Today, we're preparing a homemade Rum BBQ Sauce. The sauce features a nice touch of heat courtesy of jalapenos and chili paste, savory notes from teriyaki and garlic, and sweetness from basil and fresh orange juice. This is all brought together using a base of brown sugar reduced in rum.

The result is a delicious, decadently thick, sweet and spicy sauce that's perfect on all kinds of grilled meats, from barbecued steaks to grilled chicken thighs, even French fries and onion rings are a great match.

Why Make Your Own BBQ Sauce?

Control the Ingredients. The honest truth about store-bought condiments is that 'very' few are of decent quality. It's simply too cost-efficient to mask subpar ingredients behind walls of blinding heat, mouth-parching saltiness, or obscene amounts of sugar and thickness - or some combination thereof. Add to that the fact that store-bought condiments (usually) need to have an absurd shelf life, and the mosaic of 'why' there are so few truly quality condiments out there begins to come together. Generally, the fewer and simpler ingredients a store-bought sauce has, the better, such as my preferred brand of super-basic chili paste (which I talk about below). When you make your own, you bypass all of this, since the ingredients are wholly under your control.
Super Simple. I won't call today's recipe 'easy,' but I won't call it 'complex' either. Basically, just combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan, and simmer - but don't boil - for about thirty minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Simple.
It honestly 'does' taste better. The combination of flavors and the 'freshness' evident in today's sauce is simply leagues above anything you'll get out of a jar. Trust me.

Ingredient Notes, Tips, and Substitutions

The Chili Paste. This is an ingredient that is so versatile I truly don't know how a kitchen functions without it. Chili paste works wonders as a base for everything from marinades to homemade hot sauces, or for adding some spice to red sauces or salsas, or even serving as a condiment on its own for meat, eggs, and fish, where it brings pungency, spice, and bright 'chili flavor.' That said, I don't personally use a fancy or 'hard to find' chili paste - and honestly, you shouldn't either. On the contrary, I use an Indonesian Sambal chili paste that sells for a couple of dollars per jar. It's a super basic mix of chilis, salt, and vinegar. It's hot, not overly thick, and allows the pungency and spice of the chilis to really shine through.
- Should you make your own? No, no not really. I know there are a lot of recipes online for how to make chili paste, and honestly it's just not worth the trouble. Yes, it's (relatively) easy and (very) inexpensive, but at the end of the day, store bought chili paste 'does' taste just as good as similarly structured homemade recipes - and is already really inexpensive on its own. Sure, if you want to 'fancy up' a particular chili paste recipe, go for it, but for use in things like today's recipe, store bought works just fine.
- Substitution: An equal amount of 'plain' Sriracha works 'almost' as well - but Sriracha brings a lot of extra flavors with it (due to being a lot more than just chilis, salt, and vinegar), and surprisingly Sriracha is quite a bit 'cooler.' Regular chili paste brings a good bit more kick, and a 'purer' chili flavor. Thus, while not 'ideal,' Sriracha is an 'okay' substitute.

Brown Sugar - Tasty, but what is it? There are two types of brown sugar, refined and unrefined. Refined brown sugar is simply white sugar to which molasses has been added. Unrefined brown sugar, as the name implies, undergoes less processing to allow the sugar to retain more of its original, naturally occurring molasses. In other words, the difference between white and brown sugar is the presence of molasses, which gives brown sugar its signature 'sticky' texture and caramel-like flavor. Contrary to popular misconception, brown sugar (both kinds) and processed white sugar are almost identical nutritionally. This is the case since virtually all commercially available sugar originates from sugarcane, the juice of which - as the name implies - contains meteoric levels of sugar. For reference, a mere 100 grams of freshly pressed sugarcane juice contains 73 grams of sugar. This juice is then refined and processed to produce molasses, which is then further refined to produce brown sugar, which in turn is then further refined to create white sugar. This refining process does nothing apart from filtering out more and more of the original sugarcane plant to isolate and crystallize the sugar itself.
Rum - The Star of the Show. Let's start off by saying that, as with almost any recipe calling for alcohol, I like to follow two simple rules. The first is "Do not cook with an alcohol that you wouldn't enjoy on its own." The second is "Do not cook with pricey or otherwise 'high quality' alcohol." These are 'not' contradictory rules. The taste of the alcohol is invariably going to influence your food - otherwise, why would you be cooking with it? - and as such, you want that influence to be 'tasty' and 'pleasant.' Thus, cook with an alcohol that you would enjoy on its own. However, boiling alcohol 'does' remove a lot of the nuance and 'finer' qualities that make 'fine' alcohol 'fine.' As such, there's no sense in boiling away the 'finer points' of a quality alcohol, since those 'finer points' are what make the alcohol quality in the first place.
- What this Means: Use a 'decent' but not 'pricey' rum.

Today's Sauce Pairs Great With

French Fries: Homemade fries and today's BBQ sauce are a match made in heaven. I prepare mine oven-baked with a dusting of cayenne, garlic, and pepper.
Onion Rings: Today's BBQ sauce goes great with fried onion rings. I prepare my onion rings with just a hint of spice, and a thick, dense batter that crisps up beautifully during frying.
All the Meats: Whether we're talking about fried chicken, grilled pork, or BBQ'd ribs, today's sauce is a simply delicious pairing.