The Uncle Sauce

The challenge: I receive a message that I needed to create a BBQ sauce for my Uncle Mike. He lives in Michigan and my son is named after him (as am I)....so it was a pretty big request as I love and miss him dearly. A phone call later (trying to get an idea of flavors) and all I had were more questions. What the heck is Sweet Baby Ray's???!! I'd never heard of it, and its a commercially packaged sauce. Foreign to me!!! One bottle later (thanks mucho Becca for the hook up) and I had an idea of how I wanted to obliterate the taste from my Uncle's pallet.
First the ingredients:

Renderings from smoked bacon, sweet onions, desert mesquite honey, Newcastle beer (yay baby!!), 4 kinds of dried chiles, Worchestershire sauce and ketchup.

Making the magic happen:

Nothing smells better than onions sautéing in bacon fat. Nothing. I dare you to argue the point with me.

Close up of the dried chiles.

Making the flavors bloom. This is my favorite stage of cooking. As soon as the heat hits the dried spices and herbs, pungent smells explode in your kitchen. You have an instant reassurance that you are doing things right with this step!

Adding the Newcastle! The beer's dark amber goodness added another sultry layer of flavor, enhancing the honey with almost a delicate floral undertone. I knew this was a perfect pairing to go with the honey I chose.

Honey, honey, honey!

Then the ketchup. Stir and simmer. Low and slow and it's like wrapping this sauce in a fuzzy blanket until everything is warm and snuggled together. That's exactly what the flavors did: tangy, smoky, sweet and definitely Sassy.

Into the water bath to can and get ready for the trip to Michigan.

Here's my portion! I'm already thawing the chicken so I can dig into this heavenly flavor. I know it lives up to the challenge that I was given.

The finished chicken cooked up with The Uncle Sauce!!
Thanks Uncle Mike for the challenge!! Hope you can taste the love in the sauce I created for you!!