Pomegranate chili sauce

I've made this sauce before, and it's excellent! It's from Bon Appétit, December 2009, via epicurious.com . It works really well with roasted duck but it would be good on chicken, as well.

This recipe is basically unchanged from the original.

1/3 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 2 cups pomegranate juice 2 cups low salt chicken broth 4 large dried California chiles (I used Anaheim) 1 1/2 tsp. adobo sauce from canned chipotle chiles in adobo 1 1/2 tsp. balsamic vinegar 1/8 tsp. ground cumin (not toasted) kosher salt freshly ground back pepper.

Stir sugar and 1/2 cup water in heavy large saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves.

Increase heat; boil until syrup is deep amber color, swirling pan occasionally, about 8 minutes.

The original recipe recommends refrigerated pomegranate such as Pom, but since I didn't have that I substituted 100 % pomegranate from Lakewood and it was fine.

I also substituted Anaheim chiles for California, though I think the sauce could be spicier so I might throw in something a little hotter next time.

Also I used 0.8 oz. More than Gourmet chicken stock concentrate and 16 oz. water. More than Gourmet is also low in sodium but it's more flavorful and the concentrate lasts forever in the refrigerator.

Add juice, broth, and California chiles. Boil until sauce is reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 25 minutes. Watch out as the sauce may want to boil over if you use too small of a pot.

Remove from heat; cool. Puree in tightly covered blender until smooth, about 2 minutes. Transfer to bowl. Whisk in adobo sauce, vinegar, and cumin. Season to taste with generous amount of coarse salt and pepper.

I don't think I sufficiently blended the sauce so I ended up straining it, as well. But this made it thinner and not as as spicy, so really thorough blending is a much better plan.

Can be made 1 week ahead. Cover and chill. Rewarm over low heat before using.

I also have successfully vacuum sealed and frozen the sauce.

So I just assumed this sauce would be high in calories, but it's really not that bad. For a reasonable serving size of 1.25 oz. (one-eighth of the recipe above), it's 71 calories according to caloriecount.about.com. Bring on the sauce!