Raspberry Chipotle Sauce

I am a huge fan of the sweet-hot-savory combo. Think jalapeno pepper jelly. No. Think Raspberry Chipotle Sauce! I still love my Chipotle Madness barbeque sauce, but this one is different. It takes advantage of sugarfree red raspberry preserves I found at Aldi. They are Splenda sweetened, so if you don't do that, then this recipe won't work for you. I am not into making my own raspberry puree these days. You might want to, so if so, please make some for me! For those who use Splenda, read on. I actually use lots of different sweeteners. I would love to go all natural, but we have never suffered any ill effects from sweeteners, so when they are difficult to replace, I just go with it.

Now, I know my hubby is not gonna eat this. But I seem to be craving spiciness as of late. Even though he is the one who is diabetic, sometimes I cook just for my tastes...well, I am also pretty sure my youngest will like this too. Today, I played around with this sauce and for ease of preparation, I stirred it into some chicken cubes from the freezer. Glorious! It would be great over grilled chicken, burgers, ribs...any place you would like a barbecue sauce.

Raspberry Chipotle Sauce 

8 ounces tomato sauce

½ cup sugarfree raspberry preserves

½ cup water

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp Wright's Liquid Smoke

2 packets sweetener

1 tsp chipotle chili powder

1 tsp onion powder

½ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp xanthan gum

In a sauce pan, combine the tomato sauce, preserves, water, vinegar and liquid smoke. In a small bowl, stir together the sweetener, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder and xanthan gum. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, whisking as you pour. Heat to a simmer, stirring often. Simmer on very low heat for 20-30 minutes. Serve immediately or let cool and transfer to a jar.

4 carbs for a tablespoon serving.

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Dinner at the "Pig Stand"

Today is a day for reminiscing. My oldest boy turned 21 today. We celebrated with a lunch out so he could be out with his friends tonight. At the last minute, he changed his restaurant choice from our favorite Mexican to Buffalo Wild Wings. "Hey, it is 40 cent wing Tuesday!" he said. There are some low carb choices there. I had a blackened chicken salad with blue cheese dressing. It was wonderful. John had wings--garlic parmesan. Definitely messy, but tasty. We were at opposite ends of the table, and I didn't hear what he was ordering. Oops. He ordered Teriyaki wings as well. He thought it was legal because I make teriyaki here at home. He forgot that this sauce is sweet. Somehow I doubt they used Splenda. Oh well, the occasional goof won't kill him. At least he got lots of physical labor accomplished today working on my "honey do" list while on vacation.

Now back to the reminiscing part...I have been pouring over baby pictures, and my guys finally got the digital photo frame they gave me for Christmas loaded. Memory lane for sure! Just last Memorial Day, my mom and I were talking about small town life before the coming of chain fast food restaurants. She said one big splurge when I was little, was take out barbecue from a place called Carl's Pig Stand. Now wouldn't the PETA bunch have a heyday with that name! Tonight's dinner was pretty much like those old pig stand meals. Some slow roasted pork from Sunday's roasting marathon, some homemade barbecue sauce and some sliced sweet onion and cherry peppers. So good...at least in this part of the world! My family were also known to be pretty big Pepsi drinkers back in the day too, so the diet version of Pepsi helps add flavor to this sauce as well.

I let the sauce simmer all afternoon after we returned home. Nobody was too hungry after that big lunch, but the meat can be reheated in the microwave and topped with sauce. What doesn't get eaten tonight will be shredded, combined with the sauce and frozen for a quick lunch another day. The sauce is sweet and thick. The ingredient list is 16 items long, but it goes together quickly and simmers unwatched, so it is easy.

Pepsi One Barbecue Sauce

1/2 onion, roughly diced
2 Tablespoons oil
16 ounces tomato sauce
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup Pepsi One- sweetened with Splenda
1/2 cup Splenda or equivalent sweetener
5 teaspoons liquid smoke (more or less to your taste)
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon flavoring (I used Burnt Sugar flavoring, but maple would do fine)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon bacon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder

Saute onions in oil until they are lightly browned. Add remaining ingredients and puree in a blender. I use my immersion blender in the same pot with the onions, so there is less to clean. Let simmer til dinner...or 30 minutes to three hours on low. If you like a spicy sweet sauce, replace half of the black pepper with cayenne.

Chipotle Madness Barbeque Sauce

Confession time. With the holidays and my hubby's birthday, we have been bad this week. We got a gift card from Chili's. I went totally off plan and ordered chicken strips with Chipotle Barbeque sauce. They were fantastic, and I knew I had to recreate a low carb version of that sauce. After all, the chicken is totally low carb. Just a little of this sauce and I could be in pepper heaven any day. The total surprise is that he liked it too. Amazing that I just happened to get some Chipotle powder in my Christmas stocking.

Today I surfed a bit to see how others put their recipes. As ususal, I took what sounded good to me and left the rest. Here is the sauce I came up with using ingredients I had in the kitchen. Totally good, and it has only simmered 10 minutes.

Chipotle Madness Barbeque Sauce

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To replicate the Chili's recipe, use the sauce to coat breaded chicken tenders. Or do as I seem to be doing and just taste the back of the spoon repeatedly until the sauce is gone!

We got a smoker/roaster for Christmas from my mom. We will be trying it out soon on a turkey. Come back to find out how that adventure goes. I'll bet this sauce will be fantastic on smoked turkey!