Our collection of Monty’s BBQ sauces has laid dormant for a while, mostly because we’ve been doing a lot with hot sauces and salsa, but precious little with BBQ sauces. After our last shopping adventure, the arrival of a large package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts changed all that.

So that’s where the fun begins.

One of my bigger complaints against the majority of BBQ sauces in general has been that they’re glorified ketchup with lots and lots of added sugar and artificial flavors. In the world of mass-market, large volume production, this is largely true. It takes a maker who doesn’t make them by the metric ton to come up with something that has a bit more uniqueness and imagination to it. As someone who developed Type 1 diabetes, I appreciate ANY product that cuts down on the sugar. It usually means a reduction in calories as well.

That brings me to this sauce. A quick look at the ingredients list shows:

Ingredients: tomato sauce (tomato paste, water), water, vinegar (10% acidity), dehydrated onions, salt, mesquite smoke flavors, dehydrated garlic, caramel color, chile pepper blend, spices, xanthan gum, dehydrated bell pepper, acesulfame K (potassium)

All those are fine and dandy, none of which really raise any alarm bells with me for quality concerns. Acesulfame K is a widely used artificial sweetener used in many diabetic and diet foods. If you’ve ever tried Coke Zero or Pepsi One, then you have tried it already.

I had two main uses in mind for this BBQ sauce. The first is the more “traditional” usage, which was making good ol’ BBQ chicken on the grill. The other was to see how it did as a condiment and dipping sauce. Sounds like work, huh? I wish my real work was this much fun.

First impression: Still the same great label graphics as all the other re-vamped Monty’s Gourmet products. In fact, all the aesthetic comments made before pretty much still apply with this sauce. The aroma is mostly of mesquite with just a hint of vinegar and the chile pepper mix. It’s an uncommonly thin sauce that pours easily from the bottle.

Taste: As expected, the straight taste is not overly sweet. Unexpectedly, it is not overly distinct nor spicy. It’s a rather mild sauce (perhaps 2.5/10) that is mainly about mesquite flavor that is absent the vinegar taste that plagues many other BBQ sauces that use it. Since it’s low in sugar, I hoped that it would be less likely to scorch after it coated the meat on the grill.

After cooking up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts on our new Ducane 32″ 5-burner grill (which I highly recommend if you do any gas-grilling BTW), they were done just enough so that I could lather on some of this sauce and let the grill work its fiery magic. Seen below, these were the chicken breasts as they cooked:

With such a thin sauce, it was a little bit of a challenge to keep the BBQ sauce from draining off the chicken before I had a chance to get these coated evenly. While it didn’t burn like regular BBQ sauce would if you cook it too long, there was still some carbonaceous residue created by my cooking. I’m still on the learning curve with this grill, so I anticipate that getting better as I use it more…but I digress.

Tastewise, it was rather mundane. The flame didn’t alter the taste profile too much, although I preferred the “cooked” taste rather than using it straight out of the bottle. While a little tasty, it lacked the oomph or bite that I like with my BBQ sauces, not to mention the heat. No slouch for quality, the middle-of-the road for overall BBQ flavor.

The non-grilling uses were decent but not overwhelming also. I liked this sauce more for dipping than as a condiment, but some of that was a consistency issue since my BBQ sauce kept dribbling all over me as I chomped on my lunchtime hamburger. I’d use it more than some BBQ sauces out there, and not have to count my carbs so much as I did it.

Overall recommendation: This sauce is certainly a healthier option than many you’ll find, and is a great choice for those of us who have to count carbs or watch their calories. That said, the taste is pretty average and the heat really mild. For what it’s worth, it had great appeal to the milder palates who tried it but the average chilehead might only use it in moderation. Try it for yourself and see what you think. Enjoy!