sauce and for that one I just used pineapple juice instead of whole fruit.
If you love plums like I do, try Plum Glazed Barbecue Drumettes ~ you can use that glaze on all kinds of other meats.
You don’t have to give up barbecue sauce just because the weather turns chilly, My Apple Butter Brandy Meatballs are always a hit, and I love to make cranberry barbecue glazed meatballs during the holidays, everybody goes crazy for them.
Homemade bbq sauce keeps the summer vibes going year round
The nice thing about homemade barbecue sauce is that, long after bbq season has passed, you can still keep the vibe going. Slather it over meatloaf, chicken, and pork. Use it as a base for cooking pork chops in the slow cooker, or as a dip for chunky oven fries.
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Strawberry Barbecue Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 1 cup dark rum
- 1 1/2 lb strawberries, hulls removed and berries cut in quarters
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup raw sugar, or substitute brown sugar
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp sorghum syrup, or molasses
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
- 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I crushed them)
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 serrano chile , or jalapeño
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a medium to large heavy bottomed saucepan and saute the onion for about 5 minutes until it softens and starts to turn golden. Remove from the burner and add the rum, stirring for 2 minutes (off the heat) Add the strawberries and cook over medium high heat, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until the strawberries have become soft.
- Add the vinegar, sugar, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, oil, syrup (or molasses,) salt, pepper, garlic, bay leaves, and chile. Cook for about 15 minutes or until thickened and coats the back of your spoon.
- Remove the bay leaves and process the sauce with an immersion blender until smooth. Move the blender around to get all the lumps. Be extra careful as the mixture is very hot and can splatter.
- Ladle the sauce into jars and let cool before refrigerating. Michael says it will last 2 weeks, but ours lasted up to a month or more.
I can wait to make this recipe. What alternative would you suggest as a substitute for the rum?
If you don’t want alcohol you could actually just use water, or orange juice. As for other spirits, you might use whiskey or bourbon.
I was wondering if this recipe could be doubled and then canned? It would be great to have it available year round.
Hi Pam, you can double it, but I don’t recommend canning, it hasn’t been officially tested for safety. You can absolutely freeze it, though, and it will last up to a year that way.
And don’t forget you can make this with frozen strawberries year round.