About The Sauce

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So where was I? Oh yeah, I'm giving out sauce left and right to family and friends who are going on about how great the sauce is.

My wife told me to get off my rear-end and do something with it because she doesn’t want to hear me complaining in 20 years that I should have, could have, blaa..blaa..blaa. She and a lot of other people have been telling me to do something with this sauce. “Get it out there!” Ok, fine.

I spent the next 18 months in my sauce lab perfecting my recipe. Almost every night I would cook kettle after kettle of sauce. I twisted my original formula around and then some until I got it to the exact recipe that’s available today. But I didn’t stop there. I created more bbq sauce flavors. All my bbq sauce flavors originated from me. Unlike other bbq sauces out on the market, I didn’t need to doctor-up or piggyback on someone else’s bbq sauce and call it my own because my bbq sauce is great-tasting period. It’s all my doing and I’m proud to say that Pigchaser bbq sauce is a family recipe created from scratch. And that’s a fact.

Try any of my bbq sauces on ribs, chicken, brisket, burgers, beef sandwiches, pork chops, seafood, as a marinade, or in a dip. My Pineapple/Mango can be used on Easter hams and Thanksgiving turkeys as a glaze or get this…on cakes and desserts. Yep, it’s true. The bacon bbq sauce tastes great on baked potatoes, chili-cheese fries, burgers, mixed in deviled-eggs, mixed with cream cheese for a cracker spread, or even on a turkey club sandwich. Oh yeah, my Habanero bbq sauce gets hotter after you open it too.

You know you had it coming.

Ok, so what about the name?

Enough with the sauce. Let me tell you how Pigchaser got its name. In 2005 I was asked to fly into Tucson for business. My flight landed at the Tucson airport around 11:30pm. I was tired and hungry. My co-worker who was meeting me there caught an earlier flight. After the plane landed I gathered my bags, got into my rental car, and proceeded to drive out of the airport parking area. I was hungry and thirsty so I stopped to buy a burger and some beer (no, I didn’t drink and drive).

Since I never have been to or driven in Arizona before I forgot about the burger and concentrated on not missing my exit. It was dark and there weren't highway lights like back home. An hour later I got off the freeway, made a few turns, and found myself driving up a long and winding driveway towards a hotel which was located on top of a hill. While making these turns my headlights caught a small animal running across the driveway. I could have sworn it was a pig. At this point I was asking myself what the heck I was getting into. I'm from Chicago. I see cats and dogs running but pigs?

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I checked into the hotel, got my key and drove around the back to get to my room facing the desert. I hauled everything I owned up to my 2nd floor room and settled in. The first thing I did was open a beer and then stick the burger into the microwave. I opened up the sliding door to the balcony and stepped outside. The warm evening Arizona breeze was different. It smelled dry. The microwave beeped and I grabbed my sandwich. While alternating between sandwich and beer I saw that same little pig trotting in the parking lot not far from where I parked. It took me about 10 seconds to realize that this pig and I were going to have some fun. I put down my beer, high-tailed it out of the room, and bolted down the stairs until I was right in front of this pig. The pig took off and stupid me I followed it.

AZ Trail02.jpgI chased it down a hiking path into the desert. After about a 1/8th mile I realized the parking lot lights didn't cover a lot of ground. I stopped and figured it's probably best if I go back because people would miss me in the morning if I didn't show up for work. When I turned to go back this pig snarled and showed teeth! When I planted my foot to take off this little guy started chasing me. I ran like a little schoolgirl back to my hotel room three timing it up the stairs until I slammed the hotel room door shut. I went out on the balcony to see where this little guy was but he was gone.

The next day I explained my story to my new friends in the Mexico factory and my co-worker. The Mexican workers were laughing. I asked what was so funny. My co-worker said they were calling me the amigo javelina chaser. I asked what the heck is that. He said they're calling me a pigchaser. Without knowing it at the time Pigchaser was born. Years later when I was thinking of a name for the bbq sauce company my son said "Dad why don't you call it Pigchaser? Remember when you chased that pig?"

So that’s how Pigchaser got its name. It’s a true story and I’ll never chase one of those ferocious animals again.