South Carolina Mustard Barbecue Sauce

I have always been a lover of barbecue sauce. From the time my mom and I went to Wendy’s for the first time after a rained-out elementary school carnival and I dipped my first chicken nuggets in my first barbecue sauce ever, I have been ensnared by its sweet, sweet spiciness.

As I got older, my tastes matured (well, my taste in barbecue sauce and romantic comedies…in other realms, I’m hopelessly…um…childlike) and I kind of fell in love with mustard-based barbecue sauces. They’re spicy and tangy and bright and the perfect match for the natural sweetness in pork. Or chicken. Or tiny licks from a spoon. Whatever.

I adapted this South Carolina Mustard Barbecue Sauce from Cook’s Country. Although I totally respect their extensive testing process, I scaled back a little on the hot sauce and the Worcestershire Sauce because I found the flavors overwhelming, but, the beauty in starting out small is that you can always add more if you want (the strength of those flavors will depend a lot on the brands of sauces that you use.) It has become one of our family favorite–it literally comes together in just a few minutes, my husband is a huge sucker for sweet mustardy anything, and it’s delicious mopped onto grilled meats as as a sauce on grilled chicken sandwiches or chicken nuggets.

You’re going to need yellow mustard, brown sugar, white vinegar, hot sauce (like Tabasco), Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.

Have weever talked about how brown sugar is one of, like, my top 5 things in the universe?

Ever since I was little, The simple pleasure of patting brown sugar into a cup and then it holding its shape when I dump it out brings me infinite joy. I’m a tiny bit weird.

Now this is fairly tricky. Combine all the ingredients.

Whisk them together. And you’re done. We drizzle this on Kalua Pork or brush it onto ribs or Fauxtisserie Chicken (or rotisserie chicken from the grocery store)–my favorite is to add just a little while it’s still cooking and then serve it on the side (or drizzle it on pulled pork or chicken sandwiches (if I’m planning on using the leftover meat for something else, I’ll reserve some that doesn’t get any sauce.)