The grocery store had chicken hindquarters on sale recently for $1 each, so we stocked up on several packages just for this recipe, which I realized had never made it to the website! It took several meals to get somewhat decent photos (I won’t quit my day job to become a professional food photographer, that’s for sure), but I got a few that hopefully capture how delicious this easy recipe is.
I’ll be honest here and admit I really only do beef on the outside grill. I don’t grill often enough to appreciate the tricks to keep chicken from sticking and after a few almost ruined meals, I just noped away from it and keep chicken to the oven/stovetop/Instant Pot – which allows me to make 100% of every meal I want to make – so I can’t feel sad that actual grilled chicken won’t ever make it to this website.
A fair warning though: That delicious higher-heat-baked-on sauce that makes a sticky and thick and crispy skin, with tender meat, also might anger your smoke alarm. It’s worth opening a few windows.
This is the easiest recipe to make. If you have a hush-able smoke detector, I suggest hushing it for about an hour, so the kids don’t have to stand under it, waving a hand towel every time the oven door is open. I’m eyeing a Google Nest detector pretty hard, just for this recipe, and of course, for oven cooked bacon. The smoke alarm really loses it’s mind when I make that.
I type recipe and look at the 2 ingredients – chicken and barbecue sauce – and think….. that’s not really a recipe…. it’s really just more of a technique. I don’t make homemade barbecue sauce, because good barbecue sauce is cheap (we like Sweet Baby Rays and Bull’s Eye), so why not? We go through so much, I don’t think I’d be able to make enough to keep it stocked up anyway.
But really, recipe or technique, it’s tasty eats, so I suppose it doesn’t matter so much.
I haven’t tried this with chicken breasts as the length, temperature, and technique to the method make it so it would be difficult to get flavourful and moist meat. I love chicken breasts, but this isn’t the best recipe to use them in.
For a meal, pair this with a Macaroni Salad, or my homemade Potato Salad and Cole Slaw for a really great, if messy, meal. I do have my own macaroni salad, but I keep tweaking it so it’s not recipe-format ready. Someday! We do like the 3 or 4 cheese one from Costco, though. Years ago, it’s what started me on my quest to make my own. I don’t remember seeing it at our nearest Costco in 2020, but 2020 was 2020, after all. Hopefully it’ll come back this grilling season!
Oven Barbecue (BBQ) Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 cups Barbecue (BBQ) Sauce any brand or flavour
- 8 chicken hindquarters or 8 each skin on, bone in, chicken thighs and legs
Instructions
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 375°f
- To lessen the amount of cleanup, either use disposable aluminum cookie sheets or wrap your cookie sheets in aluminum foil, or or 2 large enough to hold all the chicken apart from each other in a single layer. Line the bottom of either with parchment paper to prevent any sticking. We use 2 older, 9x13" cookie sheets that we use exclusively for messier meat dishes.
Prepare and Cook the Chicken
- Place chicken on parchment paper in prepared pans, skin side down. Brush top only with preferred barbecue sauce. Place in oven and cook for 30 minutes at 375°f
- Using 2 protected hands, remove sheets containing chicken from oven to stovetop or protected countertop (using cooling wracks or trivets).
- Turn oven to 400°f
- Brush each piece lightly with barbecue sauce.
- Using tongs, carefully turn each piece over. Brush liberally with barbecue sauce. Place back in oven and cook for 10 minutes.
- As above, remove sheets containing chicken from oven and brush top lightly with barbecue sauce. Turn over, and brush liberally with sauce. Return to oven.
- Repeat this 2-4 more times until the barbecue sauce coating the chicken is thick and getting crispy, almost to the point of blackening. Exact timing depends on your oven, the barbecue sauce, and your personal preferences.
- Remove from oven. Serve immediately, and with lots of napkins handy!
Notes
Nutrition
- Rural Internet Part 2 - September 14, 2023
- 2023 Soap Making (available soon!) - September 10, 2023
- Summer of Dog - August 31, 2023