Making the sauce was first on the agenda. I started off by making our red tamale sauce as a base, except I reduced all the seasonings to one teaspoon instead of one tablespoon.
You will remember that, when you're making tamales, you add more seasoning because you're making four dozen tamales. If you don't have enough seasoning, your tamales will be bland since it's spread out further.
When I'm using the sauce for other things like enchiladas, tacos or burritos, I use less seasoning.
I ended up with a little over a quart of sauce so I also filled up a squeeze bottle with some squeezable taco sauce.
It's great to have a good base sauce recipe since you can "doctor it up" to make so many different things. Be sure to grab the recipe below!
Making the spicy barbecue sauce was easy once I had the tamale sauce base. Be sure to taste it to check whether you need to add more seasonings. Don't add too much at a time because you can add it but you can't take it away!
Homemade Spicy Barbecue Sauce
- Half quart red tamale sauce
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
