Grilled chicken with homemade BBQ sauce

I am a huge fan of barbecue sauce. Sometimes I think I was meant to live in the South, because I love biscuits and barbecue sauce, but not together, of course.

A few years ago, my husband and I started making our own barbecue sauce. He had wanted to try it, and I reluctantly volunteered to be the taste tester. We found a recipe we liked in The New Best Recipe, a cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen. It’s called “Quick Barbecue Sauce,” because compared to starting from whole tomatoes and cooking them down, this is much faster. It relies on ketchup for the tomato base and there are about 12 other ingredients and you create about a million dishes making it, but it’s worth it. The flavor is a little bit tangy, a little bit spicy, and a little bit sweet.

We used the barbecue sauce to make chicken legs and thighs. The key is to marinate them in some of the sauce for a few hours. Then bake them in the oven, covered, at 350 degrees F for about 45-60 minutes until just about cooked through. Then put them on a hot grill (again, charcoal is best) and baste with remaining barbecue sauce until the outside is charred. This way they won’t dry out on the grill.
We ate these with homemade baked beans, cornbread, and charred romaine with Uncle Dan’s ranch dressing. Dinner is served!

Quick Barbecue Sauce (Adapted from The New Best Recipe, Copyright 2004 by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated)

(Makes about 3 cups) This is double the recipe in the cookbook, but we have found that 1 ½ cups is simply not enough.

2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
½ cup water
2 cups ketchup
¼ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
¼ Dijon mustard
½ cup + 2 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons chili powder
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Using a food processor, puree onion and water to make a slush, about 30 seconds. Strain into a measuring cup using a fine-mesh strainer. You should end up with 1 cup juice. Discard the solids.

Whisk onion juice, ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire, mustard, molasses, hot pepper sauce, and black pepper in a medium bowl.

Heat the oil in large nonreactive saucepan over medium heat. Once shimmering, add the garlic, chili powder, and cayenne. Cook for about 30 seconds, or until fragrant.

Add ketchup mixture and whisk together. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently, uncovered, until thickened, about 25-30 minutes.

Cool to room temperature before using. Store extra sauce in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.