This amazing Apple Jalapeno BBQ Sauce recipe is sure to tingle your taste buds. The perfect blend of savory, sweet, and a kiss of heat!

I created this sauce on a whim after craving something a little different on my ribs that the usual bottled BBQ sauce. I slathered it heavy all over my APPLE JALAPENO SMOKED RIBS and the results went viral (we’re talking 5 million views on Facebook so far…). I also poured in on top of Simple Smoked Pulled Pork, drizzled it on BBQ Chicken Nachos, and brushed it on a Smoked BBQ Fatty. This sauce is good on everything!

How to Make Homemade BBQ Sauce

I absolutely love making my own BBQ sauce from scratch, and have developed a pretty awesome formula for crafting perfectly balanced sauces. When making homemade BBQ sauce, your best bet is to remember these 4 key elements: fresh ingredients, store bought ingredients, sweetness, and acidity. For every one of my favorite sauces, I combine fresh ingredients (in this recipe, it’s the jalapenos), store bought ingredients (ketchup as the base), sweetness (apple juice) and acidity (apple cider vinegar).

In every homemade BBQ sauce recipe you make, just try to shoot for those 4 key elements and from there you can play around and make it your own. Maybe you swap the ketchup for some store bought BBQ sauce, the fresh ingredient could be peach puree, the acidity could be from some balsamic vinegar, and the sweetness from honey. Bam, that’s a new BBQ sauce recipe right there! Can’t you can see how easy it is to create gourmet combinations for homemade BBQ sauce??

If you want an even more in-depth explanation of how I build my sauces, you should definitely watch my Facebook LIVE cooking class all about BBQ sauce! It is about 30 minutes, but will teach you everything you need to know to become a master sauce mixer in your home kitchen. You can watch that video HERE.

More BBQ Sauce Recipes

If you like this Apple Jalapeno BBQ Sauce recipe, be sure to check out these other homemade BBQ sauce recipes that I can’t get enough of! The Carolina style sauce is written into the pulled pork post, so don’t miss that one.

Apple Jalapeno BBQ Sauce

This apple Jalapeno BBQ sauce is the perfect mix of savory and sweet with a little kiss of heat.

4.84 from 12 votes

Prep Time : 5 mins

Cook Time : 20 mins

Total Time : 25 mins

Servings : 2 cups

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Ingredients

 

• ▢ 1 1/2 cups ketchup
• ▢ 1 cup apple juice
• ▢ 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• ▢ 1/4 cup brown sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons molasses
• ▢ 1 tablespoon black pepper
• ▢ 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• ▢ 1 tablespoon onion powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon celery salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• ▢ 1 medium jalapeno (finely diced (seeds removed if you want mild sauce))

Instructions

• In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
• Transfer to a lidded jar and chill in the refrigerator overnight before using. Will last 2 weeks in the fridge if stored in an airtight container.

Notes

The spice level in this recipe is adjustable. If you like it spicy, you can dice the whole jalapeno (seeds and everything) and if you like it more mild, remove the seeds and white ribs inside the pepper before dicing.

If you are making the sauce same day, it will totally work fine. Waiting overnight is recommended to fully enhance the flavors, but I get that sometimes it doesn't work out.

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