HOWTO: Make Really Cheap Coca Cola BBQ Sauce
8 Comments Grilled on by gm February 6th, 2006 in HOWTODon’t want to go out and buy BBQ sauce at $5 a bottle? Make your own with a 20 cent can of coke, some ketchup, and any spices you like personally.
Here’s a recipe I think would work out nicely:
1 cup – Coca Cola
1 cup – Heinz Ketchup
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. honey
Basically you mix it all together in a pan and simmer it so that the liquid reduces to about half or a quarter of what you start with. And to be honest with you I don’t measure out anything other than the coke or the ketchup so those measurements might be a little skewed.
You can use Diet Coke if you prefer but I don’t know how the calorie-free sugar substitute will taste.
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8 Responses to “HOWTO: Make Really Cheap Coca Cola BBQ Sauce”
- 1 Trackback on Feb 12th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
- 2 Pingback on Feb 14th, 2006 at 6:02 am
That’s a good start. Add a can of tomato paste to it to thicken is some, because what you have is pretty watery. A half-cup of honey wouldn’t hurt it either.
Make it thick, make it you, make it sing!
Hint number two: when baking a ham, try using CocaCola as the base for your glaze. Yummy!
OK, dammit, I can’t resist LOL.
Forget the Heinz ketchup and use Hunts or any other brand. Do you really want to support Teresa Heinz-Kerry’s communist charities?
Politics aside, make the sauce THICK so it will adhere to the meat. More honey, more tomato. Jazz it up, a dash of bourbon or rum works wonders. Don’t be afraid of garlic, especially when cooking beef or chicken.
Explore spices. Try a little ginger, tarregon or thyme. Don’t be scared!
Thought of using a little prepared mustard? Dump it in there! Like horseradish? Add a little!
You’ll have your friends going “where did you get this sauce”, and you’ll be able to say with pride “you can’t get it at the grocery store”.
Haha, I used to work for Heinz (back in college) and not a single family member sits on the board anymore. Plus I voted for Bush because Kerry’s a flippity flopper (like a lot of people in Washington but whatever).
You’re right about the wateriness, having not tried it yet I didn’t realize but yes it needs more thickness to be a sauce and not a soup.
Thanks for the tips Mike!
It’s probably not a good idea to do this with Diet Coke, as I don’t think that aspartame (Nutra Sweet) can really hold up to the heat. Besides, how much are you really saving in terms of calories? You’re going to end up slathering this stuff all over a ton of meat anyway.
–dad
if you go zero cal, you should use the diet coke with splenda. Splenda does just fine with the heat, and the taste is much truer. Interesting recipe, I might just have to give it a go some time.