Homemade Honey Barbeque Sauce… Slow Cooked in Clay!

Have you ever looked at the ingredients in store-bought barbeque sauce?

It’s long. Most of them have high fructose corn syrup (or some other derivative of GMO corn), lots of sugar, artificial colors and lots of other unpronounceable things you don't want in your body. It made me start to wonder: are all those things really necessary? It can’t be that hard to make, can it? But when I thought about it realized I actually had no idea what it was made of.

Thus began my research into barbecue sauce. There are a lot of different kinds. Spicy, maple, mango, peach, smoky, zesty, tomato based, mustard based (it’s yellow!) and countless others. I slowly discovered that barbecue sauce is pretty versatile and that I could have fun with this. Of course I wanted to incorporate my VitaClay slow cooker (because it makes everything taste good) and it makes everything easy. So I came up with a basic barbecue sauce that can be customized in a million different ways - and never having to worry about all the yucky ingredients again.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon bacon grease, walnut or coconut oil 
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 5-6 oz can tomato paste
• 1 cup chicken or beef broth
• 2 t mustard or ½ t mustard powder
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce; pinch cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. Saute onion and garlic in oil until translucent, 3-5 minutes

2. Add this mixture to tomato paste and honey in the clay pot, stir.

3. Add all other ingredients, stirring until smooth.

4. Set to "stew" for 1 hour.

5. Serve, dip or jar. Keeps for 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator. For an extra kick, add small chunks of pineapple 5 minutes before it’s finished cooking.