Instructions for smoking the pulled pork are at the beginning of this post. The following recipe is a modification of the Kansas City Classic BBQ Sauce at Amazing Ribs. A few of the original ingredients have been increased, decreased, eliminated, and one added.
Best if made the day before. It's a sauce and, like soups, a sauce improves with age.
*See Kitchen Notes for more information.
In a small bowl, mix the chile powder, black pepper, and salt.
In a large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients ketchup, mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire, lemon juice, steak sauce, molasses, honey, and brown sugar.
Over medium to medium-low heat, heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and sauté until translucent but not starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
Add the dry spices and stir for about 2 minutes to extract their oil-soluble flavors.
Add the wet ingredients and combine well with other ingredients. Simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce should start to thicken.
Taste and adjust seasoning if needed, but just a little bit at a time*.
Red Chile Powder - It's very important that you use a "chile" powder, not a "chili" powder. The only ingredient listed on the bottle should be "red chile powder".
Adjusting for taste - The sauce may taste a bit vinegary at first, but that will be less obvious when you use it on meat. The first time we made this, we followed Meathead's suggestion and used his recipe. With each subsequent batch, we made some changes until we reached the sauce that we love best (the one above).
Don't be tempted to strain the sauce of the onions and garlic - As with all sauces, it gets better with age, and the onion and garlic assist in that improvement.
Storage - This sauce keeps in the refrigerator for at least a month. However, if you don't plan to use it all right away, then freeze it in small portions. In the freezer it keeps for at least a year.
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen