condiment Chipotle/Datil BBQ sauce

[etothepii]

This is my first attempt at barbecue sauce. I read a lot of recipes from around the web, and decided to keep it very simple. The ingredient picture is pretty accurate, except for a lot of extra brown sugar and extra cider vinegar.

The jar on the far right is a previous season's datil puree in red wine and cider vinegar.

The chipotles, I smoked myself and froze last fall.

I cooked the chipotles in the datil puree, and then pureed it all together.

Then got the seeds out:

Combined ingredients, cooked for quite a while, and canned.

The bottles in the rear are reused salad dressing bottles that went straight into the refrigerator. The mason jars were processed for 35 minutes.

As I was cooking and tasting, I was continually overwhelmed by bitterness, I think from the chipotles. It took a substantial amount of sugar to make it taste right. I don't happen to mind very sweet bbq sauce, so it's all good.

There is a fairly high proportion of chiles to tomato and other ingredients, so even though I didn't use extremely hot varieties of peppers, the sauce is still pretty intense with heat, that builds as you eat it.

Finally, the course ground pepper adds a very nice layer to the flavors in the sauce, along with the tomato, smoke, and brown sugar/molasses. So far, I've only used it as a dipping sauce. I'm almost through a whole bottle! I've let several people at work try it with lots of compliments.

 

[Scovie]

Perfect. The "heat that builds as you eat it" is my favorite kind of heat.
Your description of the cracked pepper "layered" has me drooling.
I have heard about the bitterness before, cool that you had enough sugar at the ready.
Your sauce looks absolutely divine. I wish I could put some on baby back ribs.

great job!

 

[Hophead]

Nice looking sauce and i like the mason jar lids lol reminds me of grandmas house. Here is the BBQ recicpe i always use i havent bought BBQ sauce from finding this recipe.

Yield: 6 cups.
Cooking: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 tablespoons American chili powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon table salt
2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup yellow ballpark-style mustard
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup steak sauce
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 cup dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 medium cloves of garlic, crushed or minced

Method

1) In a small bowl, mix the American chili powder, black pepper, and salt. In a large bowl, mix the ketchup, mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire, lemon juice, steak sauce, molasses, honey, hot sauce, and brown sugar. Mix them, but you don't have to mix thoroughly.

2) Over medium heat, warm the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and saute until limp and translucent, about 5 minutes. Crush the garlic, add it, and cook for another minute. Add the dry spices and stir for about 2 minutes to extract their oil-soluble flavors. Add the wet ingredients. Simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes with the lid off to thicken it a bit.

3) Taste and adjust. Add more of anything that you want a little bit at a time. It may taste a bit vinegary at first, but that will be less obvious when you use it. Remember, it is going on meat and will be cooked once again. Strain it if you don't want the chunks of onion and garlic. I prefer leaving them in. They give the sauce a home-made texture. You can use it immediately, but I think it's better when aged overnight. You can store it into clean bottles in the refrigerator for a month or two.

 

[Justaguy]

What wood did you smoke the jalapenos with??

 

[etothepii]

I used apple wood in a home made lp smoker. You can tell by the still bright red color that they didn't smoke long enough, but I had to take them off -- just ran out of time, and the smoker isn't quite perfected yet. There is still a very strong, smokey flavor though.

 

[Justaguy]

Sounds tasty. I am sure not many here will call you on it and I am not trying to, but just so you know, to technically be chipolte they have to be smoked with pecan wood. I prefer the apple taste myself and cherry adds a nice sharpness to it.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

The chipotles, I smoked myself and froze last fall.

I cooked the chipotles in the datil puree, and then pureed it all together.

How long did you smoke the jalapenos, a few minutes? Chipotles look like this:

Photo Credit: http://www.girlichef...d-45-diana.html

I used apple wood in a home made lp smoker. You can tell by the still bright red color that they didn't smoke long enough, but I had to take them off -- just ran out of time, and the smoker isn't quite perfected yet. There is still a very strong, smokey flavor though.

Never mind I see now. So it is not a chipotle sauce, it is a slightly roasted red jalapeno sauce. Chipotles are smoke-dried for days.

 

[etothepii]

Ok, yeah, call it smoked jalapeño/datil sauce.

I converted an old propane grill to a smoker, moving the side burner underneath it. There is just not enough of a seal to keep smoke in and temp up. It runs around 110 degrees. I need to get some gasket material like the kind used on oven doors.

I had these peppers in it for about 6 hours I guess. I'll try to make real chipotles this season.