Cookin' ATVS Style: Smoked Onion Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

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.

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

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

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.

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.