No backyard? No problem! With the help of a quick spice rub, your favorite store-bought barbecue sauce, and a blast from your oven’s broiler, you can the sticky-sweet goodness of barbecued chicken—no grill necessary. It takes a little patience for the skin to crisp and the meat to tenderize, so don’t try to rush those steps (it’s worth it!).
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What you’ll need
Measuring Spoons
$10 At Bon Appétit Market
Measuring Cups
$28 At Bon Appétit Market
Paper Towels
$13.45 At Amazon
Medium Bowl
$17 At Amazon
Small Bowl
$15 At Amazon
Tongs
$21 At Amazon
Chef's Knife
$34.53 At Amazon
Cutting Board
$10 At IKEA
Rimmed Baking Sheet
$32 At Amazon
Heavy-Duty Aluminum Foil
$12 At Target
Pastry Brush
$6 At Amazon
Recipe information
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
8
3
1½
1½
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
Preparation
Step 1
Arrange a rack in top third of oven; preheat to 350°. Pat 8 chicken thighs and/or legs dry with paper towels, then transfer to a medium bowl.
Step 2
Toss 3 tsp. salt, 1½ tsp. brown sugar, 1½ tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. pepper, 1 tsp. paprika, and 1 tsp. garlic powder in a small bowl. Sprinkle entire spice rub over chicken in bowl. Toss with tongs until pieces are coated.
Step 3
Peel and halve 2 onions through the root end. Place onion cut sides down on cutting board, then thinly slice lengthwise.
Step 4
Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Transfer onion to baking sheet and drizzle with 2 Tbsp. oil; season with more salt and pepper. Toss to coat.
Step 5
Spread onion mixture on baking sheet and place chicken legs over skin side up, spacing evenly.
Step 6
Roast chicken on top rack until skin is rendered and meat is tender all the way to the bone, 40–45 minutes. Turn on broiler and continue to roast until chicken skin is blistered and crisp in spots, 2–4 minutes depending on the strength of you broiler. Remove from oven and let chicken rest 5 minutes to allow juices to settle.
Step 7
Stir 1 Tbsp. vinegar and 1 cup barbecue sauce in a small bowl with a pastry brush.
Step 8
Turn chicken pieces over with tongs. Push onions toward center of baking sheet to form a pile. Paint a generous layer of barbecue sauce over surface of chicken. Using tongs, arrange chicken over onions. Broil until sauce is caramelized in spots, 2–4 minutes.
Step 9
Remove baking sheet from oven and turn chicken one more time, placing in same position as before, only sauced side down (the skin should be facing up). Paint skin sides of chicken generously with barbecue sauce mixture (you most likely won’t use all of it). Return to top rack and broil until skin is bubbling and charred in spots, about 4 minutes.
Step 10
Let rest 5–10 minutes. Serve chicken over onions with remaining barbecue sauce mixture.
Leave a Review
Reviews (40)
Back to TopExcellent! I'm surprised there were any negative reviews. Not only was the chicken delicious, it took no time or effort to prepare, and it didn't make a mess of my oven! I used drumsticks and followed the recipe for the most part. Based on other reviews I only used 1 tsp salt in the rub. I also reduced the cumin to 1/4 tsp and added 1 tsp sumac. Doing the dry rub a few hours ahead helps to season the chicken. I followed the recipe for the basting and resting steps and the results were amazing. The skin had a beautiful char, the meat was moist and fell off the bone, both the skin and meat had lots of flavor and the caramelized onions were fantastic.
Canadian Cook
Canada
5/17/2021
Simple and delicious. Read the reviews before cooking and cut the salt down to a teaspoon. With the prepared BBQ sauce you get all the salt required. Added a little hot sauce and extra garlic, will definitely do this again.
George Wharry
Sherwood Park, Alberta
1/12/2021
Overall, this was quite good and certainly worth the meager prep required. The only drawback (and one that I later saw in several comments) is that the rub is WAY too salty. I say this as someone who is hard to over-salt: I would recommend 1 tsp if you are sensitive to it and 2 tsp for anyone else, vs. the 3 tsp suggested in the recipe. Aside from that, the rub was excellent and mixed nicely with just your standard Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. The chicken came out extremely juicy with a perfectly crisped skin.
Kat
Louisville
1/10/2021
Amazing. Made this twice in the space of a month. First for a small family dinner, second for the extended family. For larger portions, we pre-cooked all the chicken to the first stage, then basted in sauce and broiled just before eating so everything was warm and just out of the oven! The suggestion to add pineapples by another comment below was gold - added them in at the broiling stage with some sauce over. To make the flavours really sink in, we actually rub the spice mix onto the chicken overnight and then let the chicken dry out on a rack a bit an hour or so before roasting. Amazing recipe, thank you!
Anonymous
Singapore
9/24/2020
Awesome easy to also tweak to personal taste added sliced garlic and finely cubed butternut to bedding. Will sure do this one again! Thanks 🙏
Juicy John
Canada
9/17/2020
I have no clue who Anonymous is, who posted right beneath this comment one in which they gave it all of one star, but nothing could be further from the truth. This is absolutely wonderful. The onions alone are worth making the dish. And what a gift to people who have no access to a barbecue! Every element of great barbecued chicken is here--the savory sauce, tender chicken, crispy skin and the absolute ease of oven cooking. Bravo Ms. Saffitz! You have done it again.
rsmmathews
Bridgehampton NY
8/16/2020
Umm. This is really not good. The rub is really bad - too salty and something is off.
Anonymous
5/24/2020