Peach BBQ Sauce with Single Malt
A delicious take on the theme, this Peach BBQ Sauce with Single Malt comes with layers of fruity, sweet, tangy and malty flavours, created by the use of peaches in place of the usual cups of ketchup, while adding smoky malt notes. There is still a bit of ketchup in there, to create the familiar profile of BBQ sauce, but the use of sweet fruit allows us to reduce the refined sugar quite a bit, while lending their summery taste.

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Why You Will Love This
I was looking for Peach BBQ Sauce when I stumbled over this fantastic recipe from “A Family Feast”. The layering of flavours here is amazing and I absolutely loved the idea of whiskey in the sauce.
Complex flavor
The layers of flavor created by the different sweeneters, peaches, different vinegars and tamari sauce makes for an incredibly complex and balanced BBQ sauce that goes fantastic with the strong aroma of grilled meat or vegetables. You can also easily customize it to suit your particular taste by adding things like chili powder or, say more mustard, to take it in a spicier direction.
Less refined sugar
Using Peaches instead of Ketchup mostly means, that we are using a lot less refined sugar and of course far less process ingredients. But it adds fibre and vitamins of fresh fruit.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t health food as such, there is still a lot of sweetness, but it’s just that bit better for you than ready made ketchup. Which, yes, has tomatoes. In some rather unrecognizable form. But there really isn’t much nutrition left in it. While the peaches for the Peach BBQ Sauce with Single Malt get only cooked briefly, pureed, then passed through a sieve. Which leaves most of the goodness intact.
Single Malt
But, living in Europe, I do have a thing for Single Malts. So, I used Talisker here, one of my favourites. Of course, if you read a few of my posts, like my Rye Sourdough Discard Rolls or my German Sourdough Rye Beer Dutch Oven Bread, you probably noticed that I really love malt flavour, so that choice was very obvious to me.

The Ingredients
- Sweeteners – A mix of brown sugar, honey and especially molasses adds a complex sweetness you wouldn’t get from sugar alone.
- Acids – cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar work together in this BBQ sauce, to give you the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity with fruity-complex notes.
- Flavor components – There is a list of ingredients you probably already have at home like mustard, tomato paste and a bit of chili powder. However, the one ingredient that makes this Peach BBQ Sauce with Single Malt sing is the liquid smoke, which is these days available in some good supermarkets. I think I got mine at Fallon& Byrne in Dublin a while ago. One bottle will last you years probably and adds that bit of smoky flavour to a million dishes.
- Salt and Umami – Tamari sauce gives a distinct savory note to the sauce, doing more for it than salt alone could. You can use soy sauce instead, but it’s saltier.
The Process
- This is a quick one. Sweat the chopped onion in the olive or grapeseed oil on medium heat until soft and translucent.
- Add the single malt and let it boil down a little, so the alcohol evaporates, and you are left with the concentrated flavour.
- Add the chopped peaches and 1 cup of water. Let them boil for about 10min until soft.
- At this point you’ll need a blender or food processor* (DO NOT use a bullet blender for this recipe, as it may explode due to the heat.). Add your peach-onion mix. Close the lid, but add a towel over the top. Some blenders have the bad habit of popping the lid off when filled with hot ingredients and you don’t want to be burned by peach splatters.
- Blend at high speed until smooth. Pour through a sieve back into your pot, stirring with a spatula or wooden spoon, to push all the goodness through and mainly keep the peach skins back in the sieve. Discard the sieve contents.
- Add the remaining ingredients to your pot* and switch the heat back on. Let it bubble away for about 5-10 minutes, until you have a sauce that coats the back of your spoon.
- Have a taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
- Fill into jars* that you have washed thoroughly with hot water. This Peach BBQ Sauce with Single Malt keeps in the fridge for about 4 weeks.

Meal Prep
This Peach BBQ Sauce with Single Malt keeps in a sealed jar in the fridge for about 4 weeks. So you can use it to perk up sandwhiches, spareribs or any BBQ meat in seconds.
It’s also really lovely as dip for chips or roasted potatoes and I used it in my Cuban Pork Shoulder series below.
Here are the full Cuban Pork Shoulder Series:
Slow Roasted Cuban Pork Shoulder
Healthy Leftover Pulled Pork Tacos
Orange Maple Vinaigrette with Hazelnuts and Lime
Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please share. It helps me a lot.

Peach BBQ Sauce with Single Malt
Equipment
- 1 High Speed Blender such as Vitamix. DO NOT use a bullet blender here, as it may explode due to the heat.
But you could use a
- 1 Food Processor Though the sauce won't be as smooth.
- 1 Saucepan
Ingredients
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 tbsp grapeseed or olive oil
- ¼ cup single malt whiskey
- 1 lb peaches pitted and chopped roughly
- 1 ½ cups water
- ¼ cup brown sugar use more if you like it very sweet
- 2 tbsp molasses
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- ¼ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup tamari or soy sauce
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp dry mustard
- ½ tsp liquid smoke
- ½ tsp ancho chili powder
Instructions
- This is a quick one. Sweat the chopped onion in the olive or grapeseed oil on medium heat until soft and translucent.
- Add the single malt and let it boil down a little, so the alcohol evaporates, and you are left with the concentrated flavour.
- Add the chopped peaches and 1 cup of water. Let them boil for about 10min until soft.
- At this point you’ll need a blender or food processor. Add your peach-onion mix. Close the lid, but add a towel over the top. Some blenders have the bad habit of popping the lid off when filled with hot ingredients and you don’t want to be burned but peach splatters.
- Blend at high speed until smooth. Pour through a sieve back into your pot, stirring with a spatula or wooden spoon, to push all the goodness through and mainly keep the peach skins back in the sieve. Discard the sieve contents.
- Add the remaining ingredients to your pot and switch the heat back on. Let it bubble away for about 5-10 minutes, until you have a sauce that coats the back of your spoon.
- Have a taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
- Fill into jars that you have washed thoroughly with hot water. This Peach BBQ Sauce with Single Malt keeps in the fridge for about 2-3 weeks.
Delicious way to use the peaches that are in season right now! The flavor combination was incredible. I made this for my son who is a peach lover. It was a hit! Why buy BBQ sauce when you can make your own delicious one at home!? Thank you for another amazing recipe!
My new favourite BBQ sauce!! I just love the addition of peaches and whiskey. They add such a good flavour. This will be a regular for me through this summer’s grilling season for sure!
Yes! The peach flavor with the whiskey makes a delicious blend that’s perfect on smoked meats!
The best BBQ sauces contain alcohol, and homemade is so much better than store bought. Love the combination of peaches and scotch. This will be great on chicken and seafood.
This is our new summertime, favorite barbecue sauce! So gourmet!
This is so unique and yummy! I made it with fresh peaches and it did not disappoint.
Thank you 🙂
Surprisingly, I had all (yes all!) the ingredients at home, including peaches, since it’s spring and I’ve been buying a lot of peaches. This sauce is “NEXT LEVEL”!
It was incredible on grilled chicken, but I could easily eat it with a spoon (LOL). It was easy to make and simply delish. Thanks for the great recipe.
Thank you so much! So happy you enjoyed it. I totally did eat it with a spoon on several occasions. 😉