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5 Ways BBQ Sauce Will Make You a Better Cook
At Pepper Palace, we love our BBQ sauce. One, because it’s delicious. And two, it’s the unsung hero hanging out in the back of the pantry or forlornly tucked to the back of that one refrigerator shelf reserved for “opened bottles of stuff we don’t know what to do with but don’t want to throw away.” With a little bit of imagination, though, BBQ sauce punches up everyday fare into a party on the palate. So, what can you use BBQ sauce for? You can use it to make yourself a better cook. Here are four ways that BBQ sauce levels up your kitchen game.
Set Your Meat Apart with Unique Flavors
Like attracts like; so, if you’re here, you probably want your taste buds to live life to the fullest, same as us. We got off the main BBQ sauce recipe highway years ago and blazed a new trail mixing up fruits, boozy flavors, and various amounts of chili peppers to concoct a generation of BBQ sauces that’ll launch your taste buds to paradise. Cinnamon and apple BBQ sauce on grilled turkey breast for Thanksgiving? We bet your brother-in-law hasn’t tried it. Use these unexpected flavors to take your friends and family on a taste adventure.
Grilling Pro Tip: Gently boil BBQ sauce to thicken it into a glaze. At the very end of your grilling process, brush the glaze onto the meat. Mmmmmmmmm glaze.
Spice Up Your Side Dishes
BBQ sauce is fantastic on meats, but it also punches up the flavor of other foods. Give your sides a kick by mixing a little cayenne BBQ sauce into potato salad or serving it on corn. Use your favorite tomato-based BBQ sauce to add a wow-factor to your baked beans. Make a BBQ sauce chip dip, or feature your homemade BBQ sauce as a condiment for your burgers and dogs at the next cookout. BBQ sauce also creates scrumptious seared vegetables and adds southern charm to pulled meat or black bean nachos.
Cover Up Cooking Blunders
If you’re just starting your journey to pitmaster, you’ll likely end up with a chicken breast or pork tenderloin a tad on the dry side. Never fear, BBQ sauce is here! Drier meats are like sponges that will soak up the sauce. Chop it up and toss with some warmed BBQ sauce, then serve as-is or in a sandwich for a dish that tastes totally intentional.
Burger night? Dash some interesting, flavored BBQ sauce in your ground chuck mix before throwing ‘em on the fire to prevent yourself from the shame of bland burgers. Go ahead, fire up that grill confidently. With your spatula in one hand and our BBQ sauces in the other, you’ll be okay.
Top-Notch Tofu and Plant-Based Burgers
Impress your vegetarian, pescatarian, or whatever-a-tarian friends with delicious BBQ-braised tofu (simmer tofu chunks in the sauce for about 30 mins) or add your now-famous glaze (see Grilling Pro Tip above) to their plant-based burgers at the next cookout.
Consider BBQ sauce the condiment of champions
Ketchup, mustard, mayo…BBQ sauce? We offer a resounding “YES.” Think about it: Stand out as a cook when your chicken sandwiches include an eye-popping layer of Smokin Mocha BBQ Sauce, a flavor-blasting blend of gourmet chocolate, hickory, and roasted dark coffee. Our point is, you don’t have to be Guy Fieri. You just have to understand how to utilize a great BBQ sauce to your advantage.
When is BBQ sauce not BBQ sauce?
The trick to using BBQ sauce to make you a better cook is deploying it as so much more than something for ribs and chicken breasts. A well-made BBQ sauce has the ability to turn a typical taco into a southwestern-style mouth present or a basic backstrap into a Bourbon Street parade. BBQ sauce is as crazy as you want it to be, so grab that bottle and go for it, friends.