Developed this sauce recipe trying to get as close as possible to Johnny Harris's (Savannah) barbecue sauce. It isn't QUITE there, but it is in the ballpark:
Johnny Harris- Style Barbecue Sauce
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp fine ground black pepper
2 tsp white sugar
½ tsp salt
4 cups catsup
1 cup yellow mustard
1/4th cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup real cider vinegar (may experiment with other vinegars, like champagne vinegar or sherry vinegar)
¼ to ½ cup packed brown sugar (prefer dark) (May substitute honey, and add dark molasses. Should be to your taste.
2 tbsp butter
3 Tbsps fresh lemon juice
Directions:
Combine catsup in mustard in large pot. Warm on low heat. Stir in all ingredients except butter and lemon juice and mix thoroughly. Cook on low and stir frequently until well blended- 15 minutes.
Remove from heat. Cool for 15 minutes. Add butter, stir until thoroughly blended. Add lemon juice to taste.
Best if heated before using. Do not boil.
This is the base recipe, and it is good for all meats- beef, chicken, pork, etc. I also usually use both honey and dark molasses (as above) for the sweetener. Taste at the end and add more honey or sugar or salt if needed. You could add cayenne pepper or hot sauce if you wanted it hotter- most of the heat in the recipe comes from the black pepper. I have also added several shots of espresso sometimes; tried dark chocolate once to good result; tried adding (separately orange marmalade or raspberry jam to give it a more fruit base.) You can also experiment using different vinegars (like champagne or Spanish sherry), but this is usually a lot more expensive for very subtle difference. You could also try adding a little cinnamon, Chinese five-spice, or both (not more than a teaspoon.) In my last patch, I doubled the recipe, added one tablespoon each ground ginger and five-spice.