Last night I had an impromptu dinner at my friend, Barbecue Bob’s house, where he was grilling up some chicken and hot dogs for the kids. He grills on a Weber Kettle Grill and uses 100% lump hard wood charcoal and you can really tell the difference. I will get into this whole gas versus charcoal discussion another time.

What I wanted to mention is how great his barbecue sauce tasted. When asked, he told me he makes his own following an adapted version of William Sonoma’s barbecue sauce. He makes up a batch and it keeps in the refrigerator for the week.

His chicken took 30 minutes to cook and was delicious. Here is his adapted barbecue sauce:

Great Barbeuce Sauce

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 yellow onion finely chopped
1 finely chopped celery stick
1-1/3   cup ketchup
1/2-cup cider vinegar
1/2-cup water
1/4-cup sugar
1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1/2-teaspoon salt

How to make at home:

Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium hight heat. Sauté the onion and celery until the onion is translucent. Depending on your stove and pan, 5 to 8 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients, whisk or stir together and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to low and simmer until the sauce is the desired thickness. This can take up to 15 minutes or more.

When done, remove from the heat and let cool. If you are not using all the sauce for one meal, remove what you are going to use so you don’t contaminate the unused portion.

This amount of ingredients should make a little over 2 cups of sauce.