The Ultimate BBQ Sauce

This was our main dish for our 4th of July celebration, which wasn't much of a celebration since Finley and I were both down with colds. Regardless we rallied and put together a fun barbecue dinner. Our ribs weren't as tender as we would have liked so we're going to do some further experimentation on that part of the recipe. But the homemade barbecue sauce was to die for! I keep sneaking little bites here and there all afternoon as it sat on the stove - not to worry I didn't double-dip as to contaminate Andrew with my cold :-)

I think this will become my go to BBQ sauce recipe. It's another recipe from Tyler Florence and he mentioned that you can make the same sauce but add peach preserves to create a peach barbecue sauce for chicken. That will be next on my list!

The Ultimate BBQ Sauce

recipe from Tyler's Ultimate by Tyler Florence

1 bacon slice

1 bunch fresh thyme

extra virgin olive oil

1/2 onion

2 garlic cloves

2 cups ketchup

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

freshly ground black pepper

Wrap the bacon around the thyme bunch and tie together with kitchen twine. Heat about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the thyme bundle and cook slowly for 3-4 minutes to render the bacon fat and to give the sauce a nice smoky flavor. Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly without coloring for 5 minutes. Add all the rest of the ingredients, give the sauce a stir, and turn the heat down to low. Cook slowly for 20 minutes to meld the flavors. (We cooked ours for over two hours while the ribs were cooking.) Just before serving, remove thyme bundle, onion and garlic cloves.