Pigchaser BBQ Sauce

a review.....................

WOW was all I could say when I received the carton from Ron Slawek from Grayslake, IL containing five bottles of his Pigchaser BBQ sauces. I was really looking forward to the “work” of giving them all a try and putting them through their paces. Of course, I am using the word “work” very loosely here.

With five different flavors to try, I admit that at first I was wondering if I would be able to discern a difference between the offerings. So what I did was pour a little of each sauce into a bowl marked on the bottom with the flavor. The goal here was to be able to taste the unidentified sauces to determine if the advertised flavors could be detected.

While certainly not considered scientific, accurate, reliable or even creditable the results surprised even one of the world’s biggest skeptics, yours truly. Most people were able to detect the flavor differences, including me.  A lot of folks correctly identified the particular flavor profile of the sauce tasted, pretty cool I thought.

The flavors tested were:

Bacon

Original

Garlic

Habanero

Pineapple/Mango

The next part of my job was what I considered my personal favorite, the pairing of the sauces with food, and then the dining on said food. Well, I had all those bottles of sauce open, what else was I supposed to do, I threw a party. I cooked up several different kinds of meats, veggies and fruits and let the guests decide which sauce they wanted to pair with which food. I have to tell you, some of the pairings were darn tasty. I also have to tell you, we had a ball. Every time someone would hit on what they thought was the winner, others would sample and say “man, that’s great, but you need to try this…”

When it was all said and done, my hands were sticky, my belly was full, and there was a smile on my face along with a few sauce smudges on my chin and spots on my shirt, I was in BBQ heaven. My guests were happy too. What I will tell you is my favorites were Habanero and Original. I have included below a basic recipe I used with the Hab sauce and some grilled pineapple, it makes a great appetizer.

Ron tells me his Habanero Sauce won 1^st place at the 2013 Scovie Awards while the Bacon BBQ sauce placed 3^rd in the unique category. (An interesting footnote, this sauce contains REAL bacon, not just bacon flavoring.) After tasting them, it is easy to see why. The sauces are available on their website http://www.pigchaser.com/index.html   

My suggestion would be to give some (if not all) of these sauces a try. It is also very good to know that Pigchaser Sauces are gluten free, contain no HFCS, are all low sodium and are made with all natural ingredients. Another interesting nugget of information was located on the label of the Bacon BBQ sauce where the words “low fat” appears. Bacon AND low fat? Please Ron, send me some more!

Pigchaser Pineapple Parts (try saying that one ten times fast)

1 fresh pineapple (peeled and cored)

2 cups Pigchaser Habanero BBQ Sauce

1/3 cup of beer

Preheat your grill to a medium high heat

Wisk sauce together with the beer of your choice in a small bowl, drink remaining beer from bottle, then open another. (You don’t want to go thirsty do you?)

Slice the pineapple length ways into ½ inch slices

Carefully grill pineapple until starting to soften and some charring is visible, turning only once if possible.

When finished, dunk pineapple pieces into sauce/beer combo then return to grill to allow sauce to set. (1-2 minutes)

Remove from grill, cut into bit sized pieces, place on platter with toothpicks inserted for easy of eating.

Stand out of the way and keep hands and fingers clear, your guest will love them.