Kansas City BBQ Sauce
On July 30, 2019 (Updated May 10, 2024)
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Kansas City BBQ sauce is the perfect balance of sweet and tangy. It’s rich from the molasses, bright from the acidic tomatoes and vinegar, and has just the right amount of heat from the chili powder. It’s a classic, ketchup-based BBQ sauce that is a must-have for chicken, ribs, and more!
Homemade BBQ Sauce
Making your own homemade BBQ sauce is something I recommend trying at least once. Though, once you make some from scratch, you’ll likely find yourself making your own sauce over and over again. I personally love making food that has all natural ingredients without anything added (especially all those ingredients I can’t pronounce!), and this BBQ sauce is full of only the good stuff.
This sauce is made from a tomato and molasses base. I add in some brown sugar and apple cider vinegar for a sweet and tangy zip, and then infuse it with 8 spices to give it a well-rounded flavor with a tiny kick of heat at the end. It’s my go-to BBQ sauce when I need that perfect, quintessential sauce. It’s so good, I usually have a jar of it in my fridge at all times.
This sauce is great to make and eat the same day, but if you’ve got the time to let it sit, it is even better after letting it rest for 24 hours. That extra day in the refrigerator gives all of the ingredients time to hang out and get comfortable with each other, resulting in a smoother and more delicious sauce. If you end up with any leftovers, it lasts great in the refrigerator. Make sure you keep it in an airtight container (I usually store my sauces in a simple wide mouth mason jar), and it should last you at least two weeks.
What is Kansas City BBQ Sauce?
I was fortunate enough to visit Kansas City in 2017 for my second Guinness World Record and eat at the best restaurants around. It was pretty darn amazing. While there, I packed my days with BBQ for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Kansas is famous for their burnt ends, and the best complement for tender, smoked beef is a great sauce.
Kansas city BBQ sauce has got it’s own flare and flavor. Most Kansas City style sauces are tomato based, almost all have molasses, and from the ones that I tasted, they all give you a little kick of heat at the end from chili powder, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, or a combination of all three. This homemade version hits all of those major flavor components with my own Hey Grill Hey twist.
How to Make BBQ Sauce
Making your own BBQ sauce at home is inexpensive, easy, and takes less than 30 minutes. Follow along with these 3 simple steps, and you will soon see how it’s totally worth it to make your own sauce at home.
- Boil the ingredients. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Use a whisk to combine and mix the ingredients while it comes to a boil.
- Simmer the sauce. Once your sauce is boiling, reduce the heat to low and allow it to simmer for 20 minutes. The sauce should thicken nicely, and your house will be filled with the sweet aroma of delicious BBQ sauce.
- Cool and refrigerate. Remove the sauce from the heat and allow it to cool completely. You can use it immediately, but I recommend transferring it to a container with a lid and refrigerating it for 24 hours for the best flavor.
This sauce keeps well, and you can store it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks (assuming it lasts that long!). I highly recommend trying this on my Smoked Chicken recipe. The smoked chicken is moist, juicy, and it is packed with flavor when cooked with this tasty sauce. This sauce is also great to have on hand for dipping. We love to slather it on grilled and smoked meats, and use it as a dip for grilled veggies.
Best BBQ Sauce Recipes
I’m a firm believe that homemade BBQ sauce is the perfect way to finish your hard-earned, long-smoked meat. Check out these recipes below for more amazing BBQ sauce recipes:
Honey BBQ Sauce
Carolina Vinegar BBQ Sauce
Coffee BBQ Sauce
BBQ Sauce Recipe
Kansas City BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 14 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup ketchup
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup molasses
- 1 Tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon ground mustard
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Whisk to combine. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low to simmer.
- Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool completely before transferring to an air tight container.
- This sauce can be used immediately, but I recommend refrigerating overnight for the best flavor. This sauce will last 2 weeks in the refrigerator if sealed tightly in an air tight container.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
**This post was originally published January 2018. It has since been updated with more information and helpful tips. The recipe remains the same.
Made this a few days ago. When I tasted it, I thought it was way too spicy due to the pepper flakes. However, 2 days later, it tasted just fine straight out of the jar and was awesome on smoked wings. It mellowed nicely.
I’m so glad you like it! I try and make my sauces early enough to let them mellow a bit. It helps the flavors really come together.
Holy WOW!!! Made this last weekend to go along with a smoked pork butt and it was a hit. Left overs were claimed by my brother in law and son. I was told I needed to make more for the next get together! Didn’t have crushed tomatoes so I substituted diced and used a hand blender to smooth everything out. Also reduced the salt as some of the other comments recommended. Lastly told everyone who would listen at work about this recipe and your site. Thanks Hey Grill Hey!!!
Heck yeah! I’m so glad you liked it! Thank you so much!
I decided to grill chicken last night, and didn’t want the same old store bought BBQ sauce. I had almost all the ingredients on hand for this recipe except for molasses, so I substituted maple syrup.
Because my husband and I are trying to watch our sugar and salt intake for health reasons, I left out the brown sugar and salt. Canned tomatoes, and ketchup already contain salt. And ketchup contains sugar. In place of the brown sugar, I added a splash of cabernet sauvignon.
This BBQ sauce was AMAZING. My husband kept raving about it, and he is pretty picky when it comes to homemade BBQ sauce. This is definitely a keeper. I want to can it and give it away to family and friends for Christmas.
That’s killer! You nailed it!
Is it okay to substitute tulip poplar honey
Hi
Y do yoy sat the sauce will only last 2 weeks?
What can use instead of molasses? Molasses is not seller in my country for human food
Thanks!
You could try honey, dark corn syrup or more brown sugar.
My BBQ is too spicy, is there anyway to tame the spice?
You can always cut the amount of red pepper flakes and chili powder of this is too spicy for you.
Thank you! Just love your recipes.
Happy Holidays from Oregon!
I was wondering could I substitute tomato paste instead of ketchup?
I haven’t tried that myself, so not sure how it will affect the taste.
Hi as i m from india and we dont bring pork at home. We eat only fish, mutton and chicken. So i request you to send some fish chicken receipes with ingredients that we easily get here. Thank you.
Thanks for the suggestion.
I made this with chicken tonight and it was amazing. The only thing I changed was when done simmering, I put it into the blender to smoothbout the tomato. Great sauce recipe.
well ok but you did not address the salt issue. Is it 1 Tablespoon as in the recipe or 1 teaspoon as he says?
My advice is to follow the recipe as written. That is how I created and developed this recipe, but of course I understand that people are going to take my recipes and adapt them for themselves.