Homemade Black Garlic Sweet Heat BBQ Sauce Recipe!

First off, let me just say how easy it is to make your own sauces if you have the right equipment and the right ingredients! Yes, I know it is convenient to buy a bottle of Sweet Baby Rays at the store, but sometimes you need to step out of the box and make something you cant get anywhere else! There is a little bit of story behind this, so let me begin:

I have made black garlic before for a YouTube video and really like the flavor profile it has. Very sweet and nutty and a much more mild than raw garlic. it has such a different flavor that people have been know to mix it with ice cream with balsamic vinegar! My last batch I dehydrated it all to make a powder to use in some of my homemade rubs. I'll post the recipe for my Black Garlic & Coffee Steak rub some other time if you are interested. Well, making black garlic at home is a process.. a long and smelly one at that. So, one day I was checking out the seasoning/spice section in my local Costco and noticed this big container of 20 oz of black garlic bulbs for only $16 (see picture above)! If you don't know, black garlic is hard to find and is usually twice that price online! Well, I decided to give this a try and see home it is. I am in the process of dehydrating some of the bulbs to make more powder, but I also had someone in a Facebook group suggest that I use some in a BBQ sauce, and that sounded like an awesome idea!

I just so happen to have a fresh copy of my friend Greg Mrvich of the "Ballistic BBQ" YouTube channel's latest book "American Barbecue Sauces, Marinades, Rubs and more from the south and Beyond" that is chock full of bbq sauce recipes! So i set out to find a good base recipe that I could convert to something of my own with this Black Garlic kick to it. I ended up setting on his "St Louis Style BBQ Sauce" but I am sure I could have used any number of other recipes in that book and got a similar result. Really, the finished sauce that I made probably tastes nothing like any thing else in that book as black garlic is still not a very popular ingredient and it has such a different flavor profile that it would be hard pressed to compare it to any of them.

BUT what that recipe allowed me to do was get some of the proper measurements for some of the main ingredients I was going to use, like apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, etc. A good canvas to paint on pretty much. I highly recommend checking out Greg's book for a bunch of different sauce, rub, and marinade recipes that are super easy to make at home! Since black garlic is kind of sweet, and it is really black, I decided to substitute the molasses that was called for in the recipe for about half the amount of honey. I also substituted light brown sugar instead of dark, and used mustard powder instead of dijon. I also added a southwest spicy blend to it for a little bit of a kick. So, with that being said, I can honestly say that this sauce turned out pretty awesome! The tase is like nothing I have ever had before. If you like a "Sweet Heat" sauce that is a little different you really need to give this a try! Maybe Greg will add this one to his next book of recipes! Below is the recipe and I have links to the seasonings I used from FreshJax Organic Spices! you can use powdered black garlic, but I think the color is better on the whole bulbs. Enjoy!

Fire & Water Cooking Black Garlic Sweet Heat BBQ Sauce!

Wet Ingredients

1 can of diced tomatoes

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup honey

Dry Ingredients

2 tbs toasted onion seasoning

1 tbs granulated garlic

2 bulbs of Black Garlic (about 2 tbs)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp orange peel

1 tsp lemon peel

1 tbs dry mustard powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp of Smokey Southwest seasoning ( I used this)

mix all wet ingredients into a medium sized sauce pan. chop the black garlic into small pieces and add it to the pan. bring the mixture to a high simmer for about 4 minutes while stirring with a whisk as to not let the honey or sugar burn on the bottom of the pan. when the black garlic is almost dissolved, Add all of the dry ingredients and simmer on low heat and whisk until it starts to thicken after about 5 minutes. Use an immersion blender (or place in a food processor) to puree the mixture until there are no more chunks. if it is too thick you can add a little more water until it is to your desired consistency. allow to cool and pour into a storage container.