- 4 hours ago
Stop buying bottled sauces—these 7 homemade versions are easier, fresher, and way more flavorful. In this video, Nicole walks you through everything from creamy ranch and tangy BBQ to rich tomato sauce, spicy buffalo, and more. Whether you're dressing salads, glazing meats, or leveling up weeknight dinners, these go-to sauces will completely upgrade your cooking.
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00:00Here are seven sauces that are easy
00:01and better to make at home.
00:02You've got more control, and plus, if I had to guess,
00:05you probably have everything on hand already.
00:07I'm gonna start with the crowd favorite
00:09and show you how to make ranch.
00:11We know that the base of ranch is mayonnaise.
00:13I'm not gonna show you how to make mayonnaise
00:15from scratch and then turn that into ranch.
00:17A, I've done that before, and B,
00:19ain't nobody got time for that.
00:21I know that's not what you're needing.
00:22You're just wanting to control some of the ingredients
00:24and make that kind of restaurant-quality ranch
00:27at home without a packet.
00:29I've got you.
00:30When you look on the back of a lot of these sauces,
00:33you'll just see ingredients like soybean oil,
00:37xanthan gum, phosphoric acid,
00:40bunch of things you can't pronounce.
00:41That's the reason why it's just better to make it at home.
00:43We're gonna start with a base of mayonnaise.
00:45I like to add in a little sour cream.
00:47And watch, you have everything else.
00:49The same things that are in that packet
00:51you have in your spice cabinet.
00:52Garlic powder, onion powder,
00:54and then some dried herbs like chives, dill, and parsley.
00:59So mayonnaise, sour cream is gonna add that tanginess.
01:03So it's usually about half the amount
01:04of sour cream to mayonnaise.
01:06Then you start adding in your dried herbs and spices.
01:09I think the onion powder is the most pronounced ingredient
01:13in those ranch packets.
01:16I'm going in with some onion powder, garlic powder,
01:18parsley, chives, and dill.
01:20And then simply salt and pepper.
01:22To me, this turns out more like a ranch dip,
01:24and we're looking for a ranch dressing.
01:26So we're gonna thin it out.
01:27So these are the ingredients,
01:29and then you can adjust to your taste.
01:31If you wanna do all your dried herbs,
01:33but you want to kind of give them a boost of freshness,
01:36my suggestion would be to pick one of those herbs
01:38and add them in fresh.
01:40Whichever you have on hand, whatever's the cheapest.
01:42Parsley is always good
01:43because it doesn't really change the flavor,
01:45but it just kind of adds a little fresh note.
01:48The key is, you want it to be super fine.
01:51You want it to blend in.
01:52Now, time to make it more pourable, like a dressing.
01:57What I like to do is add some fresh lemon juice.
02:00If you like the flavor, or maybe it's a little salty,
02:02you could always just add a little water.
02:04For the most authentic flavor,
02:05you could add in some buttermilk.
02:07This might be something you have to buy,
02:08but you could always make buttermilk
02:11with just regular milk and a little vinegar or lemon juice.
02:14So just add your milk
02:15until you get the consistency you want.
02:16It might dilute some of the flavor,
02:18so you just might have to go back and re-season.
02:20No disodium phosphate in here.
02:22I want you to not focus so much on the exact recipe
02:24as just the concept of each of these.
02:29Nailed it.
02:30Pantry staples, plus maybe one or two items you need to buy,
02:34and you've got the most delicious homemade ranch.
02:36My kids love dipping their chicken fingers
02:39and fries in ranch.
02:44And then the classic, most classic salad.
02:47That is the most familiar taste ever.
02:50Restaurant style ranch on a restaurant style salad, perfection.
02:53Next up, you need to be making your own barbecue sauce.
02:57You know what these three have in common?
02:58They all start with high fructose corn syrup,
03:00which is the main ingredient,
03:01which means the main ingredient is ketchup.
03:04And if you choose barbecue sauces
03:05that don't start with ketchup, they're usually more expensive.
03:09You know what's less expensive than a jar of good barbecue sauce?
03:14A can of tomato puree.
03:16These go on sale all the time.
03:17Some stores you can get them for about a dollar, two dollars,
03:20and you can make a huge vat of barbecue sauce in with a big can.
03:24Because if you're going to make it, make a big batch.
03:26Barbecue sauce lasts a long time in the fridge.
03:30My great-grandmother would always say,
03:31if it's got tomato in it, it's preserving everything.
03:34The acid in there, so no need to worry about it spoiling.
03:38Then I'm going to put a little water in the can, rinse it out.
03:41Now you do need that thick kind of sweetness.
