How Long Does It Take To Bake Bbq Chicken In The Oven
The entire process including a 5-minute prep takes less than an hour. You can split the entire cooking time into three steps:
- Prep – It is very easy to prep and does not take more than 5 min.
- Bake the chicken – 20 mins to cook the chicken as a first step.
- Apply BBQ sauce and bake again – 20 mins in total. 10 mins each side after applying the BBQ sauce.
The Best Bbq Sauce For Chicken Is This One You Make Yourself
Nothing beats homemade BBQ sauce, and our recipe couldnt be easier. We built is around everyones favorite secret ingredientregular old ketchup! Ketchup is a magical pantry superpower, and if youre not in the habit of adding a little of ketchup to sauces and marinades, well, get in the habit! You see, ketchup isnt just puréed tomatoes and sugar. It is loaded with spices and cooked until the flavor is super concentrated. In other words, ketchup offers a major bang-for-buck in terms of flavor! Adding spices to it just enhances the existing deliciousness. Our BBQ sauce takes ketchup and makes is into the worlds best BBQ sauce by adding:
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Regular sweet paprika
What Cut Of Chicken Is Best For This Recipe
Chicken thighs! Specifically, bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs will give you tender, juicy chicken with a deliciously sticky glaze. Drumsticks work well, too.
Boneless chicken thighs cook very quickly so if you use them the BBQ sauce won’t have a chance to get deeply caramelized. They’ll be good, but not as good.
Avoid using chicken breasts, except as a last resort. They tend to dry out with a long bake in the oven AND they release a lot of liquid so the BBQ sauce becomes watery rather than thick and sticky.
Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs are best!
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How Long To Bake Bbq Chicken Thighs
This will depend on the size of your chicken thighs. Typically, chicken thighs should be baked in a hot oven at 200C/400F for about 25-30 minutes or until they are about 80% cooked and the skin crispy before coating with the bbq sauce. Then bake for additional 10-15 minutes until the sauce is caramelized.
For boneless chicken thighs, the cooking time will be shorter so do bear that in mind.
Common Questions About Baked Bbq Chicken Breast
Is this a saucy chicken recipe?
There will be enough sauce in the baking dish to spoon some over the chicken breasts when you serve them.
What BBQ sauce should I use?
We love to make our own homemade BBQ sauce so we can control the sugar and other ingredients. If you have a favorite store-bought BBQ sauce use that! Sweet Baby Ray’s is a popular choice.
Can I make this recipe with chicken thighs?
Chicken thighs cook differently than chicken breasts. If you want to use thighs, we recommend using our baked BBQ chicken recipe.
Why is the sauce runny?
Some chicken breasts are injected with water to make them look larger. This water is released during cooking which can water down the sauce. If this happens to you, pour the sauce into a small pan and boil it rapidly over high heat for a few minutes so it thickens.
How do I tell if the chicken is cooked?
When chicken breast is ready to eat, the meat will be completely white on the inside. Using an instant-read meat thermometer is the best way to check the chicken. Knowing the exact temperature helps ensure that you don’t overcook the chicken, which is essential if you want it to remain juicy. Once the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, it is fully cooked and safe to eat.
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How Long Should You Cook Chicken In The Oven
Chicken Breasts Chicken breasts can be tricky to bake because they are very lean with little to no fat making it overcook them. Bake the bbq chicken in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the juices run clear and the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Baking your chicken breasts at a high temperature for a shorter amount of time ensures that they retain their moisture.
Chicken Thighs To bake boneless chicken thighs instead of breasts, preheat the oven to 450 degrees and just bake for a little longer, around 20-25 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees in the thickest part of the chicken. Chicken thighs have a higher fat content so you dont have to worry as much about them drying out. Bone-in chicken thighs will take an about 35-45 minutes.
What Is The Best Chicken To Use For Bbq Chicken
The best cut of chicken to use for oven-baked BBQ chicken is bone in, skin on chicken. Bone in chicken keeps your meat from dying out and since we will be searing the chickens before baking them, using skin on chicken will give you that delicious crispy skin we all love. You can use almost the entire chicken but drumsticks, thighs, wings and breasts are what I usually cook up when I am doing BBQ chicken. Chicken breasts will take the longest to cook and chicken wings, the shortest to be sure to adjust your times accordingly. You want your chicken to cook to 165 degrees internally to ensure your BBQ chicken is cooked properly.
