Recipe: BBQ Glazed Chicken (2024)

FAQs

Do you put barbecue sauce on chicken before or after baking? ›

Barbecue sauce typically contains sugar that will brown faster than the meat. This can make it difficult to tell when the chicken is done. To ensure you don't pull the chicken off too soon, add the BBQ sauce when you're nearly done cooking the meat.

Whether you're working with breasts, thighs, drumsticks, or wings, pat the meat dry. This is especially important for skin-on chicken or marinated pieces, as this can help sauce to stay put. Applying a rub can also be useful, much like working with a thicker sauce.

Brine Before Grilling to Prevent Dry, Rubbery Chicken

Brining is simply submerging the chicken in a salt-water solution before grilling.

Glaze Your Food (Carefully!)

If you keep control of the timing you can use barbecue sauce to create a beautiful glaze for your food. Here are a few tips: brush the sauce onto the food and let it sit undisturbed for a few minutes. After that, keep a close eye on it and your tongs in hand.

Place the chicken breasts into a 9x13-inch baking dish, and pour the sauce over the chicken. Turn the chicken pieces over in the sauce to coat both sides. Bake in the preheated oven until the chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear, about 40 minutes.

Baste, baste, baste!

Basting is the key to that sticky golden surface! Start basting at 30 minutes. At first, the pan juices will be watery but towards the end of the cook time will reduce and thicken. This is when you can really get a nice thick glaze on the chicken!

But you still want your sauce to come into contact with some heat so it can caramelize with the exterior of the meat to create that crispy crust everyone dreams of. To accomplish this, simply use a BBQ basting brush to apply the sauce toward the end of the cook (aim to have it on for about 10 minutes).

Spices: With big bold flavors, the subtly of spices in bottled sauces tends to get lost. Adding garlic or onion powder are standard flavors for barbecue, but get a little creative and try out different chile powders, peppers, cumin, or dried herbs to add body to the sauce.

The best tenderizer though, is a salted yogurt marinade. The salt has the same effect as in a regular brine, but the lactic acid in the yogurt further tenderizes the meat. A 15-minute marinade with one cup of yogurt and one teaspoon of salt makes for the most tender chicken breasts imaginable.

Is it better to grill chicken at 350 or 400? ›

The ideal grill temperature range for chicken is between 350 and 450 degrees Fahrenheit. This range is narrowed down by whether you're grilling chicken breasts, thighs, or drumsticks.

Brine. Like a marinade, a brine helps chicken breast soak up as much moisture as possible before cooking.

The Role of Temperature and Cooking Time

When you cook chicken at a high temperature, the muscle fibers of the chicken contract rapidly, causing moisture loss. However, if you cook your chicken too low and slow, the fibers will break down, resulting in a mushy, dry texture.

Focus on searing the meat and then cooking it until it reaches a safe inside temperature at the thickest part. Sauces are best applied near the end of cooking to prevent burning. Only baste it with sauce during the final five minutes of cooking. The taste will blow you away without any burned mess on your grill.

Cook meat in the oven first

If you're expecting lots of people, this can also speed serving time up. Cooking meat in the oven first can also help you avoid other issues, such as with the BBQ coals not being hot enough or having too much food on the grill.

It is recommended to brown the chicken first before adding it to the sauce. Browning the chicken adds flavor and helps it retain moisture during the cooking process. You can pan-sear the chicken in a little oil until it develops a golden brown crust before transferring it to the sauce.

Yes. Precooking food partially in the microwave, oven, or stove is a good way of reducing grilling time.