03:43You can do that with just honey in here,
03:45or my grandmother always used molasses.
03:48This is more common in the barbecue sauces.
03:50A little bit of Worcestershire.
03:52This is going to give it that umami kind of saltiness in there.
03:55I like a little kick, but I don't really necessarily
03:58want a spicy barbecue sauce here,
03:59because kids.
04:01But you could add crushed red pepper here if you want.
04:03Apple cider vinegar.
04:04This is also going to add a little more sweetness.
04:06And just a little bit of yellow mustard.
04:07The molasses is not overly sweet like honey,
04:11so I'm going to add in a little brown sugar also.
04:14And then just salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder.
04:17To add a little more tang without any more sweetness,
04:19I'm going to go in with just a little bit of white vinegar also.
04:22Bring it to a simmer.
04:23You'll see it start to thicken a little bit.
04:25You want to cook this for about 10, 15 minutes.
04:27Everything is already cooked, but when you heat it up,
04:30those flavors kind of infuse and steep into the tomato.
04:33And you can see how the colors kind of changed a little bit.
04:36It's gotten darker because the molasses and the brown sugar
04:39and the tomato, as it cooks, it caramelizes the sugars in there,
04:43and it gets a little darker.
04:44Now you'll see that the texture is a little different
04:47than what you get in the bottle.
04:49That's because we use tomato puree instead of ketchup.
04:51This is homemade barbecue sauce.
04:54No high fructose corn syrup, no sodium benzoate,
04:58or however you pronounce that, just delicious barbecue sauce.
05:01It's going to be tangy, sweet, slightly salty.
05:05What you're going to want to do is let it cool completely
05:07before you serve it because, again, the flavors just start
05:11acting a little different as it cools.
05:13Give it a little taste with some grilled chicken.
05:18It's sweet, it's tangy, it's peppery in the back.
05:22It's just a good thing.
05:24Let's talk about tomato sauce.
05:26Everyone should definitely know
05:27how to make a good tomato sauce.
05:29It is so easy, it's going to be way better,
05:32and it's going to be the best value if you make your own.
05:35Here's why.
05:36To get a really good tomato sauce that tastes homemade,
05:39you're going to spend at least eight to 10 bucks, right?
05:42In the less expensive ones, you're getting tomato puree,
05:47but you're also getting things like onion extract
05:49and garlic extract instead of the real,
05:51actual spices and vegetables.
05:53And then you're also getting some preservatives
05:55like citric acid.
05:56Now you have seen me use jarred tomato sauce
05:59in about a million recipes.
06:01That's because if I'm making a recipe
06:02that calls for convenience, this is the ticket.
06:05But if you're worried about value and quality the most,
06:09you're going to make your own.
06:10You know what's better than this,
06:12and cheaper than this, a can of tomatoes.
06:16This is your base for a perfect, delicious marinara sauce.
06:19You're going to start with extra virgin olive oil.
06:22I'm going to go in with some onion.
06:23Now you might say, you know,
06:24my kids like a jarred sauce better
06:27because it doesn't have big chunks of onion
06:29or anything in it.
06:30First of all, I cut my onion very small,
06:32and then you want to cook it until the onion is very soft
06:35where it almost melts into the sauce.
06:37To help soften it, you can add in a little salt.
06:40And so far, you could still pronounce everything.
06:42Tip one here is don't rush this step.
06:44So it does take at least five to 10 minutes.
06:47This is what your onion should look like.
06:49You can see through these to see that they're translucent.
06:53Now we add the garlic.
06:54This only needs to cook for about a minute.
06:56And again, I like super small pieces
06:58so that we don't have a big chunky tomato sauce
07:01if we're trying to create a copycat.
07:02That just takes about a minute to infuse into that olive oil.
07:05Now for the spices, I'm just going to do dried oregano,
07:10but I'm gonna do fresh basil at the end.
07:11If you don't want to do fresh basil,
07:13you could do dried basil, but do it at this point
07:16because I like to toast the spices just for a few seconds
07:20and then just a pinch of crushed red pepper.
07:23I'm not looking for this to be a spicy tomato sauce,
07:25just a little complexity.
07:27But because you add them into the olive oil,
07:30the flavor carries throughout a little better
07:32than if you just added them at the end.
07:34Okay, after about a minute, now the tomatoes.
07:37I'm also going to rinse out my can.
07:40I'm gonna cook this for a few minutes
07:42and then we are going to mash those tomatoes
07:44till only very small pieces are in there,
07:47just like what looks like comes
07:48in those good quality tomato sauces.
07:50Gotta add in a little salt and pepper.
