“Slip an extra shrimp on the barbie” the phrase coined by actor Paul Hogan, has come to stand for what most outsiders imagine is an Australian BBQ. Actually Australians use the word prawns and not shrimps and they hardly ever put prawns on the barbie, which is a shame as there are some excellent prawn bbq sauce recipes.

Whatever the case BBQ’s are really popular in Australia which like South Africa has loads of sunshine and a laid back way of life perfect for barbecuing.

This article is part of my best BBQ sauce recipes from all around the world, so also check out the best braai sauce recipe from South Africa, best barbecue sauce recipe from the UK, best BBQ sauce recipe from Australia and the best barbeque sauce recipe from Argentina.

Lets get cracking, here are my best BBQ Sauce Recipes:

BBQ Sauce Recipe for Beef Spare ribs

A really simple bbq sauce, in fact to make the sauce there, no actual cooking is required! It is perfect as a marinade or for basting onto beef spare ribs.

BBQ Sauce ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• I teaspoom of ground mace
• Half a teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons each brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

To Make the BBQ Sauce:
Super simple to make, just place all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and stir together.

Beef Spare Rib marinade
To marinade the spare ribs, pour the BBQ sauce into a large shallow non metallic container and then add the ribs, mix together, cover and refrigerate overnight, turning the ribs a few times. Cook on the BBQ and enjoy!

Argentina Barbeque Sauce Recipe: Chimichurri

In Argentina, they serve Chimichurri barbeque sauce alongside their famous flame grilled steaks and tastes great on on rare, char-grilled, flank steak. It can also be used as a marinade and is very popular in many Latin American countries.

Chimichurri BBQ Sauce ingredients

• Half a cup of olive oil
• Quarter Cup of Red Wine Vinegar
• Quarter Cup Water
• 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 Tablespoon paprika
• 1 Teaspoon bay leaf (laurel); very small flakes
• 1 Tablespoon coarse salt
• 1 Teaspoon ground black pepper
• Half a cup of chopped leaf-parsley (fresh)
• 1 medium onion; finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic; finely grated
• Half a red bell pepper, de-seeded and finely diced
• 1 tomato, peeled, de-seeded, finely chopped
• Some hot chili flakes to taste

To Make the Chimichurri Sauce:

• Combine all of ingredients in a large bowl except for the oil and vinegar. Toss well to make sure that the salt is spread evenly around the ingredients. Leave to stand for 30 minutes.
• The next step is to mix in the vinegar and water, again leave for 30 minutes.
• The last step is to add the oil, mixing well. It is important to ensure that the liquids cover the rest of the ingredients. If they do not, add equal parts of oil, water, and vinegar until they are covered. Transfer the sauce to a non metallic bowl or jar that can be covered and put in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to marinade overnight. For the ultimate sauce, prepare at least two or even three days ahead.

This recipe is part of a series of the best barbecue sauce recipes from around the world, including the USA, the best braai sauce recipe from South Africa, best BBQ sauce recipe from Australia and the best barbeque sauce recipe from Argentina. View all BBQ Sauce Recipes >>

The best BBQ Ideas…
If  you have another BBQ sauce recipe, please send it in and help make this the ultimate braai / bbq / barbecue / barbeque sauce recipe resource ever!

Braai Sauce Recipe

For the best braai sauce recipes, I have mostly gone on what I learnt as a child growing up in Zimbabwe. Commercial braai sauces were not available in the shops and we only went down to South Africa for the traditional beach holiday in Durban once every two years, so we made our own braai sauces and marinades, here are a few of my favourites. For those of you who don’t know a South African braai is our (including Zimbabwean) word for barbecue/ barbeque/ BBQ.

This recipe is part of my section on the best BBQ sauces from around the world the other sections include: the best barbecue sauce recipe from the USA, best BBQ sauce recipe from Australia and the best barbeque sauce recipe from Argentina, you can then try them out and let me know which you think is best!

Ok lets get started on the best Braai Sauce Recipe from South Africa:

South African Braai Sauce Recipe

This is a braai sauce recipe that we often used, it can also be used as a marinade or for basting your meat on the braai, you can then use the rest as a braai sauce.

Braai Sauce ingredients

• 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, crushed or grated
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 green sweet pepper, de-seeded and chopped
• 50 ml brown vinegar
• 15 ml cooking oil
• 1 tin whole tomatoes, chopped (don’t buy a tin of chopped tomatoes as they are not a good quality)
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 30 ml Worcestershire sauce
• 2 ml Tabasco Sauce, you can use cayenne pepper as a substitute
• 50 ml brown sugar
• 5 ml French mustard
• 30 ml fruit chutney – preferably Mrs Balls Original Chutney

To Make the Braai Sauce:
Making this braai sauce is really easy, all you have to do is:

1. Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan
2. Fry the onions, garlic and sweet pepper until the onions are translucent.
3. Add the vinegar and the remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.

Traditional South African Sosaties Recipe

In Zimbabwe as kids, we often called them skewers, here in the UK they call meat on a skewer a kebab. They call a braai a barbeque (BBQ) but what ever the name, it is hard to beat the traditional South African Lamb Sosatie on a real charcoal or wood braai!

Lamb Sosaties on the braai
Below are the ingredients and the method to making the perfect Lamb Sosatie for the braai. You can use other types of meat like chicken or beef, but lamb always seems to taste the best.

