Simple No Cook BBQ Sauce

Sweet, tangy, savory, ketchup-based bbq sauce is everything you want in a barbecue sauce and MORE. Read on for the easiest bbq sauce you can whisk up in no time!

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No cook bbq sauce

Cook it or don’t. This bbq sauce is fine either way.

You may cook this sauce if you want the spice flavors to infuse the ketchup base or you may leave the sauce to sit for 30 minutes before eating.

Additionally, you can choose to eat this sauce on your dish immediately after whisking.

Low in sugar and homemade in just a few minutes, this is a bbq sauce I go to quick-like when a grilled or smoked dinner calls for it.

Ingredient Households rejoice!

Better than any store bought bbq sauce I’ve had yet!

We are a food allergy turned ingredients kitchen family. The necessity of reading every single food ingredient on labels caused me to start asking a lot of questions instead of blindly trusting what the label said.

I remember the very first question being “what does partially bioengineered ingredient mean?” while in the candy aisle 6 years ago.

That sent me down a rabbit hole that I didn’t like.

And now here we are an ingredient household with no pre-made bbq sauce (or any condiment besides trusted mustard and ketchup) in the pantry or fridge.

So we needed a quick and easy bbq sauce recipe that I can whisk up (I say whisk instead of whip because you whisk this sauce) in short order!

Ingredient List

• ketchup
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• dry mustard (or liquid)
• cumin
• apple cider vinegar
• salt and pepper
• brown sugar (may substitute for honey)
• liquid aminos (or soy sauce), optional

How to whisk up this bbq sauce:

• Step 1- add all ingredients to a bowl.

• Step 2- grab a whisk and flick that wrist and incorporate that sauce well for about 1 minute.

• Step 3- enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Easy, right? And doesn’t take much time at all.

We’ve been sold a lie that convenience tastes better than homemade.

I’m here on this blog to ENCOURAGE YOU TO DISPEL THAT LIE!

Measure with your heart

This recipe will attempt to give you measurements to the best of my ability. I have tested it a few times and it’s almost right.

I can’t seem to explain this but I’ll try:

when I measure with my heart instead of measuring spoons, the sauce tastes better

Every single time. So take this “base recipe” and give or take as your taste buds prefer!

Is there a wait time with this bbq sauce?

No, there is no wait time necessary; however, if the sauce has even 30 minutes to sit to allow the spices to meld together and infuse the ketchup base, all the better.

Cooking this bbq sauce recipe can speed that process up but like I’ve stated, this isn’t a cooked bbq sauce recipe if you don’t want to!

Enjoy this bbq sauce immediately after whisking if you’d like.

Healthier BBQ sauce for the ingredient household

As I mentioned above, we are a food allergy family turned ingredient household.

The fact that many condiments, sauces, and flavorings can be homemade for a fraction of the cost is one bonus.

Another bonus is there’s no need to worry with high fructose corn syrup ingredients. No added preservatives that need researching. No junk!

Just simple, delicious, sweet and savory bbq sauce made in less than 5 minutes.

What meats pair well with this bbq sauce?

This a great all-around BBQ sauce meaning it pairs well with just about any meat.

We use this bbq sauce recipe frequently on grilled or baked chicken, pulled or chopped pork (in the South, this is what we call “bbq”), and many smoked beef meat cuts.

Cultural fun fact 1: Southerners call bbq what others call pulled or chopped pork. Northerners refer to bbq as grilling meats on a gas or charcoal grill.

Cultural fun fact 2: in the great state of North Carolina, we are a state divided when it comes to bbq! There’s eastern style and western style bbq. I’m from northeast North Carolina so a chopped version of whole hog pork with a vinegar based sauce is our go-to… and frankly, KING OF BBQ! Fellow Carolinians, you can duke it out in the comments here. 🙂 It’s all in good fun!

*A note on that vinegar based sauce: I have not mastered that creation yet. I leave it to the professionals AKA the elder mothers and grandmothers who know exactly how much red pepper to add to apple cider vinegar.

How can I store bbq sauce and for how long?

This bbq sauce can be stored three weeks in fridge and up to 3 months in freezer.

When using frozen sauce, allow it to thaw overnight in fridge or in a bowl of warm water for 20 minutes.

Powder vs. granules spices

We purchase bulk spices like onion and garlic powders, cumin, and chili powder.

Sometimes I buy the garlic granules if they are cheaper. This is not a powder. It’s grittier. In these photos, you may notice the sauce has off white specks in it. That’s granulated garlic.

Powder or granule spices are completely fine to use and totally up to you.

Smoked BBQ Chicken Pizza

This smoked sourdough pizza recipe has moved the ranks up to number 1 in our family favorite dinners.

Versatile and easily customizable, we recently used this bbq sauce recipe for bbq chicken pizza.

Use the bbq sauce as the pizza sauce, add a little cheese, layer shredded chicken, drizzle sauce, and lastly, more cheese. We dunked pizza slices into more bbq sauce at dinnertime.

If you liked this homemade condiment, you may like:

• Homemade seed oil-free Mayonnaise
• Homemade Brown Sugar (2 ingredients!)
• Make your own powdered sugar (ridiculously easy!)
• Burger and Smoked Meats Seasoning

Follow Along for More

Thanks for reading! If you try this recipe, come back and leave a comment. I’d love to hear your feedback!

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