Kansas City Barbecue Sauce

As soon as grilling season starts, my fridge seems to collect bottles and bottles of homemade barbecue sauces. I always start off the season with the most straightforward one—Kansas City barbecue sauce—to whet my appetite for all the grilling recipes to come.

Kansas City-style barbecue sauce is what comes to mind when we think of a traditional barbecue sauce: thick, sweet, tangy and a little smoky. The sauce builds on sauteed onions and garlic. Ketchup makes the base, then brown sugar, molasses, mustard and cider vinegar are mixed in. Finally, chili powder and cayenne build up the spicy and smoky profile.

Once the sauce is made, you can keep it in the fridge for up to one month. Use it as they do in Kansas City: on anything. Baste it on chicken, let it be a dip for brisket, toss it with burnt ends, mix it into pulled pork or use it to finish a side of baked beans.

What is Kansas City barbecue sauce?

Kansas City barbecue sauce, hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, is one of the many regional barbecue sauces in America. This sauce is thick, ketchup-based, sweet, tangy and even a little smoky, depending on the seasoning mix. It’s the most versatile barbecue sauce, used as both a baste and a dip for all kinds of barbecued meats.

Ingredients for Kansas City Barbecue Sauce

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• Butter: We’ll sautee the onions and garlic in butter. You can use olive oil here, but butter makes the sauce richer and tastier.
• White onion: White onions are among the sweetest types of onions. Since they’re so sweet, you don’t really need to cook them, unlike red or yellow onions that pack a wallop of pungency. But when you do cook a white onion, as we do in this recipe, it really brings out the sweetness even further, which is perfect for this sweet barbecue sauce.
• Ketchup: Tangy ketchup is the base for Kansas City-style barbecue sauce. Feel free to replace it with tomato sauce if desired.
• Brown sugar: Brown sugar’s caramel-molasses notes offer a deeper, richer sweetness than pure granulated sugar.
• Molasses: Tangy, dark, smoky and prune-like, molasses adds a host of complex flavors to a Kansas City barbecue sauce recipe. It’s basically the flavor bomb that takes the sauce over the top—in a good way!
• Cider vinegar: Every barbecue sauce has to pack in as much of a punch as possible and taste overly flavorsome when bare on the tongue. There’s a lot of meat to season! Vinegar is a major catalyst for this, especially cider vinegar’s sour, fruity profile.
• Mustard: A tiny bit of yellow mustard adds zing and zip.
• Spices: Chili powder, cayenne, salt and pepper create a bold, pungent and in-your-face seasoning mixture.

Directions

Step 1: Saute the onions and garlic

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onions, and cook them until they’re quite tender, four to five minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook one minute longer.

Editor’s Tip: Don’t add the garlic when you add the onions to the pan. Onions take longer to cook than garlic, so your garlic will be overly toasted, or maybe even burnt, by the time the onions are done.

Step 2: Create the sauce

Add the remaining ingredients: ketchup, brown sugar, molasses, cider vinegar, mustard, chili powder, salt, pepper and cayenne. Stir them together and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a low simmer.

Step 3: Cook it down

Cook down the mixture until the flavors have melded, 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce should thicken slightly too.

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What to Serve with Kansas City Barbecue Sauce

Unlike other barbecue recipes across America, Kansas City barbecue sauce isn’t saved for specific cuts of meat. However, you can almost always find Kansas City barbecue sauce on burnt ends. Otherwise, use the barbecue sauce for any meats: grilled chicken, smoked brisket, pulled pork or Kansas City-style ribs.

Serve the barbecued meats with an array of classic barbecue sides like pickles, macaroni and cheese, creamy coleslaw, cornbread or corn pudding, potato salad and corn on the cob. Of course, don’t forget to save some of the barbecue sauce for barbecue baked beans!

Recipe Variations

• Try different spices: Omit or add spices as desired. Try bold seasonings like smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, ground mustard, garlic powder, onion powder or chipotle powder. Play around with the flavor to make this Kansas City-style barbecue sauce uniquely yours!
• Blend the sauce: For a smooth Kansas City barbecue sauce, allow it to cool, then blend it in a blender or with an immersion blender until pureed.

How to Store Kansas City Barbecue Sauce

To store Kansas City barbecue sauce, first allow it to cool to room temperature, then pour it into a glass jar or airtight container. Use the barbecue sauce right away or pop it in the fridge so it’s ready any time.

How long does Kansas City barbecue sauce last?

Kansas City barbecue sauce can last in the fridge for up to one month if properly covered. Whenever I make a homemade sauce, I always write the date it was made on a piece of tape, then adhere it to the jar so I know how long I have to use it.

Kansas City Barbecue Sauce Tips

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What is the base of Kansas City barbecue sauce?

The base of a Kansas City barbecue sauce recipe is ketchup. Other ingredients include molasses, vinegar, mustard, brown sugar and spices, but ketchup is by far the most prominent ingredient.

What’s the difference between Memphis and Kansas City barbecue sauces?

The difference between Memphis and Kansas City barbecue sauces is that Memphis barbecue sauce does not cook on the meat. Instead, it’s added after. Kansas City barbecue sauce can be cooked on meat or used as a dipping sauce. Memphis barbecue sauce is also thinner, spicier and tangier than Kansas City’s thick, slightly sweet sauce.

What is the difference between St. Louis barbecue and Kansas City barbecue?

The difference between St. Louis barbecue and Kansas City barbecue is that St. Louis’s sauce is a bit thinner because it has more vinegar, which also makes it tangier than sweet Kansas City barbecue sauce.