Eggfest 2001 Spicy Chipotle BBQ Sauce

Mike Oelrich

Ingredients

• 12 dried chipotle chiles	• 1 &#189 Cup chicken broth
• 1 Cup boiling water	• &#189 Cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbs butter	• 1 Tbs Tabasco sauce
• 1 sweet onion -- diced	• 1 Tbs fish sauce
• 1 head garlic -- cloves peeled and minced	• 1 &#189 tsp dry mustard
• 1 &#189 tsp ground cumin	• 2 bay leaves
• 1 &#189 tsp ground thyme	• 2 anise
• 12 Oz tomato sauce
• 1 &#189 Cup cider vinegar

Instructions

Pour the boiling water over the chipotles and soak for at least an hour. Stem, seed and chop the chiles (use gloves). Reserve the soaking water.

Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a large saucepan. Add onion and sauté until it begins to become tender. Add the garlic, cumin and thyme and continue to sauté until onions are translucent and the garlic has softened.
Add the chiles, soaking water, and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to keep the sauce at a low boil / simmer. Reduce the sauce until it reaches the desired consistency (usually takes about 2 hours).
Remove anise &#034stars&#034 and bay leaves.
Allow sauce to cool, then purée in blender.

Notes

If you want a thicker sauce that is more &#034tomatoey&#034, substitute tomato paste for the tomato sauce.
Number of chiles can be reduced to give a less-spicy sauce.
Star anise and fish sauce are usually available in the Asian sections of supermarkets.
NOTE: I used plain dried chipotles in this recipe, not canned &#034Chipotles in Adobo&#034. If all you can find is the latter, I would suggest taking the peppers out of the sauce and using them directly (there should be no need to soak them as they've already been in the adobo sauce for a long time). Seed and chop. Instead of adding the soaking liquid, add 1 c. water when called for in the recipe.

Number of Servings:

Time to Prepare: