Whiskey Peach Barbecue Sauce is a tingly, sweet, flavor punch for your mouth. Slather this sauce liberally all over smoked chicken, low and slow BBQ ribs, or even use it as a dipping sauce for anything and everything.
How to Make Whiskey Peach Barbecue Sauce:
The key to all great barbecue sauces is a great balanced blend of sweet, savory, with a little punch of spice. This whiskey peach barbecue sauce gets the perfect amount of sweetness from peach preserves and a kiss of brown sugar, savory notes from the whiskey, and the perfect blend of spice from the homemade Sweet Barbecue Rub.
Pro-Tip: I believe all homemade barbecue sauces are better the next day. Make your sauce a day in advance, cool completely and then transfer to an air tight container. Keep in the refrigerator overnight (or for at least 8 hours) to let all of those tasty flavors mellow together. It creates a much more cohesive and delicious sauce. My favorite sauce containers are these wide mouth glass canning jars. Perfect for storing in the fridge or even giving as gifts.
Ingredient Substitutions:
If you wanted to switch up the flavors in this sauce or you needed to substitute some of the ingredients, I thought I’d give you a few ideas to make this your own. You can easily swap the whiskey for bourbon, or if you wanted to skip the alcohol all together I recommend using apple juice. If you’re not into (or can’t find) peach preserves, this sauce works great with apricot jam, apple jelly, or even orange marmalade. Each of those will add different flavors to the barbecue sauce, but should have the right consistency and sweetness to make delicious sauce!
Not sure if you know this, but I am actually quite the homemade sauce connoisseur. I’ve got a handful of other sauce recipes in addition to this whiskey peach barbecue sauce recipe on my site, so if you feel like browsing around just click on the images below to check them out!
Whiskey Peach BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup ketchup
- 3/4 cup peach preserves
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup whiskey
- 2 Tablespoons molasses
- 2 Tablespoons Hey Grill Hey’s Sweet BBQ Rub (link in recipe notes)
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent anything from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Cool completely and transfer to an airtight container. Refrigerate overnight for the best flavor and then use liberally on grilled or smoked chicken, pork, and fish.
could you use a peach flavored whiskey such as Bird Dog brand peach flavored whiskey?
That sounds delicious, actually!! I wish I had tried it like that the first time!
All I had was peach whiskey, lol.
On smoker now.
I have some wonderful pecan bourbon that I’m thinking would be delicious with this!
What’s the brand name of the pecan bourbon. Sounds good.
I found that the Crown peach Bourbon is the best one so far
Do you have any suggestions as to which whiskey would be the best?
I just use Jim Beam NO. 7 Tennessee Whiskey, it’s a small amount in the recipe, I think any whiskey would work fine.
All I had was peach whiskey, lol.
On smoker now.
What can I use for the wiskey, don’t have any on hand 🙁
You could just use more apple juice.
Did not have any peach preserves on hand, but hey just a fyi peach puree(homemade baby food) was a pretty good substitute. It just wasn’t as thick at first
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback!!
I use Bulleit most of the time but if you really want a strong whiskey flavor go for a Rye
What do you think about using homemade grape jelly in this? I have several friends who eat grape jelly on fried deer meat so I always make extra for them. I’ve never tried it myself, I usually make some chanterelle gravy..my favorite. I kinda think it would be good!
Go for it!! I think it would be delicious!
Do you know whether this could be canned to preserve it longer with the recipe as is?
I am not sure, I haven’t tried canning this sauce.
Crown peach bourbon is the best
I’ll be making a batch soon. I’m going to just use fresh peaches though and see how it turns out.
Oh it’ll be great! You’ll love it!
Just made this but a little different. I doubled the basic recipe but did not use the peach preserves. I substituted the molasses with homemade maple syrup. I also added a half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. And I used bourbon set of whiskey. It came out great the basic recipe is perfect. We loved it on the lollipop chicken legs. What a great recipe that was!
Awesome! Way to nail it!
Great recipe. Had a little trouble find Peach juice. Found White grape peach juice. Wish I read the comment about the peach whiskey.
Can you freeze it?
Absolutely!
We won 1st place in our Community Rib-Off last year with the sauce an Rub ! Thank you! Used my home made peach preserves and bourbon Delicious!
Just made a quart of sauce today for next Saturday Competition. Hope to win again !
I usually season the ribs wth salt, pepper and garlic powder. Should I use the rub instead? Thought it might be too strong. Please advise !
thanks
I usually season the ribs wth salt, pepper and garlic powder. Should I use the rub instead? Thought it might be too strong. Please advise !
thanks
I usually season the ribs wth salt, pepper and garlic powder. Should I use the rub instead? Thought it might be too strong. Please advise !
thanks
I doubled the recipe used Apple jelly, apple bourbon and honey bourbon… Delicious
Hey, these look fantastic I have tried these before and they came out very good. For the alcohol try some Crown salted caramel just awesome .
Thanks Robin love your shows have learned a lot
this whiskey peach recipe is money and all my friends love it on your lollipops ..thanks for sharing
I’ve made a home made bbq sauce for years. Thought I’d try something new and cane across your recipe. Made this using my homemade Palisade peach jam. Wow! I think thus is my new favorite! Thank you!
Doubled the recipe and went a little heavier on the whiskey (never a bad thing!). I also added 2 seeded and finely diced jalapenos. I then let it simmer for about 40-45 minutes, adding whiskey if it was too thick.
Awesome!
I used Dickel Whiskey and added minced garlic. Smoking a corned beef with this sauce.
Can I use scotch??
scotch
Yes!
Small world.. Asking for help with finding a tasty Peach Whiskey for this BBQ sauce at the State Liquor store and this lady showed me a bottle of Porter’s Peach Whiskey, made in Ogden, UT. As we headed to the cash register, she asked what I was cooking.. I told her I was smoking a Pork Tenderloin and found this BBQ recipe on Hey Grill Hey.. She looked at me and said, I know exactly what recipe you are making, as she was on the Hey Grill Hey site and made this exact BBQ sauce.. She stated I had the perfect Peach Whiskey to use as she has made this sauce with the same Whiskey. I used this sauce on a smoke pork belly and Pork Tenderloin… Unbelievable!!
My wife no longer wants to cook meat on Sunday. My job from now on!!
Excellent recipe!! I never find any tasty store sauces and this was my first shot at a make at home sauce. So tasty! Used our homemade peach jalapeño preserves which gave the sauce a nice little kick. Excellent on pulled pork.
How long will this sauce last in the fridge before it spoils??
I usually say up to a week just to be on the safe side. Check the expiration of all of the individual ingredients and use that as a guideline.
I didn’t have just plain peach jam so I used peach amaretto preserves and Jim beam.
How long will it take me to cook a 6lb chicken at like 170 I’m getting told 12 hours so only from somebody that has actually done this please respond and help me out I got a char grill smoker with the side box I’m having trouble getting passed 170 even with dampers open and 2 chimneys worth of charcoal. But just how long will it take to cook at that temp cuz I’m trying to do this recipe tomorrow b4 I can fix my heat problem if it’s to long I’ll just throw some coal in the cooking chamber
It will take a long time and will potentially be pretty dry. I would do whatever you could to get the temp up around 275.