Moroccan Honey Barbeque Sauce

Lately, I learned about the benefits of honey, and I now try to use honey in many of my recipes to replace the sugar slight. The barbecue sauce is one of the favorite sauces. Unfortunately, store-bought BBQ sauce is loaded with sugar I am Vietnamese so the taste of Westerners’ BBQ sauces is not quite to my taste.  For that, I have created quite a few recipes for this special and popular sauce. Today, I am introducing an easy Moroccan BBQ sauce that uses honey instead of sugar. I love the Moroccan  spice, and it is easy to create at home. You can go to many web addresses for homemade Moroccan spice or look at my recipe for Moroccan spice posted on January 13, 2016. The BBQ sauce ingredients in my recipe can be doubled or tripled because the sauce can be kept for months in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup oil
1 cup red onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 shallots, minced
2 tbs tomato paste
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp Moroccan spice store-bought or homemade
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne
1 can tomato sauce
Fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp smoke liquid

Directions:
In a saucepan, heat oil and cook onions, shallots, and garlic until fragrant. Add Moroccan spice, black pepper, salt, and cayenne.

Stir the spices to mix with oil. Stir in tomato paste. Cook for 1 minute and stir in honey, tomato sauce, and the rest of the ingredients. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes . The sauce is ready (if the sauce looks too thick, add some water).

To make simple BBQ-baked chicken legs
5 lbs chicken thighs and drumsticks
2 cup Moroccan BBQ sauce
3 tbs olive oil
Directions:
For easy clean up, line the baking sheet with foil. Brush the olive oil over the sheet. Place the chicken on the baking sheet skin side down.

 Bake in a preheated oven set to 400°. Bake for 30 minutes. While the chicken is baking, bring the BBQ sauce to simmer. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, use tongs to turn the chicken over and brush the sauce all over the chicken.

Put the baking sheet back into the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Take the chicken out and brush the other side of the chicken and bake for another 10 minutes.

 

Continue to brush the chicken (for the last 5 minutes you can turn your oven to broil). When your chicken starts to turn brown at the edges or the sauce has thickened, remove and let cool for 15 minutes before serving.