When we moved from our condo to our new home I was looking forward to many things – one being the ability to barbecue. I dreamt about being able to make and enjoy delicious grilled meats, seafood, and pizza (you haven’t lived until you’ve tried pizza on the bbq).
Almost a year later, and we have yet to even purchase a barbecue. The thing with owning a house is there is always something to do – throw in a new baby and all of life’s other demands and you are left with a beautiful backyard, a freezer full of chicken and fish, but no barbecue. And now it’s almost winter, so what’s the point of buying one now? Cue the tears.
So here I was, thinking I would have to wait until spring to have my barbecue dreams realized, and then I discovered this recipe. I was flipping through a new cookbook and the saucy-ness (that’s a word, right?) of this dish just drew me in. Side note – I am trying to utilize my cookbook collection instead of relying on the easy mr. google for inspiring my weekly meal plan.
In the original recipe, the chicken is pan-fried pre-baking to get that bbq like feel. In my never ending quest to try to avoid cleaning as much as possible, I baked it in the oven pre-saucing to the same results.
You’ll notice in my beautiful picture of the raw bird I originally used a mixture of thighs and breasts. However, I urge you to only make this with the thighs – they get all crispy and sticky on the outside, while still maintaining a juicy interior. If you haven’t been converted to the dark side yet, I hope this recipe helps tip you over.
Even if you are one of the lucky ones with a barbecue in your backyard, this is the perfect way to keep enjoying all that charred flavour throughout the cold winter looming around the corner. And if you’re like me and and purchasing a barbecue is way down on your list to-do list, a temporary solution is right here!
Dara
Oven Baked BBQ Chicken
Serves | 4-6 |
Meal type | Main Dish |
From book | Sauce recipe adapted from Lick Your Plate |
Ingredients
Chicken
- 6 bone in, skinless chicken thighs
- 1 Tbsp canola oil
- 1/2 lemon (juiced)
- 1/4 Tsp salt
- 1/8 Tsp pepper
- 1/4 Tsp paprika
Sauce
- 1 cup ketchup
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 2 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 Tsp paprika
- 1/4 Tsp salt
- 1/4 Tsp pepper
Note
I tried this recipe with both thighs and breasts and found the breasts to be a tad dry. But if you only like the white meat, they would definitely still work - I would just reduce the baking time slightly. The bbq sauce would also be great on baked tofu.
Directions
Sauce | |
1. | Combine all sauce ingredients in a medium pot over medium-high heat and cook for about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside about 1/4-1/2 cup of the sauce to serve with chicken. |
Chicken | |
2. | Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray. Place chicken on prepared baking sheet and drizzle with oil, lemon juice, paprika, salt and pepper. Rub all over so they are evenly coated. |
3. | Place in oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and baste with bbq sauce. Place back in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove again and brush all over with bbq sauce and bake for another 5 minutes. |
4. | Remove chicken from oven and brush one more time with bbq sauce and return to oven on the upper rack. Turn oven to broil and cook for about 3 minutes, watching carefully until chicken starts to brown and is cooked through. |
5. | Serve chicken with the reserved bbq sauce. |
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