Tangy, sweet, and delicious Slow Cooker Blueberry BBQ Sauce. Toss all the ingredients into the slow cooker and let it slowly blend the flavours together with a blueberry taste and little hands on time.
One of my favourite sauces to make, besides salad dressings, is BBQ sauce. My favourite traditional BBQ sauce can be found here, and is one that I’ve been making for eons.
This Blueberry BBQ Sauce amps up regular BBQ with a big addition of blueberries. I love adding blueberries to savoury recipes when I’m able to. Here 3 generous cups of blueberries are used to amp up the antioxidants and nutritional value of a sauce that is usually just sugar and salt.
Why use the slow cooker?
For sauces to really come together, they need quite a bit of time on the stove. I love the ease of tossing all the ingredients into my slow cooker and heading out to spend time with my family instead of being home to stir a pot.
How to make a basic BBQ sauce:
BBQ sauce is usually comprised of vinegar and sugar with as many or as little flavour variations added in.
I like my BBQ with apple cider vinegar and brown sugar as I feel it creates the more “traditional” BBQ sauce flavour people are looking for and stops the addition of more ingredients (like molasses) because these are already complex tasting ingredients. Brown sugar adds the warm, almost sticky sweetness to BBQ sauce, and the apple cider vinegar has quite a bit of depth, plus it goes so well with brown sugar.
A number of recipes use plain distilled vinegar and normal granulated sugar so if you’re looking ot create your own BBQ sauce recipe, these aren’t out of the question! Play around, get messy and send me your favourite BBQ Sauce recipe please!
How to use Blueberry BBQ Sauce:
This BBQ Sauce keeps well in the fridge, 3-4 months in an air-tight jar or even 6 months in the freezer. This staying power allows me to use the BBQ Sauce ALL summer long and even into Fall.
My favourite way to use this Blueberry BBQ Sauce is on chicken thighs. I like skin-on and bone-in thighs which is not for everyone, BUT the BBQ Sauce goes well on bone-less and skin-less thighs too.
Following grilled (or oven-baked!) chicken thighs, pork tenderloin, pork chops, and ribs are our best proteins to pair with the Blueberry forward sauce.
What to serve with BBQ Sauce?
- These Crispy Salt-and-Vinegar Potatoes will never get old for us and go with pretty much all BBQ dishes.
- Corn and Avocado Salad
- Easy 5 ingredient Tomato Salad
Got even more BBQ sauce leftover and need a way to use it all up? These 5 Ingredient BBQ Pulled Pork Quesadillas would be delicious with this Blueberry BBQ Sauce.
Tangy, sweet, and delicious Slow Cooker Blueberry BBQ Sauce. Toss all the ingredients into the slow cooker and let it slowly blend the flavours together with a strong blueberry taste.
- 4 cups blueberries (picked over and washed)
- 3 cups apple cider vinegar
- 2 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
- 1 tbsp smoked (sweet) paprika
- 2 bay leaves (dried or fresh)
- 2 tsp dried cumin
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
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Add blueberries and apple cider vinegar to slow cooker. Mash with a potato masher to release the blueberry juices.
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Add brown sugar, paprika, bay leaves, cumin, pepper and garlic.
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Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 7-8 hours.
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Carefully pour contents into a blender (removing and discarding bay leaves) and blend until mixture is smooth*.
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Sauce will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 months and freezes well.
* the natural pectins in the blueberries will thick the sauce once it’s blended and has cooled.
Enjoy! xo
Tomato and Anchovy Pasta
I absolutely love this recipe I’ve always been interested in making my own BBQ sauce but never thought that I could do so using fruit. Do you think this will work with all kinds of berries or even tropical fruit like pineapple?
For sure other berries (cherries is a great choice or even peaches for a stone fruit). I’m un sure about pineapple. Probably if the fruit is broken down enough before it goes into the slow cooker. Mango would be a better choice as it’s less firm and stringy.
I don’t know how you managed to photograph BBQ sauce so beautifully! I love your eye for detail, and the recipe itself is so easy. I can’t wait to give this a try this summer.
Thank you so much Kristen!! I really appreciate your comment. I hope you love the recipe. Let me know how it goes if you get a chance.
I just made your bbq sauce. I did add 1/2 cup of dehydrated tomato powder. It turned out amazing. Thank you for sharing.
So glad to hear you loved it. Nice idea to add some tomato flavour in there, more of a traditional BBQ sauce flavour.
how much does it make? 3 cups?
Yes, around there. It depends on the size of your blueberries as well. I’d say it makes 2-3 cups on average.
I have never had a blueberry bbq sauce but will be making this. I have a blueberry bush and am looking for recipes to make with all the berries.
That’s so great you have your own source for blueberries, I hope you like the bbq sauce 🙂
This bbq sauce is so perfect for our grilling session, every meat or chicken that will pour into this sauce will make it delicious. The result is just so enticing.
I’ve never tried blueberries in a bbq sauce before but I’m so glad I did! It’s delicious and I love that it can last so long in the fridge. Can’t wait to use it for lots of dishes from the grill this summer!
It is really great for summer!
Could you put this in canning jars after it’s finished in the crockpot and can it in a water bath?
I haven’t tried this myself as the BBQ sauce freezes quite well so I can’t say with certainty, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t. If you give it a go, please let us know how it goes 🙂