North Carolina Barbecue Sauce Recipes.

A Revelation in Barbecue Sauce!

These North Carolina Barbecue sauce recipes are surely an eyeopener. Unique and very tasty!

The first time I ever heard of North Carolina Barbecue Sauce was from my friend Pat. She’s a food nut just like me. She loves to eat and I love to cook, so we get along well…

So, I decide to make some ribs. I rub the ribs down, smoke them for about six hours or so, then slather some sauce on them. I slice and serve my masterpiece…

Now Pat loves everything I make…

But…

She takes a bite…I can tell something’s not right. “How are the ribs?” I ask. “They’re good” she says.

She’s a terrible liar.

Finally, she admits the sauce is sweet and thick. Not what she’s used to. Then she tells me about the sauce she had in North Carolina. A sauce made with vinegar.

What?

Huh?

She also told me that it only goes on pulled pork sandwiches.


She recalls a story of her going to get barbecue for everyone and asking what kind of barbecue they wanted. They all looked at her like she was crazy!


The answer she got… “The only thing that’s barbecue around these here parts, little missy, is pulled pork!”

Pulled PorkPulled Pork

The Mother of All Barbecue Sauces

All barbecue sauces owe their existence to the sauces originally concocted in North Carolina. They all are based, specifically, on the sauces made in Eastern North Carolina.

It’s a very basic recipe; Vinegar, sugar, salt, red pepper flakes. Adding ingredients changes the profile of the sauce and gives you an infinite variety of barbecue sauces.

  • A small amount of ketchup and sweetness gives you a Western North Carolina Barbecue Sauce
  • Adding mustard and taking away the heat gives you a Golden Mustard Barbecue Sauce, popular in South Carolina and Georgia.
  • Tomatoes and sweetness will turn out a classic Kansas City Barbecue Sauce

Changing the ingredients and the amount of specific ingredients will give your sauce infinite variations.

For example; you can make a classic Kansas City Barbecue sauce and add more vinegar. It will be a less sweet and thinner sauce.

Or you could add more apple juice instead of vinegar. This will make the sauce thinner, but not as tangy.

The great thing is…once you’ve got a few sauces under your belt, you can make anything you want.

Enough Talking…Let’s Get Down to the Recipes!

There are two recipes on this page.

This first is the Eastern North Carolina Barbecue Sauce Recipe and below that is the Western North Carolina Barbecue Sauce Recipe.

Pat’s favorite is the Western North Carolina sauce, But I’m not supposed to tell you that because she’s an Eastern North Carolina girl!

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Eastern North Carolina Barbecue Sauce Recipe

This is where it all started. The mother of all barbecue sauces!

This sauce is very thin, which means it penetrates whatever you put it on fantastically. It’s best used on shredded meat like pulled pork.

• 2 Cups cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp white granulated sugar
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp hot pepper sauce
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• ½ tsp red chili flakes

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl
2. Stir until the sugar and salt are fully dissolved.

That’s it! Talk about easy. And this Eastern North Carolina Barbecue Sauce Recipe is very tasty as well!

This makes about two cups. Store your sauce in a covered glass or plastic container in the refrigerator. It will stay good in the fridge indefinitely. But you will use it before then I’m sure.

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Western North Carolina Barbecue Sauce Recipe

This sauce is fantastic. You haven’t lived until you’ve had this sauce drizzled over your pulled pork sandwich!

Pulled Pork SandwichPulled Pork Sandwich

It also tastes great on pulled chicken.

It has quite a punch, so it’s best to drizzle it over the meat instead of mixing it in.

• 1 Cup cider vinegar
• 1 Cup ketchup
• 3 Tbsp dark brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp molasses
• 1 Tbsp prepared yellow mustard
• 1 Tbsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tsp kosher salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl
2. Stir until the sugar and salt are fully dissolved and the other ingredients are fully combined.

This makes about two cups. Store your sauce in a covered glass or plastic container in the refrigerator. Like the recipe above it will stay good in the fridge indefinitely.

Although in my house, this sauce mysteriously disappears in just a few days!

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