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Tips For The Best Oven Roasted Bbq Chicken
- For even cooking, make sure the chicken breasts are the same thickness throughout. You may need to pound some of the breasts to create an even thickness. The breasts should be around 1 inch thick.
- Use the parchment paper. It’s a lot easier to clean up than scrubbing caramelized BBQ sauce off the sheet pan.
- Be careful with cross contamination from the chicken. Once you brush the chicken with the BBQ sauce the pastry brush is contaminated. If you put that brush back in the bowl of sauce, the sauce is now contaminated and can not be eaten unless it is cooked.
- Use an instant read thermometer so you don’t overcook your chicken. Cook chicken until the thickest part reaches 160°F and then let it rest for 5-10 minutes.
- If you are using thinner chicken pieces or chicken cutlets, reduce the cook time so it doesn’t get overcooked, and then check it with thermometer.
Best Oven Baked Bbq Chicken
This Oven Baked BBQ Chicken is easy to make and includes a homemade no-cook barbecue sauce. Its finger licking good!
This Oven Baked BBQ Chicken is easy to make and includes a homemade no-cook barbecue sauce. Its finger licking good!
They dont call BBQ chicken finger licking good for nothing! This is seriously one of our absolute favorite ways to eat chicken. The meat always comes out so juicy, the skin perfectly crisp, and that sauce yum! This is one of those meals we tend to overfill ourselves on. Our bellies might be telling us to stop, but our mouths still want more! The secret is all in the homemade BBQ sauce. Youre going to love it!
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How To Make Bbq Chicken Thighs In The Oven
Step one: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and an oven safe baking rack. Lightly spray the rack to help prevent sticking. ***Note: If you dont have a rack, the chicken can be put directly on foil sprayed with nonstick spray.
Step two: Pat chicken thighs off with a paper towel. Make the seasoning rub by combining brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
Step three: Place chicken thighs in a large bowl. Pour olive oil and seasoning mixture over the chicken thighs. Toss to completely coat the chicken.
Step four: Place chicken thighs on the prepared rack and bake for 30 minutes. Brush BBQ sauce over chicken thighs. Bake another 20 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.
Baked Bbq Chicken Thighs Recipe
This chicken recipe does not require much and it’s very easy to make, ok confession time, I cheated a bit and used store-bought BBQ sauce. I used sweet baby rays barbecue sauce. You can obviously make your own from scratch if you prefer or use any other brand of choice, homemade bbq sauce is very easy to make and the ingredients needed are what you may already have on hand. I promise to share my homemade bbq sauce recipe with you all soon.
Back to this simple yet delicious baked chicken thighs recipe, I started by seasoning the chicken and left it to marinate for about 30 minutes. After that, I baked the chicken thighs in the oven until about 80% done. I then brushed the chicken with the BBQ sauce and continued to bake them until the chicken is fully cooked and the sauce thick and caramelized.
This is a fall-off-the-bone chicken recipe, the meat is so tender and juicy. The skin is crispy and coated with that sweet and sticky bbq sauce. It’s absolutely delicious and you will love it!
Serve this chicken with some creamy mashed potatoes or some steamed seasoned rice and vegetables. You can also serve it on its own or with a simple salad on the side. Let me show you how to make it real quick.
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Why We Love These Oven Baked Bbq Chicken Breasts
- It’s ridiculously easy to make. The oven does most of the work!
- Requires simple ingredients that you most likely already have in your kitchen.
- You can use your favorite bottled BBQ sauce or homemade sauce.
- Family friendly dinner that the kids just love!
- The BBQ sauce turns into a sticky, caramelized glaze that is so delicious!
- The chicken breasts turn out tender and juicy.
- So incredibly delicious!
How Do You Keep Chicken Moist When Baking
There are a few things that you can do to prevent your chicken from drying out while baking. One is to use chicken thighs or chicken drumsticks instead of chicken breasts as they have more fat content and will not dry out as easily. Another is to coat the chicken with some cooking oil or other type of fat before baking. This will help to create a barrier so that the moisture will not escape from the chicken while it’s in the oven. Finally, you can also cook the chicken at a lower temperature so that it doesn’t dry out as quickly.
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Baking Chicken Legs & Thighs Vs Chicken Breasts
As a general rule of thumb, if chicken has a bone inside of it, it will take longer to bake than the same piece without a bone. For this recipe, I used chicken drumsticks and chicken thighs that still have their bone but I removed the skin. This is so they will both cook at about the same rate. I love using dark meat for this recipe.
