Like your BBQ sauces on the fruitier side? Go all in with this delicious blueberry chipotle BBQ sauce! With its purply hue, it looks as good as it tastes.
🌶️ Quick recipe snapshot
| Flavor profile | Cooked-down blueberry over a ketchup base, sweetened with honey, molasses and brown sugar, with smoke coming from two directions |
| Primary heat source | Two chipotle peppers in adobo, minced, plus an extra tablespoon of the adobo sauce |
| Heat level | Mild to medium, and adjustable right at the end. Chipotle runs 2,500 to 8,000 SHU |
| Texture | As smooth or as rough as you blend the berries. Thick from the start — no reducing needed |
| Best uses | A marinade for pork or chicken, or a dipper for skewers and tenders |
| Customization ideas | More chipotle stirred in at the end, less molasses, or blend the berries coarse for something more rustic |
Flavor notes
That sweet and earthy berry taste is paired with honey and brown sugar to bring out that sweetness even more. And the chipotle peppers act as a smoky (and certainly fiery) foil to the sweet taste. Sweet and heat always pair well, but there’s something about the blueberry/chipotle combo that’s really special. Each has an earthiness that pairs so well together.
The thing that makes this quick is the ketchup. A cup and a half of it is the actual base of the sauce, and it arrives already thick, already sweet, already sour. That is why nothing gets simmered down after the berries come off the heat — the only cooking in the recipe is ten minutes of blueberries softening, and everything after that is stirring.
Which means you can taste it and fix it while it is still in the pot. Step four says to add more chipotle if you want it hotter, and that instruction only works because nothing is going to change from there. A sauce that still has half an hour of simmering ahead of it will not taste at the end the way it tastes when you try it. This one will.
Smoke turns up twice, from the chipotle and from the half teaspoon of liquid smoke, which is why two peppers is enough here. Go much past that and you are stacking smoke on smoke rather than adding heat.
Adaptation ideas
- Add chipotle at the end, not the start: The recipe already tells you to. Mince a third pepper and stir it through a spoonful at a time until it is where you want it.
- Ease off the molasses: Half a cup is a lot, and it is the darkest, most bitter thing in the pot. Cut it to a quarter and let the blueberries carry more of the flavor.
- Blend the berries coarse: Stop the processor early and you keep bits of skin and fruit in the sauce. It looks homemade rather than bottled, which is either what you want or exactly what you do not.
- Skip the liquid smoke: The chipotle and its adobo bring smoke on their own. Leaving it out gives you a fruitier sauce and lets you add a third pepper without it getting heavy.
- Frozen blueberries work: No need to thaw. They give up more liquid, so let them cook a couple of minutes longer before blending.
- Try it with a different fruit: Our cherry chipotle BBQ sauce runs the same idea with cherries, and it does get simmered down.
Serving ideas
Use blueberry chipotle BBQ sauce as a marinade with pork or chicken. It’s a great recipe to change things up during BBQ season. Or try it as a dipping sauce. It’s a perfect combo with chicken skewers and chicken tenders. In fact, that sweet heat is excellent with salty and fried meats.
- As a marinade, then again as a glaze: Marinate with half, keep the rest back, and brush it on near the end of the cook. Sugar this heavy will catch over direct heat.
- On pork especially: Chops, tenderloin, ribs. Fruit and pork is an old pairing and the smoke keeps it from going twee.
- With fried chicken: Tenders, wings, a sandwich. Sweet heat against salty and fried is where this sauce earns its keep.
- On a cheese board: Alongside something sharp and hard. It behaves more like a chutney than a barbecue sauce in that setting.
- Over grilled halloumi or roast squash: The sweetness works just as well without meat under it.
Storage notes
Into a sealed jar and into the fridge once it is cool. Two weeks is safe. There is a lot of sugar and a good slug of vinegar in here, both of which help, and the ketchup arrives with its own preservatives already on board.
It is a fridge sauce, not a shelf-stable one — nothing in this recipe processes the jar, so it does not belong in a cupboard. Freezing works well if you have made more than you can get through, and thirty-five servings is more than most people get through quickly. Small containers, and it keeps for months.
One thing to expect: it thickens as it chills, more than you might guess from how it looks warm. A splash of water or cider vinegar stirred through brings it back to brushing consistency without watering down the flavor much.
Like this recipe? You’ll love these too:
- Smoky Espresso BBQ Sauce: This recipe pairs rich coffee flavor and adobo sauce with smoky chipotle for one memorable marinade.
- Ancho BBQ Sauce: A milder twist on the classic for a spicy BBQ night.
- Cherry Habanero BBQ Sauce: Want your barbecued meats to have sun-like heat with some cherry tang? This recipe is for you.
50 quick, bold sauces and salsas: classic salsas and fun twists, BBQ sauces with a kick, and dippers with bang. Simple to make, big on flavor.
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Blueberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups blueberries
- 1 1/2 cups ketchup
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce minced (plus 1 extra tablespoon adobo sauce)
- 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
- Dashes salt and pepper more to taste
Instructions
- In a saucepan over medium-high heat, add the blueberries, honey, and water. Cook the mix, stirring often, until the blueberries begin to soften and burst (approximately 10 minutes).
- Transfer the blueberries to a high-sided pot. Using a food processor, process the blueberries until smooth (or until they reach your desired consistency for the BBQ sauce).
- Add the ketchup, molasses, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, chipotle peppers and adobo sauce, liquid smoke, and salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
- Taste the sauce and add additional salt, pepper, or chipotle pepper (for a hotter sauce) to taste.
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I made this with a mixture of blueberries and saskatoons – it’s my favourite bbq sauce!