Making really good homemade barbecue sauce has always been a bit elusive for me.

Almost every recipe I’ve tried or created has had a quality - too vinegary, too sweet, too tomato-y, too mustard-y - that has kept me from making it again.

The track record with purchased barbecue sauce isn’t much better - too sweet, too black-peppery, too thick, too many unpronounceable ingredients.

Even the bottled versions of sauces made by restaurants haven’t measured up.

Somehow, the store-bought version of the sauce never tastes as good as it does when dining at the barbecue joint.

Maybe I’m unreasonably picky. Or maybe I just hadn’t found the right recipe.

But then an email from Fine Cooking changed everything.

I made some tweaks, but I think I’ve finally found the one.

The email was one of the magazine’s Make It Tonight deliveries, and included a recipe for Maple and Chipotle Broiler-Barbecued Chicken Thighs.

I didn’t make the chicken thighs, but I did whip up a batch of the sauce.

Maple syrup provided just the right touch of sweetness while a hefty spoonful (I may have tripled Fine Cooking’s amount) of pureed chipotle in adobo provided plenty of smoky heat.

So far I’ve slathered the sauce on baked chicken breasts and thinly sliced roast beef for sandwiches, with delicious results.

Maple-Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

½ cup ketchup (see note)

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon garlic powder

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

2 tablespoons mild molasses

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 to 3 tablespoons chipotle puree (from canned or jarred chipotle in adobo)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

In a small saucepan, whisk together the ketchup, mustard powder, onion powder and garlic powder. Then whisk in the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat.

Reduce heat to low and simmer 15 to 20 minutes.

Makes about 1 ¼ cups.

Note: I used Simply Heinz, which is made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

Food, Pages 30 on 02/19/2014