Here’s the recipe of the smoked chicken thighs I cooked  for the Dimples BBQ Sauce review on BBQ Sauce Reviews. The original recipe comes from the cookbook Weber’s Way to Grill (“La Bible du barbecue Weber” in French) by Jamie Purviance but I used Dimples instead of the homemade sauce of the recipe. Ingredients for 2 persons: 2 chicken thighs split in two (drumstick and upper thigh) Dimples BBQ Sauce 4 medium chunks of wood (I used oak and beech) For the rub: 2 teaspoons kosher salt 4 teaspoons paprika 4 teaspoons Santa Maria BBQ & Grill Mesquite Procedure: Prepare the rub by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl, rub the chicken drumstick and thighs and let them come to room temperature for 20 minutes while you start the grill for direct and indirect grilling at medium heat (around 200 °C). Put the wood chunks in a bowl of water for 20 minutes. Put the meat on the grill (direct grilling with the upper lid closed) for 8 minutes and turn them over from time to time. Move the meat on the cooking grate for an indirect grilling during 20 minutes (upper lid closed) and put the wood chunks on hot coals. Baste the meat with Dimples BBQ Sauce, continue the indirect grilling for 10 minutes and turn the meat over from times to times. Serve with some more sauce !   Our cat went completely crazy when she smelled the smoked chicken ! She ate all the leftovers and, as you can see, she put sauce all over.

Not only it's possible to buy BBQ sauce in Brussels, but you can also find a couple of places to eat BBQ sauce. I already talked about the Houtsiplou, which has become pretty famous in Brussels now. Boston Steak House This week, we went to Boston Steak House in Ixelles to try out their ribs a friend recommended us. For 12.90€, you get a nice piece of meat with a small side salad, fries, and some more BBQ sauce. The ribs are very well cooked, not smoked, but rather caramelized with honey. They are tender, still a bit moist and the meat falls off the bone easily. They’re basted with BBQ sauce just before serving (the same as the one served as dipping sauce).  The sauce is not bad either, rich and thick, classic KC style that does the job well. On the other hand, the fries weren’t tasty at all. Cool Bun We also went to Cool Bun “Burger & Wine Bar” in Saint-Gilles. I’d wanted to go there for a long time to try out the Apple Jack burger (hanger steak, lettuce, tomato, cheddar, onion rings and BBQ sauce - 14€) and I haven’t been disappointed! It’s the best burger I’ve ever eaten in Brussels ! It comes with fries, a small side salad, ketchup and mustard mayo in separated small bowls. The burger is served with the upper bun aside, and the onion rings topped with BBQ sauce sit on top of the meat. A feast for the eyes (too bad, I forgot to take a picture, it will be for next time). You have to eat the crunchy but light onion rings before putting the upper bun in place and enjoy the burger. The meat was perfectly seasoned and grilled, the homemade bun had the right consistency, and the fries were incredibly good ! And the sauce ? It’s homemade and you can choose between regular and spicy (I went for the spicy one). It tastes a bit like an asian sauce, with flavours of soy sauce and ginger. It has a nice red color with a good consistency and chunks inside. Unfortunately, there’s sauce on the onion rings only so I had to ask for an extra ! They have a nice range of differents and originals burgers wich looked as good as the Apple Jack one: My wife got a jalapenos/avocado/cheddar/lettuce and tomato one and it was delicious ! Our friends tried some others of the range but… you just have to go for it and make your own mind ! I won’t talk about the dessert which was as outrageous as the burger, you have to taste for yourself. Furthermore, all the ingredients are organic and the staff is really friendly. Boston Steak House 2, Avenue de la Toison d'Or 1050 Ixelles http://www.bostonsteakhouse.be  Read the review (in French) on Zone02 Cool Bun Burger & Wine Bar 34, Rue Berckmans 1060 Saint-Gilles http://www.cool-bun.be Read the review (in French) on La cuisine à quatre mains

Following my interview on BBQ Sauce Reviews, Kimberlee Foy from Hoosier Daddy kindly sent me her sauce. I was really curious to taste it, because it’s a kind of a hybrid between a tomato-based and a mustard-based barbecue sauce… and I admit I’ve never tasted mustard-based barbecue sauce !   It’s quite different from what I’ve tasted so far. This sauce is not really smokey and vinegarish, but rather sweet, fresh and fruity. If you close your eyes when it’s on your tongue, you almost have the feeling to eat jam – that’s maybe due to the peach nectar. It has a nice deep orange/red color but it would have been great to see some chunks. The sauce is rather liquid without being watery. The sauce is a good dipping sauce but also great when heated: I basted some ribs with it and it resulted in a nice caramel layer, I also tried it warm on a ham steak and I really enjoyed it. I also like the flip-top and squeezable bottle – that’s handy to avoid wasting too much sauce. There’s a cool story behind the sauce: “Hoosier” is the demonym for a resident of Indiana, where Kimberlee’s family is from. She wanted to keep the memory of her father alive and decided to produce a sauce based on her father’s secret recipe (“Daddy”). Furthermore, a portion of the proceeds is donated to various organizations such as cancer research, diabetes and autism.   The boar on the label reminds me a bit of Bebop in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Their new sauce “Ghost Roast” has been launched lately, can’t wait to taste it ! More information on: http://www.hoosierdaddybbqsauce.com Ingredients: Brown Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Mustard (distilled vinegar, water, mustar seed, turmeric, spices and paprika), Water, Tomato Paste, Peach Nectar, Distilled Vinegar, Cider Vinegar, Cayenne Pepper Puree (Cayenne Peppers, Salt, Vinegar), Salt, Modified Corn Starch, Caramel Color, Natural Smoke Flavor, Spice Extracts, Onion Powder, Natural Flavor. Nutrition information per serving (28g): Calories: 70 Total Fat: 0g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 260mg Total Carbohydrate: 16g Protein: 0g

