Amplify Your Sweet And Tangy BBQ Sauce With One Canned Ingredient

With a myriad of popular barbecue sauce brands to choose from, there's still much to be said about making your own homemade version. Even if you prefer the store-bought route, there are several notable ingredient additions to make bottled BBQ sauce sweeter and stickier. For the most robust and flavorful take on a homemade sweet and tangy BBQ sauce recipe, look no further than a Thanksgiving favorite canned good. Cranberry sauce is the key to amplifying all of the sweet and tart notes to make your barbecue sauce the very best (and versatile) topping for a large selection of different proteins.

Canned cranberry sauce strikes the perfect balance between different flavors, all of which complement your many barbecue recipes. Additionally, you can use a can of either whole cranberry sauce or the ubiquitous can-shaped jelly for added thickness as well as flavor. The fruit content lends itself to a more complex profile, which you can use on smoked turkey breast, pork roast, and much more.

Starting slowly when adding a new element to your sauce is a good way to go. You can always add more, but it's difficult to remove. Also consider the overall texture as well as the intended application of your sauce. For example, you'll want a thinner consistency for a marinade but a thicker one for finishing. When preparing a bourbon-chile barbecue sauce recipe, add your canned cranberry sauce after sauteeing your aromatics and before you turn the heat to a simmer. Try adding the cranberry a tablespoon at a time and sampling intermittently to determine when you've reached your desired taste and texture.

With cranberry sauce being almost synonymous with turkey, a cranberry-elevated barbecue sauce definitely does well with poultry, but it can also be paired with a number of your other favorite dishes. Use it as a sauce for your favorite BBQ meatballs recipe or even a slow cooker barbecue beef brisket. On the poultry side, the sweet and tangy kick makes an excellent addition to oven-baked BBQ chicken. The possibilities and sauce-abilities are practically endless.