Michigan Cherry BBQ Sauce

I mentioned I went to Traverse City recently on vacation and picked up some sweet Michigan cherries. I knew I had to cook something with them. I wasn’t really in the mood for a dessert, so I figured I’d make some homemade cherry BBQ sauce! This ended up being a really fun recipe and I loosely followed this cherry BBQ sauce recipe, but added chipotle peppers and a little more spice with the chili flakes. I am not a huge fan of ketchup, so I did tomato paste and a little water instead.

I thought this BBQ sauce would be great on a shredded chicken sandwich. Shredded chicken is SO easy in the slow cooker, so I threw it in just before I left for work. It cooked around 8 hours on low and I used half of my BBQ sauce in the slow cooker and saved the other half for topping the shredded chicken when it was cooked.

Ingredients:

2 cups of roughly chopped (and pitted) cherries
1 6oz. can of tomato paste
4 oz. of water
2/3 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp. ground mustard
2 chipotle peppers (chopped and seeded)
1 Tbsp. of adobo sauce (from chipotle peppers)
1 medium yellow onion, diced or pureed
2 Tbsp. garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1-1/2 Tbsp. worchestshire sauce
1 tsp. red chili flakes
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups chicken stock

Sauce Preparation:

1. Pit cherries and roughly chop – set aside
2. Puree or dice onion.
3. Melt butter in a 2 quart saucepan and add onion and garlic. Saute until onions are translucent
4. Add tomato paste, water, brown sugar, ground mustard, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and cherries
   
5. Cook for 20 minutes on medium until thickened
6. Add red chili flakes to taste
   
7. Separate sauce – 1/2 for slow cooking chicken and 1/2 for topping sandwiches (I made this sauce a day in advance and just put it in the fridge until I was ready to use it)

Sandwich ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 cups chicken stock
• Sliced provolone cheese
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
• 1 loaf french bread

Sandwich Preparation:

1. Add chicken to bottom of slow cooker. Pour 1/2 of BBQ sauce over it and 1 cup of chicken stock
2. Cook chicken for 8 hours on low (you could also do 3.5 hours on high)
   
3. Use 2 forks to shred chicken
   
4. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in the microwave and add garlic
5. Cut french bread horizontally and then into sandwich size pieces
   
6. Coat each piece of french bread with melted garlic butter
   
7. Broil bread for 6 minutes (or until brown and toasted)
   
8. I used an immersion blender on the second half of the BBQ sauce to make it smoother before putting it on the sandwich
9. Make your sandwich with tons of chicken, even more sauce and a piece of provolone cheese. Don’t skip the cheese! I promise it’s worth it.
   

I’m a little sluggish this week being back at work and in the city, but this dinner really helped me perk up a little! I still have some leftover cherries, so I’ll have yet another Michigan Cherry recipe very soon ;)