Lamb Sosaties Recipe

Lamb sosatie Ingredients, To make traditional South African Lamb sosatie you will need:

• 500g Lamb (boned shoulder or leg of lamb)
• 2 large onions
• 50ml olive oil
• 4 cloves of gralic
• 1 tablespoon of curry powder
• tumeric 1 x teaspoon
• brown sugar 1 x tablespoon
• 4 crushed bay leaves
• 1 x tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 x lemons cut into small wedges
• 120ml meat stock
• 125g dried apricots
• 1 x green pepper cut into bite size pieces to fit onto the kebab
• butter
• Skewer sticks

To make the Lamb Sosaties, first cut the lamb up ito 25mm cubes, slice one onion into wedges (for the skewer – you could use shalotts) and the other chop finely, peel and crush the garlic. Heat the butter in a saucepan and sauté the chopped onion, garlic and curry powder for a few minutes. Add the tumeric, lemon and meat stock, bring to the boil.

The put the meat in a non-metal bowl with the bay leaves at the bottom. As soon as the marinade comes to the boil, pour it over your meat mixture and then allow it to cool and place in the fridge to marinade overnight.

The next day when you are ready for the braai (barbeque), skewer the meat, apricots, green pepper and onion wedges (shallots) onto the sticks.

For the sauce, pour the leftover marinade into a saucepan, add some butter and salt and pepper to taste, bring to the boil and serve warm with the sosaties and lemon wedges.

The best way to cook the sosaties is over a hot braai (barbeque) turning them as you go, but you can also cook them under a grill.

As a variation, and if you like hot food, why not try adding crushed chillies, more garlic and some peri-peri to the marinade.

UK – Southern Africa Cookbooks on Amazon.co.uk

USA – Southern Africa Cookbooks on Amazon.com

Ok, that’s it for now, if you would like to contribute to this section, check out the page on writing for Chirundu.com otherwise check back soon for some more African Food Recipes and Ideas.

Braai Recipes | BBQ Recipes

The southern African Braai (barbeque) is more than just eating food cooked on a grill outside. In South Africa, Zimbabwe and many other places in Africa it is a way to get together with friends and enjoy good food, good weather and a few cold beers.

These are some of the best braai recipes that we have collected and used over the years. and I hope you enjoy them, If you have any recipes that you would like to add a recipe,  please feel free to contact me.

All you need for the perfect rugby braai

Main Courses on the Braai

• Make your own Boerewors
• Barbecue Ribs Recipes
• Sosaties Recipe

Side Dishes

• Mielie Pap and Sadza Recipes

Sauces and Relishes

• Chakalaka
• South African Braai Sauce Recipe
• BBQ Sauce Recipe from Australia
• Chimichurri: Argentina Barbeque Sauce Recipe
• English Barbecue Sauce Recipe

View all Braai Recipes >>

BBQ Ribs Recipe

BBQ ribs are one of my favourite meats for the braai (barbeque), coated in a thick tasty sauce and served with sadza (pap). The meat is usually much cheaper than steak, best eaten with the hands and so is perfect if you are having a bunch of kids around (big or small!)

Pork BBQ Ribs
The trick to great pork ribs on the barbecue is the thick sweet sauce, I mostly use honey to add sweetness and for the texture, it is important not to put it on too soon or it will burn, turning your bbq ribs into charcoal!

Ok lets get started on this recipe for Pork BBQ Ribs:

BBQ Pork Ribs Recipe

A simple to make bbq ribs recipe for pork, with a marinade that is later used as the source for the ribs, there are no specific quantities for the recipe as most of it will be personal preference… typical man barbeque recipe then!

BBQ Ribs ingredients (Serves 4)

• 1.8 kg (4 lbs) of thick and meaty pork belly ribs
• bbq sauce (your own or comercial version)
• Tomato Sauce (ketchup)
• Worcestershire sauce
• Red wine
• Honey
• Rosemary (fresh)
• Oregano flakes
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Flour or corn starch

To make the marinade for the BBQ Ribs:

To make the marinade for the ribs, use a non-metal container, some people also use a plactic bag and place the ribs into the container. Add the fresh rosemary, oregano and pepper. Then add plenty of honey, your barbeque sauce, tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce.

Make sure the ribs are completely smothered in your marinade, then carefully add the red wine, making sure not to remove the coating on your ribs (pour the wine into the corners of your container). Add enough wine to cover most of the ribs then place in the fridge and leave to marinate overnight.

Barbecue the Ribs

I wont tell you how to make a good braai (barbecue) here, but it is important to make sure you have enough coals- without flames, as pork takes longer to cook than beef. Cook the ribs, salting and seasoning them a few times as you turn them make sure you turn them often enough so as not to burn them. A few minutes before the bbq ribs are done, pour some more honey over them, allowing it to melt.

Make the BBQ Sauce for the Ribs

Whilst the bbq ribs are cooking add your saved marinade sauce to a pan, add 2 or 3 teaspoons of flour or cornstarch to thicken the sauce. Bring the marinade mixture to a boil, season to taste with salt and pepper, checking the thickness, you can add more flour that has been dissolved in warm water to prevent lumps. Make sure to simmer your sauce for at least 5-10 minutes to get rid of that uncooked flour taste.

That’s it, serve the bbq ribs with the sauce in a separate bowl and some traditional Zimbabwean sadza on the side.