If I was cooking boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I wouldnt need to bake it as long because it doesnt have a bone. Chicken wings happen to have a quicker baking time because they are quite small and dont need all that much time. Check out my Crockpot Chicken Wing recipetheyre really tasty!
What Cut Of Chicken Is Best To Use For Oven Bbq Chicken
For the juiciest, most tender oven bbq chicken, youre definitely going to want to use bone-in, skin on chicken pieces for this. I used a mix of thighs and drumsticks, and I do recommend using thighs and/or legs, since dark meat is harder to overcook and almost always tastes juicier than white.
Heres a general run-down of which cuts are worst and best for oven bbq chicken:
- Worst: boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- Not quite as bad: boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- Better: bone-in, skin on chicken breasts
- Best: bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and/or legs
If you want to use chicken breasts, I recommend making sure you get bone-in, skin on breasts. Or at the very least, bone-in. The skin and the bone both help keep the chicken super juicy. And if you use dark meat as well, youve hit the trifecta! Using bone-in, skin on dark meat guarantees juicy, tender chicken every time. As a bonus: these pieces are generally a lot less expensive!
If you really want to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, make sure you cook them for less time. Check out the recipe notes for how to do it. For a recipe that uses bone-in, skin OFF chicken thighs, check out this Spiced Chicken and Rice with Apples and Raisins.
And if youre looking for super high quality chicken at a reasonable price, check out ButcherBox!
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Why This Recipe Works
Homemade Bbq Sauce Or Store
This is home-made freshness with pride vs convenience. If you have the time to make a homemade BBQ sauce, surely go for it. An initial effort is needed to collect the ingredients for the sauce.
Making of the sauce is not difficult though.
On the other hand, there are many brands for BBQ sauce bottles, available in the supermarkets nowadays. Honestly, a few of them are quite good. Look carefully for the list of ingredients and avoid sauces that are too sweet.
You can just grab a bottle and run with this recipe to reduce your prep time significantly.
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What Kind Of Baking Sheet Should I Use
I cannot recommend enough using a Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Bakers Half Sheet to make this oven baked BBQ chicken, and to roast literally anything you want. I have two and they are the ONLY baking sheets I will EVER use. Theyre super sturdy, so they dont buckle when the temperature changes . And they conduct heat well to make sure that your food is well cooked on the top and bottom, and they are really good at being non-stick, even though they dont have any non-stick coating .
PLUS, they are only around $12! Go get one!
If you prefer to bake the chicken on a rack, so it doesnt sit in the juices the whole time and crisps up a bit better, this rack nestles in perfectly to the rimmed baking sheet .
How To Make Bbq Chicken In The Oven
The whole process can be divided into three easy steps. Season the chicken, bake and then coat with BBQ sauce.
Prepare the seasoning with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Season well the chicken. This extra step of seasoning the chicken gives more flavour.
After baking the seasoned chicken, we are going to coat BBQ sauce in two stages. Remove chicken from the oven and increase the heat to 425 degrees F.
Brush BBQ sauce and bake for 10 minutes. Then remove the tray and give a second coat. Bake for 10 more minutes. By the end of 10 minutes, the chicken was cooked through and the internal temperature was close to 165 degrees F. If the chicken pieces are really big then bake for another 5 minutes.
For a charred skin, broil it in the upper half of the oven for 2-3 minutes, keeping a close eye to avoid burning.
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Which Bbq Sauce Sauce Is The Best
We love love love our BBQ sauce for chicken. It’s sweet and tangy with a hint of smoky flavor. It’s also quick to make and easily made refined sugar-free.
But any BBQ sauce will work well. You can use what you have in your fridge or buy your favorite bottle. Sweet Baby Ray’s is a popular choice for store-bought BBQ sauce!
How To Make Baked Bbq Chicken
Be sure to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!
What kind of chicken should I use?
Its best to use boneless, skinless chicken breast for this recipe. However, you can use chicken thighs if youre in a pinch and want to make this recipe!
Can I use frozen chicken?
While its possible to use frozen chicken, the cooking time would take a lot longer because the chicken would need to defrost and then bake. Be sure to keep that in mind before you get started.
What kind of pan should I use?
A 9×13 baking pan would be ideal because it offers more than enough space for you to place the chicken out without overlapping pieces. You dont want to overlap pieces because then not all pieces will cook through all the way.
How do I know when the chicken is cooked through?
Use a meat thermometer. Its cooked through when the temperatures reaches 165 degrees F. Be sure to place the thermometer in the thickest piece of the chicken to play it safe.
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