Elevate your grilling game with our homemade five-spice BBQ sauce. It’s the perfect blend of sweet, savoury, and spicy.
Regular readers will know that I am currently training for an epic 250 mile mountain bike cycle through the highlands of Scotland this summer (note – my cycling buddy and I have added an extra 61 miles onto our route plan as we hope to spend an extra day in Orkney doing that leg of the North Sea Cycle route). This means I’m spending a lot of my free time out on the roads, and I’m loving it. You might have noticed a subsequent decline in the frequency of my blog posts – if it’s not raining, I’m out on the road!
Not too long ago, my friend and I cycled a 100-mile round trip from our homes to the southern tip of our remote Shetland Island. It was the first time I’d ever cycled that sort of distance in one go, so I took Monday off as a rest day.
I pottered about the kitchen, catching up on some much-needed cleaning. The weather was supposed to be fairly decent that afternoon, so I organized everything for a family BBQ.
I made a batch of homemade sesame seed burger buns, boiled some potatoes for potato salad, made some fruit trifles, and baked a simple traybake cake. I was feeling rather like a domestic goddess.
The hunger from our long cycle the day before was making itself known.
How do you know BBQ meat is cooked through?
I use a SuperFast Thermapen® 4 digital thermometer. This high-tech gadget can read the temperature in three seconds, so we won’t have to worry about undercooked meat on the BBQ again.
I’ve been regularly using this thermometer for a good month and a half (2024 edit: nearly nine years!). I test to see if the roast lamb is at the right temperature and if the cakes have the right doneness (100 degrees C).
To be well done, pork, beef, and lamb need to be cooked to 71 degrees Celcius, and when on the BBQ, this is what you want. The SuperFast Thermapen® 4 makes reading this temperature quick and easy.
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The burgers were cooked to absolute perfection, tender and juicy, with a lovely depth of flavour from the sticky five-spice BBQ sauce.
Indonesian long peppers
The secret ingredient for this sauce is Indonesian long peppers. I learned about these gorgeous peppers at a blogging conference last year, and they’re now one of my favourite spices.
They have an earthy, sweet nutmeg/cinnamon aroma and a spicy, strong, pungent taste—a total flavour sensation.
Recipe Difficulty Levels
Easy
Requires basic cooking skills and ingredients you most likely already have in your kitchen.
Moderate
Requires more experience, preparation and/or cooking time. You may have to source special ingredients.
Challenging
Recipes requiring more advanced skills and experience and maybe some special equipment.
Five Spice BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 cinnamon stick broken into small pieces
- 2 tsp whole cloves
- 2 whole star anise
- 4 Indonesian long peppers
- 450 grams dark brown sugar
- 125 ml apple cider vinegar
- 125 ml Scottish rapeseed oil
- 1 tsp smoked sea salt
- 4.5 tsp garlic granules
- 142 grams tomato puree
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Instructions
- Heat a dry pan over medium flame and gently toast 2 tsp fennel seeds until they release their aroma.
- Place the fennel seeds along with 1 cinnamon stick, 2 tsp whole cloves, 2 whole star anise and 4 Indonesian long peppers into a mortar and pestle and grind until it forms a fine powder. Alternatively, place into a high speed blender and pulse until it reaches the desired consistency.
- Place 450 grams dark brown sugar, 125 ml apple cider vinegar, 125 ml Scottish rapeseed oil, 1 tsp smoked sea salt, 4.5 tsp garlic granules, 142 grams tomato puree into a small saucepan over a medium heat along with all of the ground five spice powder. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and cook for five minutes.
- Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal. Will keep for a few weeks in the fridge.
Slow Cooker Jerk Pulled Pork and Watermelon Salad
It does occur to me that the Thermapen stops you over cooking as much as undercooking.
Lovely looking sauce there.
My husband loves doing BBQ’s, I’ll make sure to share this with him as it looks like a very useful tool to have.
Sounds delicious. I love the flavours you have in here.
I too have a Thermapen…… Love it!
I love sticky BBQ sauces but I would have no idea where to start when it comes to making my own! Thanks so much for posting!
Perfect as summer comes. The thermometer is fascinating to use how good the meat is. Hehe. Looks effective though. and the sauce makes it yummier.
I love the sound of that BBQ sauce, I have to tryit next time i make burgers, yum!!!! The pen looks great too 😉
BBQ Sauce is my favourite! I will def reach for it over tomato!
Those burgers look so good and the sauce that you made sounds just delicious x
I want to put that sauce on everything! Especially burgers. Hoping for another BBQ here this weekend too.
I think I’d like this barbecue sauce a lot. The ingredients sound amazing and the sauce looks good with those burgers.
Oh wow this sounds amazing – my other half adores BBQ sauce so I could just imagine him tucking right into this. x
Ooh it looks amazing I love sticky bbq sauce and it would go really well with my quorn chicken fillets!
Oh wow! How delicious! I have yet to have a BBQ this summer. I can’t wait to have one, though. I’m just waiting for the rain to go away and the sun to come out to play again x
I love BBQ’s and love BBQ sauce this sounds amazing I am going to have to try it.
Oh my god… now this is amazing, I love a good burger with bbq sauce and this just looks amazing x
Oh my! That looks and sounds absolutely delectable! YUM YUM YUM! H x
Wow this looks so yummy. I would to taste
There’s nothing better than making your sticky BBQ sauce, one of my favourite quick things to make x
This sauce sounds amazing and I would love to visit Shetland one day!
Thanks for sharing this recipe, I love bbq sauce and it will be great to try and make it myself now 🙂