A rich, fruity, slightly spicy blueberry barbecue sauce recipe I learned from my old Chef Lenny Russo when I was sous chef at his restaurant. It's easy to make at home and a great recipe for canning blueberries if you have excess. Chef liked it so much he used to serve it with French fries! Read on and I'll explain what you need to know.

A close up image of a spoon purple with wild blueberry barbecue sauce on a wooden plate next to a bowl of wild blueberry barbecue sauce and fresh blueberries. — Homemade blueberry barbecue sauce.

Why This Blueberry Barbecue Sauce Recipe Is The Best

A lot of fruit barbecue sauce recipes include blackstrap molasses. While this might sound like a good idea since it's usually in regular barbecue sauce, it changes the flavor and fights with the fruit, making the sauce taste heavy.

Other ingredients like balsamic vinegar or smoked paprika are also too aggressive here and will cover up the taste of the blueberries. This sauce is fresh and clean tasting, highlighting the fresh blueberry flavor.

Blueberry barbecue sauce made from fresh wild blueberries in a cup surrounded by wild blueberries. — Barbecue sauce made from wild blueberries will contain more natural pectin and may solidify after refrigerating.

The spices are also important and need to be used judiciously. Instead of many different spices, I focus mainly on allspice in this recipe, along with a cinnamon stick that's discarded. Avoiding cloves and nutmeg help keep the sauce tasting bright and fresh.

Wild blueberries next to cultivated blueberries in a bowl. — Wild blueberries next to cultivated blueberries. Either can be used for this recipe.

How to Make Blueberry Barbecue Sauce

This is an easy recipe anyone can make with a saucepan and a blender. First you gently cook chopped shallot or onion, garlic and ginger until soft. Next, blueberries (fresh or frozen) are added, along with organic sugar.

Adding onion, garlic, ginger and shallot to a pan and cooking in oil. — Cook the onion, garlic and ginger until soft.

Adding fresh blueberries to a pan of shallot, ginger and garlic. — Add the blueberries to the pan.

Adding a cup of sugar to a pan of cooking blueberry sauce. — Add the sugar, honey or maple syrup.

Next the cinnamon stick, ground allspice and cayenne pepper are added.

Adding a cinnamon stick to a pan of blueberries cooking. — Add a cinnamon stick which gets removed before blending.

Adding ground allspice to a pan of cooking blueberry sauce. — Add the ground allspice to the pan.

Adding ground cayenne pepper to a pan of blueberries cooking on the stove. — Add the cayenne pepper if using.

Finally, red wine vinegar, red wine or ideally, homemade vinegar made from blueberries is added. The fruit mixture is cooked for about 20 minutes to evaporate some liquid, then pureed in a blender.

Adding blueberry vinegar to a pan of cooking blueberry sauce. — Add the blueberry vinegar or red wine vinegar.

A pan of wild blueberry sauce cooking and steaming. — Simmer the sauce for 20 minutes to evaporate liquid.

A hand holding the tamper attachment of a highspeed blender while pureeing blueberry sauce. — Puree the blueberry sauce in a blender.

After pureeing the sauce can be stored in jars in the fridge, or processed in a water bath for long term storage in a pantry.

A mason jar with a non-reactive plastic Ball lid filled with blueberry barbecue sauce. — I like non-reactive mason jar lids if I'll hold the sauce in the fridge.

How to Use Blueberry BBQ Sauce

Serve the sauce as a condiment to grilled and roasted meats, especially grilled chicken, pork and venison. Use it to baste meats like ribs in the smoker or toss it with roasted chicken wings.

Think of it as a condiment you can spoon right from the jar on grilled pork tenderloin.

Smoked pork ribs brushed with blueberry barbecue sauce to finish. — Pork ribs with blueberry barbecue sauce.

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5 from 2 votes

Blueberry Barbecue Sauce

Sweet, tart, and mildly spicy barbecue sauce made from fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries. Perfect for grilled meats like pork, chicken and venison. Makes about 4 cups. You can cut the recipe in half if you need.

Prep Time5

Cook Time25

Total Time30

Course: Condiment

Cuisine: American

Keyword: blueberry barbecue sauce recipe

Servings: servings

Calories: 70kcal

Author: Alan Bergo

Cost: 10

Equipment

1 Two quart cooking pot
blender or food processor
Two 16 oz (2 cup) mason jars with lids

Ingredients

1.5 lbs blueberries roughly 5 cups of blueberries
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
1 small shallot about 3oz, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons flavorless cooking oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoons minced garlic
¼ teaspoon cayenne or hot chili sauce to taste (optional)
1 teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon about ½ a whole nutmeg ground or grated nutmeg
1 two inch cinnamon stick

Instructions

Add the oil to a 2 quart sauce pan with the shallots, or onion, garlic and ginger. Sweat the mixture for 2-3 minutes, or until the shallot is translucent.
Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer and cook on medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and discard.
Working carefully, puree the hot mixture in a blender until very smooth. Pour the barbecue sauce into two pint mason jars, seal, and process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Remove the jars and cool, label, date, and store in a pantry.

Video

Notes

Blueberry Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

Omit the cayenne and add 1 tablespoon ground, dried chipotle chili powder or pureed chili peppers in adobo to taste.

Bourbon Blueberry Barbecue Sauce

Add ½ cup bourbon to the onions and garlic after they're done cooking. Reduce the liquid by half, then add the blueberries and proceed with the recipe.

Nutrition