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Bon Appétit

Healthyish Barbecued Chicken

5.0

(12)

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Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Kat Boytsova

Classic grilled chicken gets updated with an easy, healthier barbecue sauce. The sauce can also be stored to deploy on whatever you happen to be grilling throughout the week.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    4–6 servings

Ingredients

2

Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

3

garlic cloves, crushed

6

Tbsp. double-concentrated tomato paste

½

cup pure maple syrup

¼

cup soy sauce

¼

cup Worcestershire sauce

2

Tbsp. unseasoned rice vinegar

4

tsp. Sriracha or other hot sauce

Vegetable oil (for grill)

1

3½–4-lb. whole chicken, cut into 6–8 pieces, or whatever bone-in cut of chicken you feel like cooking

Kosher salt

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat olive oil in a small saucepan over medium until hot. Cook garlic, turning occasionally, until golden brown all over, 4–5 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly and scraping bottom of pot, until paste darkens, 3–4 minutes. Add maple syrup, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and Sriracha. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer to let flavors meld, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Transfer about half of barbecue sauce to a heatproof bowl; reserve for serving.

    Step 2

    Prepare a grill for medium-high indirect heat (for a charcoal grill, bank coals on one side of grill; for a gas grill, leave one or two burners off); oil grates. Season chicken generously with salt. Grill chicken over direct heat, turning every minute, until browned on all sides, 5–6 minutes. Move chicken over indirect heat and continue to grill, keeping grill covered as much as possible and turning every 5 minutes or so, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part registers 140°–145°, 18–25 minutes depending on size. Begin basting with barbecue sauce, turning chicken occasionally, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part registers 160° for breast and 165° for dark meat, about 10 minutes longer.

    Step 3

    Transfer chicken to a platter. Serve with reserved sauce alongside.

    Step 4

    Do Ahead: Barbecue sauce can be made 2 weeks ahead. Transfer to an airtight container and chill.

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Reviews (12)

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  • Never knew I could like chicken so much - fantastic recipe, the BBQ sauce is out of this world!

    • Anonymous

    • 11/26/2022

  • Great recipe. The only things I changed were to decrease the hot sauce to use just 2 tsp and seared the chicken at the end for a couple of minutes to get the pretty char marks like in the picture.

    • Janel C.

    • Colorado

    • 4/9/2021

  • Julian- to answer your ? It says to reserve half of sauce for serving. So people can just put extra sauce on their chicken. Making again today

    • Anonymous

    • new jersey

    • 4/12/2020

  • EXCELLENT, this is the best barbecued chicken recipe I have ever had! The bbq sauce is excellent and grilling the chicken in indirect heat was a very good idea to prevent the chicken from burning before it cooks through.

    • nick016

    • NYC

    • 7/23/2019

  • This is a question: Are you supposed to put the other half of the barbecue sauce on the chicken before you grill it? Do you marinade the chicken in it, or do you really not use the barbecue sauce until after it is cooked? It looks really good and I want to try making it.

    • Julian Fernald

    • Santa Cruz, CA

    • 7/22/2019