Making your own Homemade BBQ sauce has never been easier thanks to the Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender!
I love making my own BBQ sauce, but I don't always want a whole vat of it! When I owned my BBQ restaurant, I made gallons and gallons of BBQ sauce from scratch and always had a few bottles in my fridge.
Once I closed the restaurant and used up my supply, I found myself grabbing the bottled kind on the grocery shelf. It never measured up to homemade. My husband would ask me, why don't you make it anymore? Well, what are we going to do with 25 bottles of bbq sauce?
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Of course, I could have cut the recipe down and made it on the stove or even in the Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker & Air Crisper, but it seemed like too much trouble for a small amount.
THEN... the Ninja Foodi Family of appliances gained a new kid. The Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender! You heard me right, a Hot Cold Blender! This little appliance is wonderful. No more chopping, stirring, or having BBQ sauce pop all over the stove! YAY!
What is the Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender?
I will be writing an entire article that goes over all the functions of the Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender soon, I want to have a little more time to get to know all the features first.
If you are interested in purchasing the Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender, you can find it right HERE: Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender
Amazon has a great price on the blender, but you can also find them at Kohl's and Walmart. Please note that Walmart is selling a different model that does not have all the functions. The model I have is the HB152.
What I do know, is that I love it! The Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender is just as the name indicates. It heats and blends. Of course, you don't have to have the heating element engaged, so, it also operates as an awesome stand alone high powered blender. The Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender even has a clean cycle!
When I say high powered, I mean really high powered. You can crush ice in 1-2 seconds and it's crushed perfectly! When summertime rolls back around, I can't wait to make homemade snowballs!
There are different pre programmed buttons, depending on the model you get. Or you can customize what you want to do manually. You can watch my unboxing video for the Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender and see how I make tomato soup in 5 minutes right here: Ninja Foodi Hot/Cold Blender is put to the test!
Do I have to have the Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender to make this Homemade BBQ sauce?
Of course not! You can make this recipe for BBQ sauce on the stove or in the Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker & Air Crisper too! You will have to do a little more prep work, but not too much!
Stove Top: Add 2 teaspoon of olive oil to a medium size stock pot or sauce pan. Heat over medium. Chop and add onions. Mince and add garlic. Saute for about 3 minutes. Add all the other ingredients and stir to combine. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool. The sauce will thicken as it cools and become the perfect homemade BBQ Sauce.
Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker & Air Crisper: *Do not try to pressure cook this recipe, the tomato based sauce is too thick and you might get the water notice.Add 2 teaspoon of olive oil to the inner pot. Turn the sear/saute on medium to heat the oil. Chop and add onions. Mince and add garlic. Saute for about 3 minutes. Add all the other ingredients and stir to combine. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool. The sauce will thicken as it cools and become the perfect homemade BBQ Sauce.
How can I customize this Homemade BBQ sauce recipe to my taste?
We all have different likes and dislikes when it comes to BBQ sauce. This recipe is a medium-hot spice, slightly sweet tomato based BBQ sauce. In order to change it up to better suit you, here are some suggestions.
I like my BBQ sauce:
Hot, Hot, Hot: If you like your BBQ sauce with a real spicy kick, simply double or triple the cayenne and chipotle pepper in the recipe. You can also add a jalapeno pepper or even a spicy habanero pepper.
Mild, please: For a mild BBQ sauce, omit either the cayenne or chipotle pepper or both.
Sweet & Spicy: For a sweeter BBQ sauce, add more brown sugar or even white sugar. You can also use honey as a replacement for some of the sugar if you want. You can increase the spiciness by adding in a jalapeno pepper or increasing the cayenne and/or the chipotle pepper.
Sugar Free or Low Carb: The sugars in the BBQ sauce not only sweeten it, they also thicken it. So, when removing the sugars and replacing them with a substitute, use one that is designed to be a 1:1 equal replacement for sugar. If your sauce is still not thick enough, you can add tomato paste or xanthan gum to thicken. When using tomato paste, make sure to increase the spices or you will end up with an unbalanced tasting homemade BBQ sauce.
How long will Homemade BBQ Sauce last?
You can store this homemade bbq sauce in the fridge for about 2 weeks. I like to store mine in a glass canning jar. You can also freeze BBQ sauce for about 6-9 months.
How to make 10-Minute Homemade BBQ Sauce using the Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender
Since filming the video for this 10-Minute Homemade BBQ Sauce, I have made several more batches and streamlined the process a little. It's even easier now!
Cut the onion into quarters and peel 2 cloves of garlic. Put 1 teaspoon of oil into the Ninja Foodi Blender and add ¼ of the onion and the 2 garlic cloves. Pulse 3 times to chop the onion and garlic.
Turn the Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender on the heat mode on high. Cook for 2 minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients and pulse 3-5 times. Heat on high for 6 minutes, pulsing a few times during the 6 minutes. When you hit the pulse button, the heating mode is not cancelled, so this makes it super easy.
Pour into jars and store in the fridge or freezer until ready to use.
You are done!
Serve this wonderful Homemade BBQ sauce with some delicious chicken or ribs! If you want to make the BEST ribs ever, check out my recipe and don't skip the award winning rub recipe!
Ninja Foodi Ribs 
10-Minute Homemade BBQ Sauce in the Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ¼ onion sweet
- 2 cloves garlic
- 15 ounces tomato sauce
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 tablespoon Lemon Juice
- ¼ cup sugar white
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
Spices
- 2 teaspoon ground mustard
- 2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon celery salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon chipotle pepper
Instructions
- Cut the onion into quarters. Peel garlic cloves.
- Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil to the Ninja Foodi Hot Cold Blender. Add ¼ of the onion and 2 garlic cloves. Pulse 3 times. Turn the heating mode on high and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients. Pulse 3-5 times. Cook on high for 4 minutes. Pulse 3-5 times. Cook and additional 2 minutes. Give one more pulse for a few seconds.
- All done!
Notes
Nutrition
ABOUT THE RECIPE AUTHOR, LOUISE LONG
Louise is a full-time recipe creator and food blogger @ The Salted Pepper. She has over 30 years of experience with cooking and recipe development. She owned a restaurant for several years and was a full-time RN until retiring to blog full-time.
Louise has several very active Facebook groups that help people with the basics of cooking and getting the most out of the Ninja Foodi.
Ninja Foodi Fresh & Healthy Meals
Seeing the need for easy, delicious, and high quality recipes, she is focusing all of her efforts creating recipes specifically for the Ninja Foodi. Her recipes are easy for the home cook to follow and provide step-by-step instructions.
Louise is also a YouTube creator and you can find most of her recipes in video format on The Salted Pepper YouTube channel.
She is very responsive to messages and eager to help in any way she can.
I WOULD LOVE TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE COOKING UP IN YOUR NINJA FOODI! TAG ME @THESALTEDPEPPER ON YOUR FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM WHEN YOU MAKE A DISH!
BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE SALTED PEPPER RIGHT HERE ⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓
Amber Meyer
This recipe is so fast and perfect! I will never use store bought BBQ sauce again! This is delicious!
Louise
Thank you so much!
Steve
Hi love ur videos ive just bought the foodi blender I'm look to buy the craft drink strainer and can't fine it any place do u have a link to were I can buy it thanks steve
Louise
I'm not familiar with the craft drink strainer. Sorry!
Sandra Pantall
You sure have been busy. MOM