The Best Naturally Sweet Swap For Sugar In Homemade BBQ Sauce

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When foodies are skipping the store-bought barbecue sauce and making their own, brown sugar is customarily part of the ingredients lineup. But as it happens, some of the best (and most healthful) sweeteners for cooking aren't sugar. If you're whipping up a batch of BBQ sauce but cutting back on sugar, one quick ingredient swap can get the job done, and chances are you might have this staple in your pantry already: It's time to bust out the honey. 

Why might home cooks want to opt for an unrefined sweetener in their sugar-free BBQ sauce? Highly processed white sugar is made by extracting the molasses from natural raw sugar (refining); brown sugar, then, is made by adding molasses to the refined white sugar. Honey is still a source of natural sugars, but it skips the processing — and "honey barbecue" is a classic wing sauce for a reason.

Although there are many regional variations, most versions of barbecue sauce are tomato-based condiments that traditionally get loaded up with some combination of brown sugar, vinegar, and seasonings such as Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, salt, or hot sauce. BBQ is all about the interplay of sweet and savory elements, and the resulting sauce is sweet, tangy, spicy, smoky, and above all, balanced. Enter: earthy, nutty, sweet honey, which makes a natural complement to the flavor profile of smoky BBQ — as well as to the savory meats to which the condiment is often applied. Texturally, honey's sticky-luscious consistency is naturally conducive to stirring into rich, clinging BBQ sauce.

To replace sugar with honey, simply substitute ¾ cup of honey per cup of sugar called for in the recipe. Our sweet and tangy BBQ sauce recipe, for instance, calls for ⅓ cup of brown sugar, which would shake out to a scant ¼ cup of honey. Word to the wise: Coating your measuring spoon or cup in a layer of oil, egg white, or non-stick spray will help prevent the honey from sticking as you measure. Also, keep in mind that honey browns more quickly than sugar. If you're glazing wings or ribs with a layer of honey-infused BBQ sauce pre-grill, take care to keep an eye on the meat as it cooks to avoid scorching, or consider lowering the cooking temperature.

Pro tip: There are many types of honey out there, and darker honey yields a stronger taste. For a more robust BBQ, opt for a dark honey, like this Grade A Organic Dark Amber Wildflower Honey by Whole Foods Market (currently $10.99 per 24-ounce bottle on Amazon). If you prefer to let the other elements in the BBQ sauce shine, opt for a light-colored honey, which will deliver sweetness with more palate neutrality. From there, all that's left is to enjoy your homemade honey BBQ sauce to glaze meats, dunk chicken tenders, or stir into mac and cheese (feel free to get creative). To help use up the rest of the bottle, we've rounded up 10 more unexpected ways to put honey to good use in the kitchen.