I just posted the recipe for my favorite barbecue sauce a couple days ago, so I figured I should show you how I like to make one of my go-to recipes with the sauce. Bone-in chicken thighs – well any form of chicken is really a go-to for us – but I really like these bone-in chicken thighs. They are still nice and juicy and the sauce on top – oh the sauce – its so sticky and sweet and a little caramelized.
You can use this method to add our barbecue sauce to any meat you’re grilling – just be sure to start adding the sauce during the last 5-7 minutes of cooking.
I decided to take photos of this recipe last minute so I don’t have an ingredient picture. I used one package of three chicken thighs, barbecue sauce, smoked salt and pepper.
Pull the skin off the chicken thighs. This removes a lot of the fat from the chicken thighs, and I don’t really like chicken skin anyway. Also, since we’re going to caramelize the barbecue sauce on the chicken, if you don’t want to eat the skin you really should pull it off before cooking or you are going to pull that yummy barbecue sauce off with the skin. The thighs can take being cooked naked and will still turn out nice and juicy, I promise! Season with smoked (or regular kosher) salt and black pepper.
Place the side that used to have the skin up on the grill. I have my grill set for about medium heat.
We’re going to cook these for about 20 minutes total. Cook for about 7 minutes on the first side. Fiip over.
Cook for another 7 minutes on that side. Then flip it back.
Liberally brush with the barbecue sauce and cook for about 2 minutes.
Flip the chicken over and coat the other side with barbecue sauce. And cook for another 2 minutes.
Flip it back over – you can see some of the sauce has dripped off and the rest has thickened.
We’re going to add one more layer of barbecue sauce.
Cover and cook for a final 2-3 minutes so the final layer of sauce thickens. You can adjust the amount of layers of sauce and amount of time you cook it on if you like it even more caramelized.
Serve with extra sauce on the side – just make sure it’s not the same bowl you used to brush on the chicken.
- Bone-in chicken thighs
- Smoked salt (or regular kosher salt)
- Pepper
- Barbecue sauce
- Preheat your grill or set up the coals for medium heat.
- Pull the skin off the chicken. Season with smoked salt and pepper.
- Place chicken on the grill. Cook for 7 minutes on each side. Then start adding the barbecue sauce. Brush on the first side and then cook for 2 minutes. Flip and brush barbecue sauce on the second side. Cook for another 2 minutes. Flip back to the first side, brush on more barbecue sauce, and cook for a final 2 minutes.
- Serve with extra barbecue sauce on the side (just not the sauce you used to brush on the cooking chicken).
[…] Favorite Grilled Recipe: Barbecue Chicken Thighs […]