Sweet and Spicy BBQ!

Okay so I'm not a huge fan of BBQ sauce. I never have been. I don't HATE it but I certainly don't love it that much either.  I decided to try a recipe I from a restaurant for a sweet and spicy sauce. I was pretty skeptical but I liked it. It didn't have that overbearing BBQ flavor. It had a hint of BBQ with a nice sweetness and a little kick. At least that's what we thought of it. You can judge for yourselves, of course. It makes quite a bit of it so I made half a batch and I still froze some to use later on so we'll see how that works.

Sweet-n-Spicy Barbecue Sauce

2 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups ketchup
1 cup water
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup molasses
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp garlic pepper blend
1 tbsp liquid smoke (optional)
1 tbsp prepared mustard
1 tsp onion salt
1 tsp celery salt
1 tbsp your favorite hot sauce (optional)

In a large saucepan, combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes or until the flavors are blended. Remove from heat and cool. YIELD: About 2 quarts

Notes: You can also add some finely chopped bell pepper. I made it without hot sauce because we didn't have any and we still liked it but then we don't like things really hot. You can kind of play around with it and make it how you like.  Also I ended up adding 1 or 2 tbsp of cornstarch to thicken it up a little bit.  Happy Barbecuing!