Barbecue Sauce

This is our family recipe that my mom always made. My dad did the barbecue duty. :-)

1 C. vinegar
1 C. brown sugar
2 t. pepper
6 squirts Tabasco sauce
2 onions, sliced
2 C. water
2 T. prepared mustard
6 t. salt
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 C. margarine
2 26 oz. bottles of ketchup
6 T. Worcestershire sauce
6 T. Wright's liquid smoke

Mix all ingredients except the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke. Simmer in a pot for 20 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and apply higher heat until the mixture just begins to boil, then turn off the heat and allow to cool.

This recipe makes about 2½ quarts of barbecue sauce. I use about 2 cups of sauce to barbecue one cut up chicken or the equivalent. The remaining sauce freezes well. I often use recycle 8 oz. margarine containers for freezing so that I can thaw out just the amount I need.

Barbecue the chicken until it is about half cooked, then baste with the sauce during the remaining cooking, so as not to burn the sauce by cooking it too long. Decorate the chicken pieces with the onion and lemon slices after you have flipped the pieces the last time. They taste delicious after they have been cooked a bit!

When weather is inclement, I simply bake the chicken in a 350° oven for about 45 minutes, basting as above during the last half of the cooking. Also, it's a great time saver to bake the chicken about 20 minutes, then finish it off on the barbecue.

Credit: My family recipe.

Filed under Poultry Tagged American, barbecue, chicken, family recipe, sauces, dinner