Do you have ketchup, mustard and brown sugar? You have to try this best EVER Basic Homemade BBQ Sauce. It’s a simple base for starting your own BBQ sauce deliciousness, then add and customize from there.
There are several ingredients that I always think I have on hand, but sometimes I go to start cooking and it turns out I don’t have them. This happens a lot with barbecue sauce, which I definitely need on hand when grilling season starts up again. This is my go-to recipe for when this happens!
I always think I have a few bottles of BBQ sauce in the pantry. I go to grab one, and there aren’t any. Because of this, I’ve developed a quick, basic barbecue sauce base. It uses simple ingredients that I always have and it only takes a minute to whip up.
It’s made out of ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar. That’s all you absolutely need, but I’ve got suggestions for more ingredients to make it extra tasty.
Video: BBQ Sauce Base + How To Doctor It Up!
Adaptable Homemade Barbecue Sauce
The beauty of this sauce base is that you can change it if you’re in the mood. You can use honey or molasses instead of brown sugar, you can use Dijon mustard instead of the regular yellow mustard, you can use tomato sauce for some of the ketchup. There are lots of ways to vary the base.
And then you get to add other ingredients to deepen it more, things like Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, garlic powder, smoked paprika, or all of the above!
Finally, optionally make it more complex by adding in additional spices like cumin, chili powder, or cayenne pepper. Really the options are endless. Soooo good. You’re going to love making this easy staple and doctoring it up in new ways.
The reason this simple sauce works is because of the flavor balance. You have salty and sweet flavors in the ketchup, more sweet from the brown sugar or honey, and then a good tang from the mustard. It’s also great because the sugar content in the sauce makes it caramelize on food when it’s cooking.
Using Barbecue Sauce
I love using this sauce when I’m grilling chicken, beef, or pork. To make really great barbecue chicken drumsticks, I follow the basic method for Easy Make Ahead Chicken for a Crowd. I love it because you pre-cook the chicken in the oven so you know it’s done, then add the sauce and grill it all up once guests arrive.
You could also use this for Pulled Pork Sandwiches or to dip French fries in.
If you don’t want to start with a BBQ sauce base and add to it with your own ideas, here’s my recipe for a fully done BBQ sauce. It’s a sweet, spicy, smoky BBQ sauce that still only uses ingredients that I usually have on hand, but it gets simmered on the stove.
More Delicious Sauce Recipes
I’m a firm believer that a great sauce can transform a meal. That’s why I’ve come up with over 40 delicious sauce recipes, which you can browse through over here. I’m also going to link to a few of my favorites for you, for extra inspiration:
- The Best Cheese Sauce Recipe
- Homemade Cocktail Sauce
- Creamy Horseradish Sauce For Prime Rib
- Gravy Made Without Drippings
- Garlic Butter Sauce
- Chili Garlic Sauce
Podcast Episode About Making Easy BBQ Sauce
Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this BBQ sauce, along with some other great tips, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
Print
Best Ever Homemade Barbecue Sauce
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Category: Sauce
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
Do you have ketchup, mustard and honey? You have to try this best EVER Basic Homemade BBQ Sauce. It’s a simple base for starting your own BBQ sauce deliciousness. Mix up the ingredients below and you’ll have a mild-tasting sauce. Then, if you’d like, add in some pantry favorites like smoked paprika, cumin, and chili powder to really bring in the flavor.
RECIPE UPDATE: A lot of people in the comments below really love this sauce as is, as does my family. However, a lot of people found it too bland. I therefore retested the recipe and adjusted it. The original recipe, in case you loved that, was 1 and 1/2 cups ketchup, 1/4 cup yellow mustard, 1/4 cup honey, a pinch of salt. The revised recipe is now given below. It’s still very basic and can still be used as a sauce base but it has some more flavor elements to start with. Enjoy! -Christine xo
Ingredients
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. hot sauce
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.
- Stir until sugar dissolves.
This post originally appeared in August 2015 and was revised and republished in June 2022.
Angelica says
This sounds delicious and so easy to make! Love that there’s no vinegar to muck around with, I hate a bbq sauce that’s vinegar based.
Christine Pittman says
I hope you enjoy, Angelica!
lauren minish says
Love me some good rich thick bbq sauce. I think the change of brown sugar from honey will add the range of flavor. Although I would be very interested in a non-sugar bbq. I would love it without the sugar.
Christine Pittman says
Thanks, Lauren! BBQ sauce needs some sweetness, but you could play around with the type of sweetener and the amounts!
Tanisha says
The updated recipe looks more like all the other homemade BBQ sauce recipes; still worth a shot! Thanks!
Christine Pittman says
Let us know what you think, Tanisha!