07:52I think what a lot of people don't like now
07:55is tomato sauces that have a lot of sugar in them.
07:58So you'll find ones that say no sugar added.
08:01Tomatoes are already sweet.
08:02You don't necessarily have to add the sugar.
08:05The purpose of the sugar is to take out some of the acidity
08:07from the tomatoes,
08:08but that is the benefit of using a San Marzano tomato.
08:12It has a little less acidity,
08:14so then you probably don't have to add sugar to this.
08:18So I'm just gonna bring that up to a simmer
08:19and then mash those tomatoes.
08:23It's all softened and mashed up.
08:25That's what we want.
08:26It looks almost too fresh.
08:29So I'm going to richen it up a little bit,
08:33kind of add a little depth
08:34with just a little bit of tomato paste.
08:36It's gonna like deepen the color and the flavor.
08:39Little fresh basil at the end.
08:40Remember if you don't want to do that,
08:42you could have added dried basil in the beginning,
08:45or you could even just do the fresh parsley here.
08:47Better than jarred for just a few bucks.
08:51This right here is just a delicious,
08:53simple, perfect tomato sauce.
08:56And now you know how to make it.
08:57What's great is that you can double, triple,
09:00quadruple this recipe and make it in big batches,
09:04and then just keep it in your freezer.
09:06Or if you're a canning expert, you could then can it.
09:09You can control the ingredients.
09:11You can control the texture.
09:13If this is too chunky for some of you,
09:17you could always just pop it in the blender
09:20for a couple pulses.
09:25Mamma mia.
09:26Very similar to those high quality tomato sauces.
09:29And all we had to buy was a can of tomatoes.
09:31Time for another highly requested,
09:33I want to know how to make it instead of buy it sauce,
09:37buffalo sauce.
09:39Buffalo sauce is so easy to make.
09:41The simplicity of a perfect buffalo sauce,
09:44I'm about to show you.
09:46And let me show you what's not gonna be in it.
09:48What's not gonna be in it is soybean oil,
09:51hydrogenated soybean oil,
09:52propylene glycol,
09:55soy lecithin,
09:56allospirin,
09:57natural butter type flavor.
09:59Why not just use butter?
10:00All you need is the good hot sauce.
10:03Now this is the perfect hot sauce for buffalo sauce,
10:06the Ol' Franks.
10:06The only ingredients in this,
10:08aged cayenne red peppers,
10:10vinegar, water, salt, and garlic powder.
10:13Add in the hot sauce,
10:15along with a stick of cold butter that's been cubed up.
10:18That way it can slowly emulsify into the sauce
10:21as it heats up.
10:22Just a tablespoon and a half of vinegar.
10:26And then just a dash of Worcestershire,
10:28a little bit of garlic powder.
10:30It's already in the hot sauce,
10:31but we're just gonna add just a little bit more.
10:33And then just a pinch of cayenne pepper to up the heat,
10:37because the Franks hot sauce isn't that spicy.
10:41Now it's about to be.
10:42And then you just whisk as it all heats up
10:44until it's well combined.
10:45We'll see, did y'all know it was that easy?
10:47It looks like buffalo sauce to me.
10:49That butter changes the hot sauce
10:51from that deep red color to more of an orange.
10:54As soon as it comes together,
10:55you wanna take it off the heat.
10:57If you get it too hot,
10:58that butter's gonna separate out.
10:59So once you start to see it come up to bubbles
11:03around the side or that it's all melted together,
11:06take it off and just whisk until smooth.
11:09Since we made the beautiful sauce,
11:10may as well put it to use.
11:12Add it to whatever your favorite
11:14buffalo chicken dip recipe is.
11:15This one in particular has chicken,
11:17cream cheese, and cheddar cheese.
11:19You add in buffalo sauce and ranch.
11:21Why not use our homemade ranch?
11:23It's gonna be the best buffalo chicken dip you ever have.
11:25Add it to a baking dish and back it off.
11:27I'm gonna give it a little taste.
11:34Hmm, honestly I didn't know if I was gonna be able
11:35to taste the difference.
11:36But right off the bat, it's more buttery
11:39than what I usually do when I make this dip
11:41and pour it straight from the bottle.
11:42Perfectly emulsified, not too thick.
11:44While I'm at it, why not a buffalo chicken sandwich?
11:47I'm gonna be bringing this one home.
11:48My son's gonna love this.
11:54Mmm, mmm.
11:55Mmm, best buffalo sauce you'll ever have.
11:58Stop buying it today.
12:00This next sauce is the one I probably incorporate
12:02the most in my house.
12:04And it is an Asian stir fry sauce.
12:06It's a very broad term for a sauce
12:08because there are so many versions of a stir fry sauce.
