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20-Minute Paleo BBQ Sauce Recipe

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This Paleo BBQ Sauce Recipe only takes 20 minutes to make. It’s a really good, easy homemade sauce for sloppy joes, ribs, pulled pork or whatever. I was very excited to create this recipe! I love Paleo barbeque sauce but it has been years since I could eat it because of all the stuff I don’t want to consume.

So I was on a search for a good BBQ sauce recipe that’s Paleo and delicious and still has the flavor I love. One reason why I love this recipe is that it is so versatile.  I can put in on chicken or any other meat with some sides or I can make a sloppy joe or some many other things! It is wonderful to be able to make this sauce and use it for several different meals.

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Paleo BBQ Sauce Recipe

Making your own sauce can be very good if you want a healthy lifestyle. A lot of calories and fats come from sauce alone. A lot of people think if they make homemade healthy food it is okay to put store-bought sauce on it and it would still be good for you. Yes, of course, it would be better than not homemade food but my point is if you want to take it to the next level let’s start making our own sauce too! I think it tastes better too!

You may be thinking there’s no way a paleo barbecue sauce without ketchup can be any good in only 20 minutes. Well, I’m here to tell you that it can. Sure. It would taste better if you cooked it longer – and you totally can cook it longer if you want it to get a deep, richer flavor – but in 20 minutes you will get a sauce I think is better than any store-bought sauce and it sure as heck is a lot healthier than any store-bought sauce full of preservatives. Plus, this costs a lot less money and is easy to make with a few ingredients.

And, am I the only person in the world who HATES ketchup? Please comment below and tell me if you hate ketchup. I can’t be the only person. . . I can’t even explain why. It’s too concentrated on tomato flavor or something. I don’t know. It’s just not my favorite.

Plus, most ketchup is processed, so it’s best to avoid on a healthy diet anyway. Although, my daughter LOVES, LOVES ketchup, as in, “May I please have some fries to go with my ketchup?”, and she likes Annie’s brand of ketchup. So, there such a thing as Clean ketchup you can buy in stores. Well, enough about ketchup . . .

If you try not to eat much sugar and/or don’t like things too sweet, you could take out the honey and replace it with some extra maple syrup. You won’t need as much maple syrup, because it has a stronger flavor. I hope you will be pleasantly surprised by the ingredient of balsamic vinegar in this recipe. I use it a lot in my cooking.

I use it in recipes that call for soy sauce or recipes like this where you want a deep, rich sauce. Once you try it, I hope you will agree with me that it’s delish! I get my balsamic vinegar at Costco and it’s Clean there. I’ve heard it’s not always clean, so make sure you read your label. Of course, if you’re on the Clean Eating diet, that’s should be something you are used to doing anyway.

I love how fast I can make this sauce and how it’s good on lots of different things, like sloppy joes, hamburgers, ribs, smoked meat, pulled pork, instead of ketchup, with chicken nuggets and probably tons more things.

Check out my favorite recipe to use with this sauce –  Crock Pot Paleo Sloppy Joes Recipe.

Paleo barbeque sauce

You may also like these recipes:

Paleo Sauces Index

Paleo Side Dishes – Vegetables, Fruits, Salads & More

The Very Best Ever Paleo Hamburger Buns Recipe

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20-Minute Paleo BBQ Sauce Recipe

Paleo BBQ Sauce

★★★★★

5 from 23 reviews

This clean bbq sauce whips up in minutes and is really flexible. I love it on pulled pork, ribs, sloppy joes, hamburgers, chicken and more!

  • Author: Rebecca Baron
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 60 minutes
  • Total Time: 70 minutes
  • Yield: 8 1x
  • Category: Sauce
  • Cuisine: Paleo
Scale

Ingredients

  • 15 oz Can Tomato Sauce
  • 3/4 Cup Water
  • 1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
  • 2 tsp Ground Mustard
  • 1/3 Cup Raw Honey (or Vegan sweetener of choice, such as agave *)
  • 2 Tbl Pure Maple Syrup *
  • 1 tsp Real Salt *
  • 3/4 tsp Onion Powder
  • 1 tsp Smoked Paprika

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients to a medium sized saucepan and whisk together.
  2. Bring to a simmer over medium/high heat.
  3. Reduce heat to medium and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until sauce has thickened to desired consistency.
  4. Let cool.
  5. Store in an airtight container. Will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.

