You guys are going to be blown away by how easy it is to make your own, incredibly delicious keto BBQ sauce. I think low carb sauces are one of the best ways to dress up healthy recipes!
No matter if you’re making ribs, chicken or sausages, this tangy, tomato-ey sauce is irresistible and perfect for making all your low carb recipes taste just like the classics. This dreamy sauce is ready in minutes and makes PLENTY so you’ll be set for any BBQ meals you can imagine!
Let’s get cooking!
Looking for more keto sauces? Check out my keto ranch dressing, avocado sauce, or my keto ketchup.
What I Love About This Low Carb BBQ Sauce Recipe
This keto BBQ sauce is so easy, you won’t believe you’ve ever bought it, plus:
- Simple ingredients – you totally have these around!
- Ready in 15 minutes, or less!
- Sweet, scrumptious flavors that you need for proper BBQ foods!
Recipe Notes
Ready to see the magic happen? This keto BBQ sauce comes together in just one pot!
Ingredient Notes
It’s amazing that such simple ingredients make such a mouthwatering sauce!
Tomato paste. This paste is made from, spoiler alert, concentrated tomatoes! Which if you’re wondering, YES, tomatoes contain carbs, so this BBQ sauce is not carb-free, rather a MUCH lower carb alternative to the sugar added versions you can buy at the store.
Apple cider vinegar. The world of BBQ sauces has a wide range of flavors. Some are more mustardy, some sweeter, some more vinegar-y. This variation is a more traditional style sauce, which is why I like to add ACV — it gives us the tang we are looking for.
Worcestershire sauce. It’s your favorite sauce that you probably can’t pronounce! This seemingly simple sauce has SO many flavors – salty anchovies, sweet molasses, vinegar, onion, citrus, and SO much more. We’ll use just a touch of this to give our low carb BBQ sauce some complexity.
Liquid smoke. This odd ingredient is exactly what it sounds like! Wood is burned, the smoke is collected, allowed to condense, and purified. That liquid is bottled to give us a smoky additive for cooking.
This ingredient is optional, as I know not everyone is comfortable using it.
Storing Tips
Depending on what kind of recipe you are cooking, you may not have much leftover. Whatever you DO have, store in an airtight container in the fridge.
OR! Freeze this low carb BBQ sauce in pre-portioned containers, so you don’t have to make it every time you light up the grill.
My favorite way to freeze smaller portions? In an ice cube tray! Freeze in the tray, then pop them out into a freezer bag. Allow them to thaw them on the counter or in the fridge before serving.
Serving Recommendations
Of course, this low carb BBQ sauce goes AMAZINGLY with barbeque. But it’s great on lots of recipes and low carb appetizers!
Layer it under shredded cheese on this chicken crust pizza. Slather it on these decadent instant pot ribs, or use it in place of ketchup to top this keto bacon wrapped meatloaf.
Recipe FAQs
Have some questions about this low carb bbq sauce recipe? Ask away!
- Can You Eat BBQ Sauce On A Low Carb Diet? If you’re wondering how many carbs are in sugar free BBQ sauce, the answer kind of depends on what ingredients you use. Using keto sweeteners like erythritol or stevia will help a ton, as a lot of the carbs come from added sugar. The only remaining carbs in this recipe come from tomatoes, and we cut down on that as much as we could by using a concentrated paste.
- What BBQ Sauce Has The Lowest Carbs (store-bought)? Primal Kitchen makes a low carb BBQ sauce I’ve been meaning to try. But truth be told, this is SO easy to make, I prefer making my own.
More Keto Dips and Sauces
Didn’t realize you could make your own collection low carb dips and sauces? Try out all of these homemade options!
Keto BBQ Sauce
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
- 6 Ounce Tomato Paste canned
- 1/4 Cup Water
- 1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons Mustard
- 1 Tablespoon Onion Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Liquid Monk Fruit or Stevia optional
- 2 Teaspoons Liquid Smoke optional
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a saucepan and stir to combine.
- Heat on medium heat until you start to see bubbles form, then bring the sauce to a very low simmer.
- Simmer until your sauce reaches desired thickness (the longer you simmer, the more liquid will evaporate). I usually heat mine for about 5 minutes.
- Allow sauce to cool and enjoy!
Fans Also Made These Low Carb Recipes:
Lindsey's Tips
- To add some heat to this recipe: I suggest using cayenne pepper powder, tabasco or sriracha
- Serving size will vary based on the amount of liquid you cook out of this recipe. A serving should equal around 1 Tablespoon:
Hi, How long will this last in the fridge and can it be frozen?
Hi Susan! I don’t like to mess with expiration dates much, I try to finish the BBQ Sauce within 5 days. As far as freezing goes, I personally haven’t frozen it, but can’t see why it’d be a problem! You could freeze small serving sizes in and ice cube tray, or in little baggies! Hope you enjoy <3
How about canning it??? So that its always just an arms reach away??????
Hi Dawn! Great question, I actually don’t know enough about the canning process to speak to it… However, I have frozen this BBQ sauce in an ice cube tray. Once frozen I place all the “bbq ice cubes” in a big zip lock baggie in the freezer, and defrost a few whenever I’m craving it! Hope you enjoy <3
I wondered about canning it as well. I can’t see why it can’t be canned.
hi, how do i obtain keto freindly tomato paste?i am in autralia and cant seem to find any.
Hi Michelle! Any tomato paste without added sugar should do the trick! 🙂
I”m not at all fond of using tomato paste (it’s biter to me), I usually sub out tomato sauce. Would I possibly need to cut back on the water if I subbed out tomato sauce for the paste?
Thanks for the recipe. I’ve been trying to find a good low carb BBQ sauce recipe. For that matter if I had found a good BBQ sauce recipe that was’t low carb, I’d have tried low carbing it, but I just haven’t found one I was happy with.
Personally, Unlike some, I like many of the commercial BBQ sauces, but like you said, they contain ingredients I don’t want to eat. Many are also way too sweet for me.
Speaking of sweet, as the recipe stands, how sweet is it. sweet, or super sweet. I need to have an idea if I need to cut back on something to make it less sweet. I realize you can’t taste with my taste buds, just would like an idea of how sweet to expect this.
Hi Billie! I’m curious to hear how your BBQ sauce turns out with tomato sauce in lieu of the paste — I would cut out the water and consider cooking it longer until it reaches your desired thickness! As far as the sweetness goes, it’s not too sweet (for my taste buds), but you can taste test it and add more/less if you prefer. Hope you enjoy!!
Omigoodness! This is amazing! Using this on ribs tonight. I’ve made two other Keto bbq sauces and wasn’t impressed but thought that was as good as it gets. This one is amazing! And I love how scratch and cheap it is! One I made used 3/4c of swerve! Expensive for a small batch! Another’s base was sugar free ketchup. No thanks. Thank you for this! We enjoy many of your recipes but I never comment. Thank you for your fab site!
Awe, Thank you so much for your kind words Tara! That means the world! hehe I’m so glad you enjoyed our recipes,Happy to have you here! 🙂
This is delicious. The only alteration I made was substitute chipotle powder for chili powder.
I’m so glad you enjoyed Roxanne! Nice idea with the chili powder 🙂
I made this yesterday… Delish ??
Sounds great! I am so glad you enjoyed Stella ?