Carolina Chili Sauce

Place a medium saucepan or sauté pan over medium heat and add the ground beef and chopped onion. Use a wooden spoon or even a potato masher (works wonders!) to break up the beef as it cooks. You want it in as small of pieces as possible. Keep stirring and mashing until the beef is fully browned, and the onions have softened—this should take around 8-10 minutes.

Now that the beef is nice and brown, sprinkle in your seasoned salt, garlic powder, celery salt, black pepper, dark chili powder, and cumin. Stir everything together well, making sure the spices coat the beef evenly.

Open up your can of tomato sauce and pour it into the pan. Now, take the empty tomato sauce can, fill it up with a cup of water, give it a little swirl, and pour that into the pan too. This ensures you’re not wasting any leftover sauce stuck to the sides of the can.

Add the dark brown sugar, yellow mustard, apple cider vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce to the mix. Stir everything together to combine. These ingredients add a lovely balance of sweetness and tang to the dish.

Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover the pan with a lid and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Make sure to stir occasionally to keep things from sticking and to make sure the flavors are mingling beautifully.

After 20 minutes, if the sauce is a little too thin for your liking, don’t worry! You can thicken it up. Just mix the cornstarch and cold water together in a small bowl until smooth (this is your slurry). Stir the slurry into the sauce and cook for another 5-10 minutes until it thickens to your preference. Dassit!