12:11But I think if you have the right ingredients,
12:13you can make whichever one you want.
12:15Some of the ones I found are a teriyaki marinade,
12:17an Asian zing sauce, just a stir fry sauce.
12:20And what's great about these sauces,
12:22they can be used as a sauce or as a marinade or as a dip.
12:27There are just so many things you can do
12:28with these similar flavors.
12:29Whenever you're making these style sauces,
12:31you always get that umami experience
12:33because they're so well-rounded.
12:34So you always have something salty, tangy,
12:37a little sweet, and maybe a little spicy.
12:39So if you've got those pantry staples, you're good to go.
12:42Some of the things that are in some of these sauces
12:46are things like modified cornstarch,
12:48potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate.
12:52You didn't hear me say any of that here.
12:54Unless it's an ingredient in your soy sauce.
12:56In goes soy sauce, rice vinegar, a little chili garlic.
13:01And if you don't want it spicy at all,
13:02you can leave that out.
13:03And a little sweet, and a little sesame oil.
13:06Fresh ginger, you've heard me talk about this before too.
13:08So inexpensive, lasts forever in your fridge.
13:11And then I like to grate it in.
13:13That way you don't get big chunks of it.
13:15It's not overwhelming.
13:16A little bit goes a long way
13:17and it adds so much good flavor here.
13:19For looks, optional, but recommended, some sesame seeds.
13:24These flavors are pretty strong.
13:26So just to mellow them out a little bit,
13:28you can go in with some cold water.
13:30And what you might be thinking is,
13:33but I like it to be a little thicker
13:35so it will glaze whatever you're cooking.
13:38All you have to do is heat it up
13:40and add in a cornstarch slurry.
13:42This is good to keep as is.
13:43It works great in marinades and things like that.
13:45So I've got a stir fry going
13:47and I'm gonna show you how to activate the sauce
13:50to make it thick and glossy like what you see in the bottle.
13:53You have to dissolve your cornstarch in a cold liquid.
13:55You could dissolve it straight into the marinade,
13:57but I don't want it to be that salty.
13:59So I'm gonna kind of mellow it out a little bit.
14:02And then we'll just add this straight to our sauce.
14:05Now I'm gonna show you how it's activated
14:07just by heating it up.
14:08You can place this right in the stove or even in the microwave
14:11and it's gonna thicken if you just want a thick sauce.
14:13And I'm gonna do it right here in the stir fry
14:15and watch the heat in the skillet activate this
14:18and coat those veggies.
14:19You don't have to buy bottles with weird ingredients.
14:22See, and the cornstarch gives it that gloss too.
14:25I use these ingredients at least once a week,
14:28even if I'm just marinating chicken.
14:30Thick, glossy, and so full of flavor.
14:32A little taste to make sure I'm not a liar.
14:37Mm.
14:40It's just delicious.
14:41And then, the way you can use it just as is
14:45without heating it up is a perfect dip for potstickers.
14:52Mm.
14:53This is as good if not better than what comes in that packet
14:56that comes with the frozen appetizers.
14:58A lot of times you use the packet,
15:00but you didn't use all the potstickers.
15:02So now you know how to make the sauce if you need more.
15:04Don't forget this one and stock up your pantry.
15:07A cheese sauce is definitely something you should be making
15:11instead of buying.
15:12First ingredient in both of these cheese sauces is water.
15:17Doesn't sound very creamy to me.
15:19If I had to guess, I bet you have flour, butter,
15:23milk, and cheese at your house right now.
15:26Then you can make a cheese sauce.
15:27I feel like this is one you've seen before,
15:29but maybe you forgot how easy it is.
15:32Whether you're making mac and cheese, or nachos,
15:35or just a cheese sauce to pour over broccoli
15:37like we did in the 80s,
15:40here's the recipe for you.
15:41Start by melting some butter.
15:43Equal parts, butter and flour.
15:46Of course, I'm using cheddar to be classic,
15:47but you could also do Monterey Jack here, Pepper Jack.
15:51Melt your butter and then whisk in your flour
15:53and your salt at the same time.
15:56I'm gonna whisk this until you get a paste.
15:58I like to cook it for about a minute.
16:00Then you just slowly whisk in your milk,
16:02and this is whole milk.
16:03You'll see it is starting to thicken
16:05and get kind of velvety,
16:07but it's not super thick like a gravy
16:10because when you add the cheese, it's going to thicken.
16:13So I'm just gonna go ahead and start adding the cheese,
16:15and then you just stir it until it melts.
