Jack Daniels BBQ sauce – TGIF style

“bbq sauce choice” by mocktech is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Anyone who has ever eaten at TGIF may have tasted their BBQ sauces. The smoky one is not good but the Jack Daniels one is to die for. When the wife was training as a cook the class visited one of their establishments and got a peek behind the scenes. It seems there were various “stations” in the kitchen, one did various bits of chicken, another did ribs and so on. These sauces are held in bain-maries and the cooked chicken or ribs are dipped in the sauce before going on the plates. Their sauce is thicker than the one I propose here but this one could be reduced more to thicken it up. It also needs saying the the TGIF version of the sauce has, at best, a hint of JD whereas this one really tastes of lovely Jack Daniels No 7.

These are the ingredients, we have a set of “spoon” measures and a set of “cup” measures and this helps greatly.

Measures

  • tbsp = tablespoon or 15 ml
  • tsp = teaspoon or 5 ml
  • 1 cup = 250 ml
  • 1/4 cup = 60 ml

Ingredients

  • Worcester Sauce 1 tbsp
  • Water 1/4 cup
  • Red Wine Vinegar 1  and 1/2 tbsp
  • Tabasco Sauce 1/2 tsp or less if less “heat” required
  • Jack Daniels a generous 1/4 cup
  • Beef Bouillon cubes 2
  • Onion Powder 1 tsp
  • Dark Brown Sugar 2 cups (make sure it is the dark brown variety)

This was my second attempt at making this. The first time the original recipe had far too much tabasco so the amount has now been reduced.

Making this is quite simple. Put the ingredients in the above order into a saucepan. Remember you can always add more of something but you can’t remove it. Bring it to the boil watching out for it bubbling up over the top of the saucepan. You may need to remove it from the heat for a few seconds to allow it to calm down. Now simmer it for 15 minutes. Allow it to cool and it is ready to go. As stated before, at TGIF it is kept warm in a bain-marie and is a lot thicker. We have used this batch as a dip. Who knows what the future holds.

By “a generous 1/4 cup” I mean I tipped the JD into the 1/4 cup measure and it overflowed a bit so it is not as much as 1/2 a cup but it’s a bit more than 1/4 a cup. If you want a thicker sauce just simmer it longer but this recipe is the basis for a delicious sauce, especially if you are partial to Jack Daniels. As a nod to my attempt, ‘er indoors (a former professional cook) does not like whisky but she was bowled over by this sauce. My daughter recommends I bottle it and sell it and my son-in-law wanted more. My son arrives tomorrow and will like it, his wife is an aussie and is basically omniverous unlike my children who are still as fussy as they were when young nippers.

As a footnote, none of the class who visited TGIF had any interest in working for them. Too much like hard work and working in a kitchen is hard graft anyway.

Lastly, the calories in this sauce must be astronomical but am I bovvered, no. Others may be.
 

© well_chuffed 2022