Keywords: easy, flexible, healthy, homemade

Clean BBQ sauce

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. LC

    I rarely ever leave comments on recipe websites but this sauce is absolutely incredible! It reminds me of my favorite restaurant bbq sauces. This will be my go to sauce from now on! Thanks 🙂

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  4. Jacqi

    Made this keto by using sugar free maple syrup. Only had small can of tomato paste so added 3cans of water for the liquid. Excellent!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  6. Porscha

    Made this for ribs. Oh my, super yummy! Love that it’s clean. This will be my go to bbq sauce. Easy and delicious!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  10. Whitney Estelle Jaramillo

    My best so far… Needed to add garlic powder, onion powder, & Chile powder to taste.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  11. Shawna Canaga

    Turned out yummy! Was a bit sweet for me so I added a touch of pepper and garlic salt, plus a little more paprika. Making bbq ribs now!!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  14. Traci T

    This bbq sauce is perfect! Tastes just like BBQ sauce should but without high fructose corn syrup and modified starch. I added 1 capful of liquid smoke. Definitely a keeper!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

    • Rebecca

      I’m glad you like it. I love how easy it is and how it doesn’t taste like it comes from a bottle (which it doesn’t, but I have never had a BBQ sauce from a bottle that I liked).

      Reply

  16. Claire

    Very good! I think it got sweeter as it reduced, so next time I may add a touch of apple cider vinegar to balance it out.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  18. Chester

    Very nice and smooth BBQ sauce…I used avc and added some chipotle as well….very nice….will be a family staple

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  20. Mandi

    I still can’t believe how easy this was to make, and I had everything in the pantry! I cooked this up in my multicooker on sauté before slow-cooking 1kg of chicken breasts in it for pulled chook. I used 500g of passata, and I added 1/2tsp garlic powder and 1tsp liquid smoke. It was soooo good, I was eating the chicken as I was shredding it! Drool… lol. We had pulled chook buns for 2 nights, then bbq chicken pasta for the 3rd. Definitely keeping this in rotation, it’s phenomenal!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  22. Brittany

    If I’m making the sloppy joes, do I need to make the sauce separately then add it to the croc pot … Or can I just add the sauce ingredients to the meat mixture? Also I’m planning to double the meat portion, so would you double the sauce as well?

    Reply

    • Rebecca

      Paleo isn’t no carbs or sugar, like the Whole30 or Keto diets. Most people are fine eating some honey or maple syrup on occasion on the Paleo diet.

      Reply

  24. Rachel

    This BBQ sauce is AMAZING. I let mine simmer a bit longer, about 30 minutes and it is nice and thick and has such a wonderful BBQ flavor. This just made my life SO much easier and also saves me tons of money not having to order paleo BBQ sauce off the internet. Thank you!!!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

    • Rebecca

      No. Those two things are too different. The next closest thing would probably be coconut aminos, but I can’t guarantee the results because I haven’t tried it with anything else.

      Reply

  26. Danni

    I never comment on these things but I had to let you know I tried your recipe and it was TO DIE FOR! This will be on my weekly menu from now on. I almost inhaled my sticky ribs tonight!! Thank you!

    Reply

  27. Tonya

    Is there a reason why I shouldn’t use a little mixture of arrowroot powder and water to thicken up this sauce? It has a wonderful taste/aroma, would just like it to “hang on” our bbq’d meat a little better!

    ★★★★

    Reply

    • Rebecca

      I suppose you could, but I would think a better way to thicken it would be to cook it longer than the instructions so it reduces down and gets thick on it’s own. You’ll be able to watch the level of the sauce on the side of the pot as the water evaporates and the BBQ sauce gets thicker. It will take a half hour or so. That will also give it a deeper, richer flavor.

      Reply

    • Rebecca

      Since it doesn’t have preservatives, it lasts only about as long as tomato sauce would, so I would say a week or so.

      Reply

    • Daniel

      Super easy! And I hate ketchup. Most disgusting sauce on this planet in my opinion. So thank you for helping me know I’m not alone with this.

      ★★★★★

      Reply

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