Spiced Rum-Mango BBQ Sauce

I am not going to lie to you; this sauce is insanely good!  So good, once you taste it, you will want to eat it by the spoonful!

Spiced Rum-Mango BBQ Sauce

I make a lot of different sauces throughout the summer.  My basic BBQ sauce recipe is so simple.  Use this as a base and then add to it as you wish.

MK's Seven “Magic" Ingredients for the Perfect Homemade BBQ Sauce: 

1. ¾ cup Ketchup
2. 2 tablespoons Mustard
3. 2 tablespoons Vinegar (Apple Cider or Rice Variety)
4. 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
5. 1 tablespoon Onion Powder
6. 2 tablespoons – ¼ cup of some kind of Sugar**
7. Booze*

I vary the types of the above, depending on what I am making.  For this recipe, I used SPICY BROWN mustard and RICE VINEGAR with RED PEPPER. 

I also used –

2 tablespoons of Honey**

1/3 cup Spiced Rum

**Note:  Honey and syrup need only a couple of tablespoons... If I use Brown Sugar, I use 1/4 of a cup, but you can adjust the sugar to your own taste.

*If you are using beer for your sauce, you can omit adding any water.  If you are using hard liquor, I suggest adding about a ½ a cup of cold water so the cooking process can take place slowly.

For my add in, I used –

1 cup of Mango, diced

1 Culantro Leaf

I combine everything together and I cook down for about an hour.  If the mango is harder in consistency, I use a potato masher to help it along.  You can strain the mixture at the end to remove the mango chunks, but we happen to like them so I leave them in.

Ribs basted in Rum-Mango BBQ Sauce


Living in Central Florida, our electric bills are also insane in the summer months.  I try to cook out on the grill as much as possible.   Plus, the other man in my life, Sir Eddie (our Golden), loves lounging on our chaise while I grill in the evenings.  Eddie takes one look at the grilling tools in my hand he knows it’s time to be the king of the patio. 

This weekend I made spare ribs. 

When I cook my Spare Ribs using this sauce, there is no need for a fancy dry rub. 

The quality of plain old Spare Ribs can be hit or miss.  As I discussed before with my lamb, our supermarket butcher gladly "trims" most of our meat at no extra charge, so I don't have a lot of work to do there.  But you might need to do some trimming first.  Remove any silverskin or excess fat.

I like to par boil my spare ribs in 4 bottles of Samuel Adams® Octoberfest Beer, a half of a talbespoon of ground Cinnamon and a small white onion.  If I have fresh Thyme, I toss a spring or two of that in there, too.   

I always have a few bottles of fall type beer around come spring. I f you do not have this beer, use a darker beer, such as Amber Bock®; add about 1/2 teaspoon of Allspice with the Cinnamon. 



Braise over a low heat for 1 1/2 hours.


You want to braise the ribs for about an hour and a half over a very low heat.  By the time the braising process is done, the beer should be like syrup at the end.

When I remove these from the pan, I do not pat the ribs dry. 

All I use to season these up is Garlic Powder and Seasoned Salt.  A liberal sprinking on both sides if fine.  No measuring required!

Note:  The sugar in the beer will help to brown the ribs up.  I simply put tin foil in the center of my grill, and heat it up to about 400 degrees. 

I turn the center burner(s) off and cook these ribs over indirect heat for one hour.

Look at those ribs as they brown!  Yum!

I add fifteen additional minutes at the end for basting with the sauce (both sides).






Ribs, basted in the Spiced Rum-Mango BBQ Sauce

Serve with http://welcometojustforcooking.blogspot.com/2011/04/sweet-potato-salad-with-honey-ginger.html