I'm a frequent reader of Serious Eats, a family of blogs about food (reviews, recipes, techniques and so on...) if you're a food geek, I strongly recommend that you add their feeds to your RSS reader !Anyway, they've recently published a lot of articles about barbecue sauce which are worth reading Regional barbecue sauce recipesPerhaps you ignore it, but barbecue sauce is more complex than it seems ! It comes in a variety of recipes depending on the region where it's made. They've published 3 recipes so far: Kansas-city style sauce recipe - KC style sauce is the one that comes instantly to mind when thinking about barbecue sauce. It's thick, sweet and smoky. Memphis style sauce recipe - Memphis style sauce is thinner and tangier than the KC style sauce. Lexington-dip sauce recipe - North Caroline style sauce is thin, vinegary and spicy. These articles point out differences between these sauces, which all have common ingredients, but differ in use, consistency and taste. I'll try to write a more detailed article about regional barbecue sauces. You can read more about this subject in the Serious Eats article A guide to American barbecue sauce styles Reviews They also tested some sauces, what Brian from Barbecue Sauce Reviews and I love doing. They focused on 16 US sauces that you can find in grocery stores. I tasted 5 sauces amongst the 16: Bull's-Eye, Sweet Baby Ray's, Jack Daniel's, Hunt's and Budweiser.Good news for Belgian BBQ sauce lovers, you can find 4 of these 5 sauces in Belgium (Sweet Baby Ray's is only available in the US) ! I haven't reviewed all of them on the blog yet, but I'll do it in the next posts so stay tuned

Two weeks ago I took part in a Friday Giveway contest on BBQ Sauce Reviews in order to win two packages of Uncle Joe’s BBQ rub and a recipe book. I was amongst the lucky winners and Sandy, owner of Uncle Joe’s, was kind enough to send me the package overseas. And I got quite surprised when I realized I received more stuff than expected ! I’ll have the opportunity to taste their complete range of products Uncle Joe’s can be used as a BBQ rub (a mixture of spices applied to the meat before cooking) or mixed to ketchup and liquid (water, apple juice, beer, cola, …) to make a barbecue sauce. It’s really fun to make because you can choose the amount of ketchup and liquid you use and even add more spices so the sauce fits your personal taste. I tried the Honey Mesquite and Chipotle flavours to make  two sauces based on the standard ratio mentioned on the package (2 tbsp. ketchup – I used Heinz, 4 tbsp. Uncle Joe’s, 6 tbsp. water). I used the Chipotle sauce on chicken skewers. It has a really nice colour and consistency (not too thick and not too thin) and a good smoky smell. Cold, it tastes very “round” at first with a strong tomato taste, and then come the spicy chilli peppers. The spicy kick stays after cooking. I used the Honey Mesquite sauce on ribs. Again, really nice color and consistency. The honey gives a really nice sweet taste, followed by a subtle spicy kick (which disappears a bit after cooking). It was perfect on the ribs and all the guests liked it ! [YUMMY UPDATE] : This looks disgusting compared to the next picture !   I still have to taste the Original Blend and Southwest flavours, but the Chipotle and furthermore the Honey Mesquite are delicious ! I’d also like to test them as rub and to make sauce with a different liquid base like cola or Chimay beer… so I’ll certainly talk about Uncle Joe’s again ! Unfortunately they are available only in the US, if you want more information about the resellers, check out www.unclejoesbbq.com [YUMMY UPDATE] I had another try with the Honey Mesquite and Chipotle flavours. I used apple juice as a base for the Honey Mesquite one, and cola for the Chipotle one. Naturally, it gave a much sweeter taste to the sauces. Honey Mesquite and apple juice gave a really beautiful caramel consistency during cooking. For the ribs, I put in practice the indirect cooking, which completely changed the taste of the meat. I will definitely use this method every time I cook ribs !   From top to bottom: ribs with Honey Mesquite, ribs with honey marinade, ribs with homemade bbq sauce For the chicken skewers, I firstly used the Chipotle dry, as rub, and coated the skewers with sauce at the end of grilling.   Ingredients Honey Mesquite: Sugar, Corn Starch, Chili Peppers, Spices, Garlic, Natural Smoke Flavor, Honey Powder (Honey, Wheat Starch, Calcium Stearate and Lecithin), Vinegar Powder (Maltodextrin, Modified Food Starch and White Distilled Vinegar), Paprika and Silicon Dioxide Ingredients Chipotle: Sugar, Corn Starch, Chili Peppers, Spices, Garlic, Hickory Smoke Flavor (Maltodextrin, Natural Smoke Flavor and Hydrated Silicon Dioxide), Vinegar Powder (Maltodextrin, Modified Food Starch and White Distilled Vinegar), Paprika, Molasses Powder (Molasses, Wheat Starchn Silicon Dioxide) and Silicon Dioxide Nutrition information per serving 1/4 tsp: Protein: 0g (2g in Honey Mesquite) Carbohydrates : 0g Fat: 0g Cholesterol: 0g Sodium: 0g