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Cookin' ATVS Style: Smoked Onion Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

Back on the recipe horse with a sauce that says barbecue but could fit in with a lot of dishes.

Billy Gomila

So as the Super Bowl rolled around and the wife and I had no plans, I decided to follow Zrau's lead and work on my meat-smoking game. The pork shoulder went on, ‘round 12 a.m., came off ‘round 1 p.m. and was set to rest for gametime, so I decided to look through some source options.

I found this one on a blog called veggiewithacause. It sounded good, and I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, so bonus. That may sound suspiciously vegetarian, this sauce is totally legit.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon canola oil
2 red onions, smoked and sliced (See Note)
1/4 dry red wine
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cups fresh or canned crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup canned chipotles in adobo
1 cup vegetable stock
2 teaspoons salt

Note: I have no idea how you smoke onions, but per the site's instructions, you can just mix the diced onions with two teaspoons of liquid smoke.

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized saucepan, sauté the onions in the canola oil and red wine over medium heat for about 12 minutes. For the record, this smells amazing.

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2. Add the cumin and oregano and sauté for another 2 minutes. Smells better.

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3. Add the honey, vinegar, tomatoes, chipotles, stock and salt and simmer for about 15 minutes.

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4. Add the sauce, in all, to a blender. Do this in batches, because obviously you're dealing with very hot liquid and you don't want to spill or burn yourself. Blend until smooth. From there I would return it to the sauce pan and serve.

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Save it in mason jar and it should keep for some time. This sauce has an outstanding flavor profile, and could go with a lot of different meats, smoked or otherwise. There's a bit of sweet from the honey/balsamic, along with some tang and an outstanding smoked flavor from the chipotles. Plus just the right amount of heat.

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