It’s near the end of the growing season in the Midwest, so you may find yourself with some extra veggies that need a home. If you’re like me, that means making a bunch of freezer or canner-friendly sauces and dips with a pile of jalapeños. My gardens are very simple… a few tomatoes (which decided to take the year off), and a lot of jalapeños.
I also go on an annual apple picking trip with my in-laws, so this year around jalapeño-picking time, I had half a dozen apples left and no desire to make another crisp or crumble. My question to friends was simple: I have apples and jalapeños… what if I just roasted, peeled, and mixed them? Seems like they would go well together with the right ingredients.
So I grabbed my Bourbon Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce recipe and got to work making tweaks, turns, and all-out overhauls until I had something I thought might work. And then I made it, and it worked. Omg did it work. I think it worked too well, cause I immediately made some fried chicken and went to town on it.
It’s possible to make this recipe smooth and silky, but frankly, I don’t know why you would do such a thing. The best applesauce is chunky applesauce, so it tracks that the best apple BBQ sauce would also have some texture.
Feel free to switch out the ketchup for a tomato mixture of your own. As I said, my tomatoes didn’t grow well this year, so I decided to make this recipe simpler. And honestly, I don’t think the difference would be all that significant with the apples and jalapeños stealing the show.
As always, may all your apples stay fresh until your jalapeños are ready.
Apple Jalapeño Bourbon BBQ Sauce
Equipment
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Sheet pan
- 1 Silicone baking mat or parchment paper
Ingredients
- 3 apples, cored
- 4 jalapeños
- 1 cup bourbon
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups ketchup
- 1 6 oz can tomato paste
- 2 tbsp liquid smoke
- 2 tbsp molasses
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Cut apples and jalapeños in half. Remove apple cores. Remove as much of the jalapeño seeds and ribs as desired (leave more in for more heat). Place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat and bake at 400 degrees until skins darken and blister.3 apples, cored, 4 jalapeños
- Peel skins from the apples and jalapeños, then add to the saucepan with the bourbon and heat until simmering. Simmer 10 minutes.1 cup bourbon
- Remove the apples and jalapeños to a food processor (it's okay if some bourbon goes with it) and process until smooth, then add back to the saucepan and bring back to a simmer.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the ketchup, tomato paste, liquid smoke, and molasses until well blended. Add this mixture to the saucepan with the bourbon mixture and whisk until blended. Simmer an additional 20 minutes.1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 2 cups ketchup, 1 6 oz can tomato paste, 2 tbsp liquid smoke, 2 tbsp molasses
- Remove from heat and cool until it can be stored in a container or squeeze bottle and refrigerate.
Notes
- Don’t forget to wear gloves when working with jalapeños; you will deeply regret it if your skin absorbs the oils from the peppers
- Any bourbon will work; save the good stuff for sipping
- Feel free to peel the apples and even the jalapeños before roasting them if you want, but they should peel off pretty easily after baking and blistering
- I sometimes skewer the jalapeños whole when baking and remove the stems and skins after
As Al Pacino would say, you are on FIIAAHHHH!!!!