Barbecue Sauce
Sauté onion, minced garlic, and jalapeño pepper in hot olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat 4 to 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in ketchup, dark brown sugar, vinegar, apple juice, honey, Worcestershire sauce, salt, black pepper, celery, and sweet red pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; simmer, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes. Use immediately, or refrigerate in an airtight container up to 1 month.
Pigtails
Using the juice of a lime or lemon, wash the salted pieces of pigtails and rinse with cool water.
Scrape with a knife and keep an eye out for any hairs (remove).
Then place in a deep pot with water and bring it to a boil. Allow this to boil on a rolling boil for 45 minutes.
After 45 mins, drain and rinse with clean water.
Then place the pigtails back in the pot, top with water, and bring to a boil.
As it starts to boil, add the green seasoning, garlic, and the bay leaf and reduce the heat so it’s a rolling boil.
Allow this to boil for 50 minutes. The boiling in water will do two things; remove the salt the pigtails were cured in and help the meat to become very tender.
By adding the green seasoning, bay leaf, and garlic (or any seasoning/herbs you like), you’re infusing the pigtails with additional flavors.
After 50 minutes of boiling, discard the water and get ready to grill. Don’t rinse as you want the green seasoning to remain on the pieces of pigtails, take out the bay leaf
Place on a hot grill or in the oven (about 375-400F) and keep an eye on it as it’s easy to char with all the skin and fat. After a couple minutes, you can start brushing with your favorite BBQ sauce.. do so liberally!
Turn the heat down a bit as you really want to develop some caramelized flavors and not burn the bunch. Keep flipping and brushing with bbq sauce so you’ll end up BBQ pigtails which are sticky and well infused with the smokey flavor of the grill.
All it takes is about 10-15 minutes on the grill, but it’s important that you keep moving them around and keep brushing with BBQ sauce.
