Bodacious barbecue sauces
Regina Murphy
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Yum, yum, yum! I love barbecue of all shapes and sizes — living in Memphis for so many years, it just got into my blood. I don’t have a particular talent for the grilling part, but I’m pretty good with the sauce part.
As you know, after our local salsa competition on Aug. 8, there’s now a barbecue contest Aug. 10-11, as well as that lovely Shakespeare/Children’s Theater festival at Peter Pan Park. It should be a fun-packed week!
Heather Lake of Emporia sent this in. She says: “I found this on the Internet a couple of years ago and really like it. It doubles as a great conversation piece at a party!”
Heather recommends using this for chicken. You can use dark chocolate syrup in place of the chips. It’s delicious and like a Mexican mole sauce.
HEATHER’S CHOCOLATE BBQ SAUCE
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate chips, melted
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tbsp. cracked black pepper
1 tsp. paprika
1 tbsp. prepared mustard
1/2 tsp. hot sauce
In a sauce pan, sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil and cook until tender. Stir in the lemon juice, salt, pepper, paprika and hot sauce. Simmer for five to six minutes and reduce heat. Stir in the ketchup, mustard, vinegar, sugar and chocolate. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes and use it to baste your meat. Remember — if you want to have extra sauce for serving — you need to separate that from the sauce you’re basting with so that raw juices don’t cross-contaminate.
Back when I went to the Presbyterian Manor for the Coca-Cola Cooking Contest I had some really good chicken wings that Patrick Kluthe made. I’ve been tinkering with that recipe a little bit and I think this one is really good on grilled chicken or pork.
MURPHY’S COCA-COLA BARBECUE SAUCE
1 cup Coca-Cola (full strength)
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. liquid smoke
3 tbsp. steak sauce (I use A-1)
1 tbsp. white onion, minced
1/2 tbsp. garlic, minced
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Combine all the ingredients in a heavy saucepan and slowly bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat slightly to obtain a gentle simmer. Simmer the sauce until reduced by about a quarter (approximately 10 minutes). Use immediately, or cool to room temperature, seal in an airtight container and refrigerate. It’s thick, sweet and tasty!
This sauce is great on chicken or ham. I’m tempted to use the leftover sauce to make an Americanized orange beef stir fry. Once you’ve zested the orange, you can cut your slices or peel the segments to use as a plate garnish. Chipotles in Adobo sauce are available in the Mexican food aisle and can be used in lots of great dishes.
SMOKEY ORANGE
BARBECUE SAUCE
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 chipotles in adobo
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup orange juice concentrate
1 orange, zested
1 cup chicken broth
Heat a small saucepan over moderate heat and sauté the onion in the olive oil until soft. Combine the chipotle peppers in adobo, ketchup, orange juice concentrate, orange zest and chicken broth in a blender. Blend on high until smooth. Pour this into the onions and heat to a low boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Use half the sauce for basting grilled chicken (and the other half for serving), or pour it all onto a baked ham as a glaze.
Here’s a recipe I collected earlier this year when we talked about peaches. I’m so glad we’ve been able to get peaches this year, despite that despicable late freeze! This recipe doesn’t have ketchup in it — does it still count?
JUST PEACHY BBQ SAUCE
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 small red onion, peeled, sliced thin
3 peaches, pitted, cubed
2 tbsp. fresh ginger, minced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup orange juice
1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar
1 tsp. ground allspice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sauté the onions in a large skillet over medium-high heat until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Add the peaches, ginger and tomatoes and cook, stirring frequently, for two minutes. Stir in the vinegar, orange juice, sugar, allspice, and salt and pepper, to taste.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until it’s reduced by about a half and thickened slightly. This will take about 20 minutes. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then transfer the sauce to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Caveat: Be careful with hot liquids, so that you don’t burn yourself or crack your blender’s glass.
Reserve about 1/4-cup sauce for basting, then pour the remaining sauce into a small serving bowl. As my friend Jerry Wood in Oxford, Miss., would say, “So good, it’ll make you sit up and slap yo’ momma!”
I hope you get a chance to try some of these lovely sauces as the grilling season stretches on.
Next week it’s part two of the nifty White House Cookbook that Judy Patton lent me. That’s the same day (Aug. 8) as our Murphy’s Menu/Learning Connection Salsa Cook-Off down at the Emporia Farmer’s Market. Bring one pint of your best salsa to the kiosk between 4:30 and 4:55 p.m. Please put your name and phone number on the lid. We will be there to log you in, take your picture and get things ready because shoppers will launch into tasting and voting for their favorite salsa at the stroke of 5 p.m.
There are two categories: People who make a living selling their salsa (professional) or those who don’t (amateur). I’ll have chips ready! The winners will receive a nifty Gazette Gift Bag and be featured in the Aug. 15 Murphy’s Menu. If you have any questions, send me an e-mail at murphysmenu@yahoo.org or call 620-342-4800. Let’s get cooking!