I am not a fan of thick, sweet sauces, so I am always exploring new recipes and tinkering with the classics. We picked a ton of blueberries over the holiday weekend, so I decided to try to leverage this abundant fresh ingredient in a BBQ sauce to go with chicken, and I was absolutely blown away with the results!
Blueberry-Ancho BBQ Sauce:
- 1 beer (dealers choice here, don't get too worried about it)
- 2 pints fresh blue berries (I'm betting black raspberries, blackberries or even strawberries would work pretty well here)
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup brown sugar (or more to taste)
- teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, crushed
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- 1 small white onion, sliced
- equal parts: ground coffee, cumin, chipotle powder, ground coriander, smoked paprika
- 2 dried ancho peppers (stemmed and seeded)
- 2 dried morita peppers (stemmed and seeded) You could also ditch the chipotle powder and use canned chipotles here in place of the moritas if you do not have access to them.
Simply add all ingredients into a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer, cover and simmer for 3-4 hours. Once done, cool slightly then blend until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer back into sauce pan over low heat. Add a tablespoon of honey, or 1/2 tablespoon agave nectar and let slowly simmer until sauce thickens. It should be a consistency thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
I would use this sauce on everything from salmon (it would be killer on bbq salmon tacos!), to chicken or pork. The vinegars all balance each other out and mellow as you cook it down. The flavors come through with the mild natural sweetness of the fruit followed by the slow building smoky heat from the dried peppers and chipotle powder on the back end. This will absolutely be a staple at our house from now on! Enjoy!
Blueberry-Ancho BBQ Sauce:
- 1 beer (dealers choice here, don't get too worried about it)
- 2 pints fresh blue berries (I'm betting black raspberries, blackberries or even strawberries would work pretty well here)
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup brown sugar (or more to taste)
- teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, crushed
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- 1 small white onion, sliced
- equal parts: ground coffee, cumin, chipotle powder, ground coriander, smoked paprika
- 2 dried ancho peppers (stemmed and seeded)
- 2 dried morita peppers (stemmed and seeded) You could also ditch the chipotle powder and use canned chipotles here in place of the moritas if you do not have access to them.
Simply add all ingredients into a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer, cover and simmer for 3-4 hours. Once done, cool slightly then blend until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer back into sauce pan over low heat. Add a tablespoon of honey, or 1/2 tablespoon agave nectar and let slowly simmer until sauce thickens. It should be a consistency thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
I would use this sauce on everything from salmon (it would be killer on bbq salmon tacos!), to chicken or pork. The vinegars all balance each other out and mellow as you cook it down. The flavors come through with the mild natural sweetness of the fruit followed by the slow building smoky heat from the dried peppers and chipotle powder on the back end. This will absolutely be a staple at our house from now on! Enjoy!
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