Dr. Pepperque Sauce

[Uncle Pigfat]

This sauce is pretty thick, especially when the onion gets blended at the end so pay close attention to your simmer if you like sauce to be a little thinner.  

* 4 tablespoons butter - salted or unsalted doesn't make a noticeable difference
* 1 medium to small white onion - chopped
* 3 cloves garlic - chopped
* 1 can Dr. Pepper (12 oz)
* 1 cup ketchup
* 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
* 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
* 1/3 cup Worcestershire Sauce
* 4 tablespoons tomato paste
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 2 teaspoons chipotle chili powder
* 1 teaspoon white pepper
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon ground mustard
* 1/2 teaspoon cumin
* Black pepper to taste - I imagine I put no less than a teaspoon in.

Melt butter in a deep sauce pan.
Saute onions and garlic in butter until transparent and floppy.
Add all other ingredients and bring to a boil over medium/high heat stirring often.
Reduce heat to medium low and simmer continue to stir often - takes about a half hour or so - until *nearly* desired thickness.  
Take off heat and let cool.  
Take an immersion blender to the sauce to smooth out the onions and garlic or give it a ride in a food processor.  *The onion pulp will thicken the sauce substantially so make sure you don't thicken it on the heat for too long, especially if you like a thinner sauce.*

[TestRocket]

Uncle,

It brings back memories from almost 20 years ago to see your recipe. Mine was very close to yours and as the years have passed and the days became shorter, I'm guilty of taking the easy route. I still use Dr. Pepper in one of my sauces and don't tell that to everyone (till now). What about honey?

[Uncle Pigfat]

Honey might be a good choice, considering how tangy as opposed to sweet this sauce is.  Maybe some dry mustard.  I'll be doing some tinkering this weekend.

[TestRocket]

I like the way you think! Tweak it and let me (us) know.

One more idea for a new flavor to try: Zaxby's sweet and spicy sauce. It's good and has just a little kick!

[classicrockgriller]

In case this helps .... the Factory version of DR Pepper "Sweet&Kickin" BBQ Sauce

uses distilled white vinegar, and also uses molasses.

[hal4uk]

In case this helps .... the Factory version of DR Pepper "Sweet&Kickin" BBQ Sauce

uses distilled white vinegar, and also uses molasses.

I like molasses better than honey in bbq sauce...
When I'm tinkering, I use honey, but more and more I seem to just use (fancy - not blackstrap) molasses and brown sugar.

[Uncle Pigfat]

The thing with molasses that I wouldn't want more of in the sauce is the kind of anise-y licoricey flavor that the sauce already kind of gets from the Dr. P.  I'm afraid it would make it almost taste like jerk sauce(which isn't a bad thing, but not what I'm going for.)  Granted, all I've used is blackstrap so I imagine the lighter stuff would be sweeter and better for my purposes.  The sauce is probably fine on it's own and I'm just over thinking it.  Everyone that has tasted it has really liked it.  I think a tablespoon of honey and a teaspoon of ground mustard will be added and that's about as far as I'll go.  If it doesn't work, so be it.

I'm really liking the cider vinegar in the sauces I make.  Distilled is pretty potent and I seem to have a hard time boiling it off enough so it's not overpowering the sauce.  I'll probably go distilled when I make a Stubb's original clone.

[Uncle Pigfat]

The sauce I made this weekend was really good.  I added a tablespoon of honey and a teaspoon of ground mustard like I said I would and I also cut back the onions a little more.  Pretty awesome.  This is my go-to sauce from here on out.

[TestRocket]

Would you please adjust the original recipe to include the 8/15 changes along with about how much pepper you used. I would love to print this out and give it a try real soon.

Sorry I didn't see this before today!

Thanks!

[Uncle Pigfat]

The recipe is complete now.  I had it updated as far as the mustard and honey go but I just kind of eyeball the black pepper.  I just shake until I feel like I've shook enough.  It could probably even stand to to have more mustard but that recipe right there is darn tasty.

[La Quinta]

Uncle Pigfat...(first let me say that I love your "handle") Very funny...anyhoo...I notice you use chipotle chilli powder...would chipotles in adobo sauce and regular chilli powder work as well? I like the adobo heat....

[Caneyscud]

LQ arises.  Welcome back! 

[Uncle Pigfat]

Uncle Pigfat...(first let me say that I love your "handle") Very funny...anyhoo...I notice you use chipotle chilli powder...would chipotles in adobo sauce and regular chilli powder work as well? I like the adobo heat....

I don't see why not.  The only set back I think would be some extra thickness from using the actual peppers when you hit it with the blender.  The sauce gets pretty thick already but it sounds like something worth trying out.  I've used just regular chili powder instead of the chipotle powder and it was still good.  If you try it I'm very interested in how it turns out.

[Quarlow]

Hey Uncy P, can you post the recipe in the finished form? I want to save it in a notepad and try it out.

[La Quinta]

Hey Scudman...I like the look of this recipe from the Pigfat guy!!! I'm gonna try it!!!  :)