My favorite Homemade BBQ sauce

Simple BBQ Sauce Ingredients

• 5 dried Chile de Arbol
• 1 smoked dried Ancho Chile
• 1 dried Chile Panca
• 4 Cups Water
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
• 4 tablespoons blueberry jalapeño jam (bought from local farmer)
• powdered garlic and onion to taste.
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons Honey Powder
• 2 pieces bacon chopped real fine and rendered/browned on stove.

Making the Sauce:

• Put Chiles (seeds and all), bacon (with rendered fat), and water in a medium size pot and simmer for 1 hours with top on
• Once the Chiles have been sufficiently rehydrated (1 hour simmering should do it), using an immersion blender completely liquefy the Chiles and bacon.
• Add the honey, molasses, Jam, and spices.
• Pulse a couple times with immersion blender again and ensure that the sauce is smooth with no grittiness from the powdered products. 
• This is where you taste for the first time.  You should get heat, but you should also get a solid BBQ style flavor.  If still too bitter more honey or jam/fruit. If too sweet balance out with garlic and onion powder.
• Low Simmer for another 30 minutes to let the flavors come together and give the sugars (molasses, honey, and jam) to thicken up the sauce.  Warning it HAS to be slow and low, this sauce can go bad at high heat due to to sugars added.  Burnt sugar tastes bad. 

This can be made vegitarian friendly by omitting the bacon.  Instead of bacon use a fresh onion and brown them slow and low until browned but not black deglaze the pan with a touch balsamic vinegar to add about same taste profile.  

To reduce the spice level.  Either remove the seeds from the chiles used.  Or choose different chiles.  2-3 each ancho and gaujilo peppers is a milder taste.  For spicer add one ghost pepper minus seeds. 

Another substitution is to use any sweet berry jam in place of the jalapeño blueberry I used.  The jam I used for this sauce was a special item I found this past weekend from a local farmers market.  Or use fresh fruit like blackberry or blueberry.  If you avoid processed sugar like I do this may limit your choices if you don't have a local farmers market or know someone who makes jams.