This is a one pan, quick and easy dinner. 5 minute prep, dump and bake!
Oven Baked BBQ Chicken
This recipe used to have the most generic of names – “Sticky Baked Chicken”. Nobody ever understood what it actually was, so I’d have to describe it. “It’s kinda sweet, it’s savoury, and it has this awesome glaze!”, I’d animatedly tell my friends, in a bid to convince them that had to try it. (And well, well, well, what do you know? Convincing people they have to try a recipe is now what I do for a full time job! 😂) It wasn’t until I started this website and I actually started cataloging my recipes properly that it dawned on me that the sauce is really just a simplified version of barbecue sauce, full length iterations of which you see in recipes like Barbecue Pork Ribs, Beef Ribs and BBQ Pulled Pork. Half the ingredients delivers 90% of the flavour. For a midweek meal, I’ll take that!
↑↑↑ PS Up close and personal view so you can see STICKY outside and JUICY inside!
What you need for Baked BBQ Chicken
Here’s what you need. I don’t use – nor do we need – a rub for this recipe because the chicken cooks in the BBQ Sauce so it sucks up plenty of flavour. You’ll see the process steps below!
Best chicken cuts for BBQ Chicken cooked in the oven – use bone in, skin on chicken pieces like thighs (pictured, and shown in video), legs and wings. Bone in breast / Maryland will also work here. We need skin to get a really lovely glaze, and we need bone in pieces so they can be baked for 50 minutes so they absorb the flavour from the barbecue sauce without drying out.
How to make Baked BBQ Chicken in the oven
And here’s how to make it. See? Dump-and-bake! OK OK, I simplified it slightly. It’s actually Dump -> Bake -> Baste -> Broil. The 3 minute broil is how we get the surface really nicely caramelised!
This oven baked BBQ Chicken is deliberately made with a barbecue sauce that is thinned out with water so: And you are going to LOVE the barbecue sauce you end up with in the baking dish! All the juices from the chicken mixes in as you bake it, so you basically end up with a world-class barbecue sauce that’s got the benefit of the ultimate home-made chicken stock!
What to serve with Baked BBQ Chicken
In the spirit of all things BBQ, I’m going to suggest classic sides for a BBQ cook out – and also some lighter alternatives just in case you’re counting your calories!
Classic creamy Coleslaw – or try our No Mayo Coleslaw (it’s excellent!) or this Cabbage Salad Potato Salad – or this Lemon Potato Salad, or use a Yogurt Potato Salad Dressing Corn slathered in butter Southern Baked Beans Cornbread or Dinner Rolls – for mopping Creamy Mashed Potato – or Creamy Cauliflower Mash (for drowning in sauce) Big leafy salad with a salad dressing
Though having suggested all those sides, it’s actually pictured above with this Green Bean Salad 😂. – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Originally published October 2016. Given a much needed spruce up with new photos and new video, as well as an update on Life of Dozer!
Life of Dozer
When my brother took Dozer out for a walk. This is why I trained Dozer NOT to give slobbery kisses!!! 🤢
And from the original publication date: Dashing inside when he heard / smelled / his sixth sense told him there was FOOD ready to be photographed.
