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This slow-simmered honey barbecue sauce is a sweet and tangy homemade recipe that’s so easy and so good, you’ll want to lick your fingers clean.
Once you’ve whipped up a batch of tangy homemade barbecue sauce, slather it over everything from BBQ chicken skewers and baby back ribs to Cracker Barrel meatloaf!
5 Star Review
“Absolutely THE best bbq sauce I have ever had. My hubs, who is not a fan of bbq, loves it! Have only had it on ribs, but going to make pulled beef next week.” – Sharon
PSA: Stop buying barbecue sauce! And the good news is, after today, you won’t have to. Not when it’s this easy and delicious to make honey barbecue sauce at home. Simply combine ketchup, a little honey, apple cider vinegar, and a good dash of Worcestershire sauce. Cook it down to a perfect thickness and it’s ready to slather over your favorite chicken, chops, burgers, wings, and more.
Why You’ll Love This Homemade Honey Barbecue Sauce
- You know what goes in it. I’ve always found most store-bought honey barbecue sauce way too sweet, with too many mystery ingredients listed on the bottle for my liking. When I make it at home, I know exactly what goes into it.
- Make it with pantry ingredients. The best honey BBQ sauce comes down to super simple ingredients, including honey (duh), ketchup, cider vinegar, and a few easy seasonings. This recipe gets the sweet-tangy ratio just right.
- It keeps for weeks. This homemade honey barbecue sauce lasts for up to two weeks in the fridge. I have to say, in grilling season, it’s super handy!
- Versatile. I include plenty of ways to use this sauce further in the post. Aside from your usual chops and grilling recipes, it’s delicious as a basting sauce, a marinade, and a dipping sauce for nuggets.
Ingredients You’ll Need
In addition to honey, you’ll need a handful of easy ingredients to make this homemade BBQ sauce. I go over these below. Scroll down to the printable recipe card for the full details, followed by step-by-step instructions.
- Ketchup – I like organic ketchup as it’s a bit lower in sodium and sugar, but any kind will work here.
- Honey – Putting the “honey” in honey barbecue sauce. You can substitute honey with something else, like molasses or maple syrup, though the sauce will have a different flavor profile.
- Brown Sugar – This can be light or dark brown sugar, or granulated sugar in a pinch.
- Vinegar – I like the subtle sweetness of apple cider vinegar, but you can substitute white or red wine vinegar, or regular distilled white vinegar if needed.
- Onion Powder – I use onion powder and freshly cracked black pepper to season the sauce. You could also use garlic powder.
- Lemon Juice – Freshly squeezed or bottled lemon juice is fine to use.
- Worcestershire Sauce – Or soy sauce, for a hint of umami.
What Does Honey Barbecue Taste Like?
Honey barbecue sauce is sweet and tangy, with a hint of tomato flavor from ketchup. It’s similar to sweet-savory teriyaki sauce. One of my favorite things about making it at home is that you can easily customize this BBQ sauce to be sweeter, tangier, or more savory to your liking, just by tweaking the ingredients!
Ways to Use Honey BBQ Sauce
This homemade honey BBQ sauce makes a great marinade, basting sauce, dip, or cooking sauce. The honey flavors are especially delicious with ribs, and you’ll see it in action in my barbecue apricot chicken or pineapple barbecue chicken recipes. Or, try any of the easy ideas below:
- Pork. This barbecue sauce is great for basting pineapple BBQ pork kebabs and grilled pork chops, and it’s the perfect dressing for pulled pork.
- Ribs. Use this sauce as a marinade for classic BBQ ribs and country-style pork ribs.
- Wings. Toss a batch of air fryer chicken wings in homemade BBQ sauce for a tasty game day snack.
- Burgers. Slather honey barbecue sauce over juicy turkey burgers or your favorite burger patties while you grill them.
- Meatloaf. This honey barbecue sauce makes a delicious homemade glaze, whether you cook your meatloaf in the oven, air fryer, or Instant Pot!
- Seafood. Use this sauce to make skillet barbecue shrimp.
How to Store
- Refrigerate. Keep this honey barbecue sauce refrigerated airtight in a jar or container for up to 2 weeks.
- Freeze. You can freeze barbecue sauce for up to 2 months, and thaw it in the fridge before you use it.
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Honey Barbecue Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups ketchup, I use organic Ketchup, it's also low in sodium and sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¾ cup water
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Combine the ingredients. Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and set it over medium-high heat.
- Cook. Bring the sauce to a boil, whisking frequently. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook uncovered, stirring frequently, for about 45 minutes, or until until mixture is thickened to a desired consistency. Remove from heat and let cool.
- Store. Store in an airtight container or a jar and keep for up to two weeks in the refrigerator.
Equipment
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Honey BBQ Sauce
Once you’ve gathered your ingredients, here’s how to make your own barbecue sauce:
- Heat the sauce. First, bring the ingredients to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to a simmer.
- Cook. Cook the sauce, uncovered, for about 45 minutes. Remember to stir often so it doesn’t burn. Once the honey barbecue sauce has thickened to your liking, take the pan off the heat and let it cool. Your barbecue sauce is ready to use right away, or you can seal it in a jar to keep in the fridge.
More Homemade Sauces
Juuuuust a tiny tad too acidic for our family, but still SO delicious. It’s the recipe we’ll be using from now on – just lessening the amount of vinegar. I did add more honey before serving because I’m addicted to sickeningly sweet sauce, lol, but we tried it before that and it was awesome.
I’m glad everyone enjoyed it! Thank you for chiming in! 🙂
I added 1tablespoon of mesquite liquid smoke instead of lemon juice and it’s amazing.
That’s wonderful! I’m very happy you loved it! Thank YOU! 🙂
Is there any reason you used ketchup instead of tomato sauce?
Has anybody made this with Tomato Sauce?
Wow I’m making this as I’m commenting and I already know it’s gonna be delish I just added a tiny bit of sweet chilly sauce also thanks for sharing I’m going to be putting it on my chicken breasts tonight
Absolutely THE best bbq sauce I have ever had. My hubs, who is not a fan of bbq, loves it! Have only had it on ribs, but going to make pulled beef next week.
Added two tablespoons of apricot jam and some chipotle pepper and smoked paprika, tastes amazing. I always use this on wings now
I want to make about 12 pints how much of everything would I need?
What is a serving size on this barbeque sauce? I saw it’s 1 smart point per serving but need to know how much idea serving?
Plan to make this recipe so hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks,
P. Frederick
pamfrederick@gmail.com
The comment should say I need to know how much one serving is (e.g. one cup, half a cup, etc.)
Thanks
Hi!! That should be 2 tablespoons. Will update it right away – I changed recipe cards and the all the serving sizes didn’t transfer through, unfortunately. Thank you for letting me know!!