homemade bbq sauce + grilled chicken wings

A couple of weekends ago, I decided to make my own bbq sauce. While I've thrown together quick marinades and dressings before, I've never actually made an American-style bbq sauce. I think perhaps I should have simmered it down... as it was, it ended up being still just more like a marinade after all. I'm posting it up because I'm still pretty happy with it!

the fresh ingredients for bbq sauce

Looking at the ingredients of several bbq sauces, they vary quite wildly but what I gathered was that generally you want something sour, something sweet, something salty and something savoury/spicy. With that in mind, I came up with this...

homemade barbecue sauce/marinade

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
1 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 chilli, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 a single celery stalk, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder

- Process all ingredients (except tomato sauce, blackstrap molasses and ginger powder) in a blender until smooth.
- Place blended mixture in a bowl and stir in tomato sauce, blackstrap molasses and ginger powder until fully combined.
- Let stand for a few hours, OR simmer it down in a saucepan until thick and sticky (read further for more of my thoughts on this).

Be warned, this will smell fairly strong! But it will mellow down after you let it stand for a few hours. This bbq sauce can be used to marinate your meat of choice, or even vegetables. The above yielded enough for about half a dozen generously sized chicken wings. As I didn't simmer it down, the sauce wasn't very thick and sticky so instead of saving some to keep for serving with the wings later like a proper bbq sauce, I just used it all up as a marinade. Hmm... now I'm thinking perhaps that would've been worth a try after all. Even though the consistency wasn't that of a traditional bbq sauce, I still liked the taste - and it had a freshness that a cooked version wouldn't have.

I used it all as a marinade. Wish I'd saved some to use as a dip for later!

After letting my chicken wings soak up the marinade for a few hours, I grilled them and they turned out golden brown and succulent, with a sweet, savoury, spicy hint from the bbq marinade. So my bbq sauce adventure may not have turned out quite the way I wanted, but it still had a nice ending after all.

the grilled chicken wings had a nice touch of flavour from the bbq marinade, and were very juicy!