LCHF Kansas City BBQ Sauce

With it's bold, sweet, and tangy flavors, Kansas City (KC) style barbecue sauce has become one of the most popular styles of barbecue sauce purchased by Americans. Now there are quite a few different commercially prepared KC style barbecue sauces, but there is only one problem, not one of them is low carb. So what are you supposed to do if you get a hankering for some good old fashioned barbecue, but are diabetic, or are following a low carbohydrate high fat diet? Well, make your own of course. So, if you love the sweet tangy flavors of KC barbecue sauce, then you should love my low carbohydrate high fat (LCHF) version of this popular style sauce that I call 'Sweety Que'.

Kansas City Style barbecue sauces start with a base of tomato sauce, tomato paste, onions, and garlic. The sweetness comes from brown sugar, molasses, and sometimes honey, while it gets it tartness from vinegar or lemon juice, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. It's final flavor component comes from it's spice mix of salt, black pepper, chili powder, dry mustard, allspice, and cayenne pepper. Because Kansas City sauces are bold in flavor and thicker than other barbecue sauces, they are typically used as a finishing sauce which is brushed on just before serving or near the end of the cooking cycle.

In this article I will teaching you how to make my LCHF version of KC barbecue sauce 'Sweety Que'. For this recipe we substitute the brown sugar and molasses with liquid sucralose which contains no carbohydrates, and in place of the traditional ketchup we will be using tomato sauce and tomato paste.

The Recipe

If you love the sweet tangy flavors of Kansas City barbecue sauce, and you have been looking for a low carbohydrate alternative to commercially prepared sauces, then I guarantee you that you will love my LCHF version of KC style barbecue sauce that I call 'Sweety Que'. While tomato sauce and tomato paste have carbohydrates, most of the carbohydrates in commercial KC style barbecue sauces come from brown sugar and molasses. In this recipe we will be substituting liquid sucralose for the sugar and molasses.

KC 'Sweety Que' (Yield 2 ½ cups, 40 tablespoons)

2 (8oz cans) tomato sauce

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup water

8 to 10 drops liquidsucralose (25% concentration)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

½ medium onion, diced

1 whole clove, ground

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon dark chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried mustard

1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1 drop liquid smoke (optional)

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onions, garlic, tomato paste, chili powder, paprika, red pepper, allspice, and cloves and cook, stirring, until paste is dark brick red, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and heat just until the sauce simmers, the cook for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to come together. Remove and discard bay leaf. If desired, puree with an immersion blender or add to a table top blender once the sauce has cooled.

Chef's Note – I suggest that you start out with 8 drops of sucralose and then taste the sauce for sweetness, if it is not quite sweet enough then add 2 more. Remember KC style barbecue sauce tends the be sweeter than other styles, but as always adjust the sweetness to suit your personal preferences.

Total Recipe – Calories 399, protein 5.75 grams, fat 14.89 grams, carbohydrates 44 grams

Per Tablespoon – Calories 10, protein 0.14 grams, fat 0.37 grams, carbohydrates 1.1 grams

Just for comparison, I have listed the three most popular commercial KC style barbecue sauces with their nutritional information.

Bull's-Eye Kansas City Style

Per Tablespoon – Calories 25, protein 0 grams, fat 0 grams, carbohydrates 6.5 grams

Heinz Kansas City Style, Sweet and Smokey

Per Tablespoon – Calories 30, protein 0 grams, fat 0 grams, carbohydrates 7.5 grams

KC Masterpiece Original

Per Tablespoon – Calories 29, protein 0.2 grams, fat 0.1 grams, carbohydrates 7 grams

As you can see, all of the commercially prepared KC style barbecue sauces have at a minimum 6 times more carbohydrates than my KC 'Sweety Que' barbecue sauce. That's quite a substantial difference especially for those of us who are diabetic or are following an LCHF diet regimen. And the best part of all my 'Sweety Que' will not cause your blood sugar to spike like all the others mentioned in this article.

Conclusion

This has become one of my families favorite BBQ sauces. It is low carb and will not cause your blood glucose levels to spike. So if you are a diabetic or are eating LCHF you no longer have to worry about the number of carbohydrates in your barbecue sauce as this recipe only has 1.1 grams of net carbohydrates per tablespoon. For information on how to use and where to purchase liquid sucralose check out our article on the subject on our blog.

As always, I hope you have found this article to be informative and helpful and if so we ask that you share it with your friends. Don't forget to send us a friend request on Facebook on our page CulinaryYouLCHF or add us to your groups on Google+.

Similar Articles On Our Blog:

Liquid Sucralose