We’re stepping up our outdoor cooking game with the addition of a Big Green Egg. Ed loves good smoked meats and BBQ, so it was only a matter of time until we took the plunge. I’m used to a gas grill and there’s a whole lot more that goes into using a smoker. We have five different types of wood chips, bags of charcoal, fire starters, an ash bucket and ash tool, and a fancy multi-pronged thermometer in addition to our BGE. All of it is worth it as the end result is amazing. We christened the BGE starting with brine and then smoking both salmon and duck breasts to serve as hors d’oeuvres for an early Mother’s Day dinner. We followed it up the next day with baby back ribs cooked for five hours.
Knowing that Ed would be taking the lead on the outdoor cooking, I saw this as an opportunity to increase my sauce and dry rub repertoire. Ed found this recipe for a Guinness BBQ sauce and I figured that was a good place to start. This is some of the best BBQ sauce I’ve ever had. It has a nice balance of sweet and spicy. I don’t like a whole lot of spice, so the 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper was good for me. If you really don’t like spice, decrease it to 1/4 teaspoon so you get more flavor than spice. While we used it on ribs, it would be good on pulled pork or chicken or used as a dip for French fries.
This recipe makes about 3-1/2 cups. I took half of it and froze it for future use. You could also can it. While we used this with the BGE, you can easily use this as a sauce for your favorite meat on cooked on your gas or charcoal grill.
Gluten-Free/Wheat-Free Note: Guinness Stout is not gluten-free (it contains barley), but is wheat-free.
| Guinness BBQ Sauce | Print |
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 large sweet onions, roughly chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup (8 ounces) Guinness Stout
- ½ cup molasses
- ½ cup white vinegar
- 1-1/2 cups light brown sugar
- 1 cup (8 ounces) tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- In a large pot (at least 5 quarts), heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook for about 20 minutes until onions are very soft and a bit caramelized. Add a little water to the pot will cooking, if needed, to prevent sticking (it helps with caramelization, too).
- Add Guinness Stout, molasses, white wine vinegar, brown sugar, tomato paste, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper to pot and stir. Raise heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium and cook at a slow boil for 10 minutes. Turn heat down to low and cook another 45 minutes. Sauce should be thick when it’s done.
- Let cool about 20 minutes. Transfer to a food processor, blender or Vitamix and blend until smooth.
- Use immediately or store in refrigerator for a few months or freeze for up to six months.
Source: Variation on a recipe from The Black Peppercorn
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