16:17Don't worry, I'm not trying to be a hypocrite
16:20and act like I don't ever buy any of these bottled
16:23or jarred or canned items.
16:25You know I do.
16:26But to know that you don't have to
16:28will save you time and money,
16:30and just comes in clutch
16:32when you don't feel like going to the store, you know?
16:33Now this isn't one that I would particularly
16:36make ahead of time and keep in a jar in the fridge.
16:39At that point, you're like, why don't I just buy it?
16:41But this is one to make and use.
16:43You could also keep this on a really low warm setting
16:46in your slow cooker if you wanna do like homemade nachos.
16:51Once that cheese is good and melty, we're done.
16:54Couple ways we can serve it up.
16:56We can go simple just on some macaroni.
16:58That's the way my kids would like it.
17:00It is so creamy and cheesy or nacho style, my favorite.
17:08Just over some simple tortilla chips.
17:10What I love is that it's smooth.
17:12It's not too grainy.
17:13Now if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it right.
17:15Take me out to the ball game.
17:23Mm-hmm.
17:25It's just perfect.
17:26Surprisingly, it has a ton of flavor.
17:28I know we didn't add a bunch of seasonings,
17:30but getting the salt in there early,
17:33toast it with that butter.
17:36And we used a sharp cheddar,
17:38so it's got a good bite to it.
17:40This is a good recipe and your sign
17:43to make your own cheese sauce.
17:46I think the biggest thing that people want to know
17:48how to make versus buy when I asked on my poll,
17:51salad dressings.
17:52I started with ranch.
17:54I'm gonna finish with vinaigrettes
17:56that I commonly use for marinades.
17:58So whether it is a salad dressing or a marinade,
18:01you can make these at home.
18:02There's been a lot of talk about seed oils
18:04being bad for you and that type of thing.
18:06So I think that is why people want to know
18:08how to make salad dressings.
18:09Because when you look at the ingredients on the back
18:11of a lot of these store-bought items,
18:14you get, well, first of all, water as the first ingredient.
18:17They wanna water things down so they make more money
18:19and they're giving you less ingredients.
18:21Also, we have things like cornstarch, xanthan gum,
18:26potassium, sorbate, sodium, benzoate.
18:28We're gonna make ours without leaving you, though.
18:30I'm gonna show you a delicious,
18:32emulsified balsamic vinaigrette,
18:34but I want you to take from this
18:36that all it is is a formula, okay?
18:39If you know the formula,
18:41you can make any dressing or marinade you want.
18:44We can make this in a jar.
18:45You can also do it in your food processor or your blender,
18:48but just shaking it's gonna bring it together.
18:50I'm doing a two to one ratio of oil to vinegar.
18:53Because I'm shaking this with an emulsifier,
18:55I can go ahead and add my oil.
18:56If you're making this in a bowl with a whisk,
18:59you can just gradually add the fat in last.
19:02The way I typically make a marinade is I go to my fridge door
19:05and just pull off different condiments
19:07and put them in there straight into the blasted back.
19:09But I'm being a little more well-behaved today.
19:11A couple teaspoons of Dijon.
19:13So that's gonna add flavor and binder.
19:15If you just did an egg yolk,
19:17it wouldn't add as much flavor.
19:18Then we have our sweet and salty.
19:20And then finally, your flavorings.
19:22Got a shallot and garlic.
19:24And then I am also gonna add in a little pepper.
19:27Not in the recipe, but it's what I want.
19:29Just like you can do whatever you want at this point.
19:32Have we talked about the fact that I know
19:33you already have all this on hand?
19:34You have vinegars, you have oils,
19:37you have something sweet, and you have something salty,
19:39and you've got mustard or egg.
19:42And we have a vinaigrette.
19:43It's thick, it's emulsified.
19:46And how does it taste?
19:52Absolutely perfect.
19:54See how this one looks?
19:55Let me show you a difference.
19:57You can definitely see the separation
19:59of the oil and the vinegar.
20:00The difference in how it coats the spoon
20:02is how it's gonna coat your food.
20:04Let's show off our creation, shall we?
20:06Of course, on a salad.
20:08And you can really just see how the flavor sticks
20:12onto the lettuce, so you don't need near as much
20:15while I'm here.
20:19Mm.
20:20And it also makes a good marinade,
20:23or an addition to a marinade.
20:25If you wanna go back in here and add other things,
20:27some Worcestershire steak seasoning, you surely could.
20:31And because you had everything on hand,
20:33it was basically free.
20:36Am I right?
20:37Out with the old and in with the new.
20:39These are the seven sauces you need to stop buying
20:42and start making.
20:43Are there any other sauces you want me to teach you how to make?
20:44Let me know.
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