Panda says
This sauce is really bad. I added to this hot dog nightmare mixed herbs, chilli, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, a dash of soy sauce and pepper. even then it was only passable
Christine Pittman says
Panda, I’m sorry you didn’t like it. This recipe seems pretty controversial with some people loving it and some hating it, as you can see from the commments below. Because of that, I have retested and revised the recipe. For those who loved the original, the recipe is still given at the top where it says RECIPE UPDATE. But in response to those who were hating it, I reduced the amount of ketchup, switched from honey to brown sugar, and added some seasonings. The revised sauce can still be used as a base or as is, it just has a bit more flavor to start with. Thank you for your comment.
Ryan Mesler says
This is probably the worst BBQ sauce recipe I have come across. It tastes like you just mixed ketchup and mustard. If that were BBQ sauce, then every McDonald’s cheeseburger would say that it comes with BBQ sauce.
I just wasted nearly two cups of ketchup and mustard trying to fix this. You Yankees might think this is better than K.C. Masterpiece, but y’all don’t know real bbw as evidenced by the amount of people who actually liked this.
Tosca Culpepper-Glass says
I have severe gout and can’t have ketchup or apple cider vinegar. Can you make bbq sauce without those ingredients?
answertests.com says
I got what you mean,saved to my bookmarks, very
nice website.
Rob Rios says
I forgot my bbq sauce at home so at work this was my only option for my chicken nuggets….oh well. I didn’t use it all soi saved it for another day.
Monica from Bestconsumerreports.guide says
Love this post, my entire family loved sausa and I’ll try to make bbq sausa this weekend, hope it good :)). Thanks so much for this guide.
Sharon says
HiI had pretty much the same recipe years ago found you can adjust ingredients to taste my Mother liked so well never purcased sauce in stores again. For people who have to watch carbs and sugar etc. I found use can use Splenda brown sugar and Walden’s foods makes zero carb zero calorie ketchup. You can also use 2tbl Molasses. thank you for reminding me Sharon
Christine Pittman says
Sharon, You’re welcome. I’m happy to help, and happy you like it!
JC says
This sauce has very little taste.
Disappointing.
Maureen says
I want to try this and use it for commercial purpose.
Can I cook red chilli and brown sugar together before adding other ingredients instead of buying already made hot chilli? To minimize cost and still come up with a good result
Christine Pittman says
Maureen, yes, that should work just fine.
Itzel says
Can i use regular white sugar instead of brown sugar?
Christine Pittman says
Yes. Any kind of sweetener will work. But you will likely need less white sugar than brown because it is more compact.
Alycia says
I have made my own rendition of this sauce for a while now, but always guessed and checked a bit to get it how I wanted. I was looking online for a recipe to start with instead of throwing myself in blindly. I doubled this recipe because I’m making slow cook ribs tomorrow and needed a lot. Personally, I think there’s WAY too much ketchup. It may just have more to do with our ketchup brand, though, because it’s particularly strong. I added a bit more mustard, brown sugar, and a splash of Louisiana hot sauce and it turned out great! In other batches, I’ve added small amounts of Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and even maple syrup. If you’re really looking for that thick smoky barbecue taste, add a tablespoon or two of Worcestershire sauce to it and people won’t believe you made it yourself! ;) Can’t wait for slow cooker ribs and good ol fashion sweet ice tea tomorrow :D
Christine Pittman says
Alycia, Thanks for the feedback. I agree that this is quite a ketchupy flavor. Adding extras of the other ingredients is a great idea if you don’t want the ketchup to be as strong.
http://howcrack.com/ says
Great info i like this thanxx a lot
Hietagarden says
I will try your sauce with some meatballs in freezer
Rollins Mease says
Great, i will try this at home for sure! :)
Wendell says
I just looked up this recipe, and I’m going to make this over the weekend! I will add a couple other ingredients, and one more, not a lot, just 2 tablespoons (Jack Daniels) that should jazz it up a little!!
Christine Pittman says
Wendell, That sounds amazing!
Deepalekha says
I read this recipe yesterday. Reading on the comments I was so fascinated to prepare this. I had tomato ketchup in xcess with me. So without a second thought today wanted to give it a try. But added Indian spicy red chilli n lemon juice to this in addition. And voila!! The outcome was so so finger licking. Couldn’t wait to thank you. I always wanted to prepare BBQ sauce at home. But the recipe always contain so many fancy items which are handy at home. This recipe is a true life saver. Thank u again so very much.
Christine Pittman says
You’re welcome!
Janya Sriram says
This is a really good recipe thought it’s not exactly nutritious my friends and I love it it tastes wonderful but I wanted to try a sweeter version so I tried adding brown sugar but it stuck out in lumps what should I do to correct this j don’t have access to mollases
Christine Pittman says
Make sure the brown sugar is lump-free before adding it. You can smoosh out the lumps with the back of a spoon. From there, the acid in the ketchup should dissolve it if you stir it lots.