Description
This Oven Baked BBQ Chicken recipe features juicy bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, drumsticks, or wings baked in a quick homemade tangy and sweet barbecue sauce made from everyday pantry ingredients. The chicken is baked to tender perfection, then broiled briefly to caramelize the sauce for sticky, flavorful skin. Perfect for a comforting meal paired with classic Southern-style sides like mashed potatoes, coleslaw, or cornbread.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Sauce
- 1 cup ketchup or Australian/UK tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 4 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp mustard powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp fresh black pepper
- 1 cup water
Chicken
- 1.5 kg / 3 lb bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, drumsticks or wings
- Fresh parsley, chives, or finely chopped green onions, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Preheat your oven to 200°C (390°F) to prepare for baking the chicken.
- Prepare Sauce and Chicken: In a ceramic or glass baking dish, mix all the sauce ingredients except water, then add the water and stir to combine. Add the chicken pieces to the dish and turn to fully coat them in the sauce. Place chicken skin side down in the baking dish.
- Bake First Phase: Bake the chicken for 20 minutes at 200°C/390°F, allowing the meat to start cooking and absorb flavors from the sauce.
- Turn and Baste: Remove the baking dish from the oven, turn the chicken pieces over, and spoon sauce over them generously to baste and keep them moist.
- Bake Second Phase: Return the baking dish to the oven and bake for another 30 minutes. Then remove from oven and spoon more sauce over the chicken.
- Skim Off Excess Fat (Optional): Tilt the pan slightly and carefully spoon or drain off any excess fat from the baking dish to reduce greasiness.
- Broil to Caramelize: Change the oven setting to broil/grill on high. Spoon sauce generously over the chicken and place it under the broiler/grill for 2 to 3 minutes, watching carefully to caramelize and thicken the sauce while creating a sticky glaze. Do not leave unattended as it can burn quickly.
- Serve: Remove the chicken from the oven, garnish with fresh parsley, chives, or green onions if desired, and serve immediately with your choice of side dishes like mashed potatoes or green bean salad.
Notes
- For sauce substitutions, ketchup can be replaced with Australian/UK tomato sauce; apple cider vinegar can be substituted with white wine, sherry, champagne vinegar, or 2 tbsp regular white vinegar.
- Onion powder can be replaced with garlic powder or 1 finely minced garlic clove.
- This recipe works best with bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces for optimal juiciness and flavor absorption; boneless breasts or thighs require a slightly different approach without water in the sauce and may yield different results.
- Use a ceramic or glass baking dish for best results; a metal pan lined with foil and parchment paper is an alternative.
- Thickness of the sauce may vary depending on how snug the chicken fits in the dish, chicken fat content, and oven temperature accuracy. Adjust thickness by adding water if too thick or baking briefly without chicken if too thin.
- Nutrition values are calculated assuming 3 tablespoons of excess fat are removed and all the sauce is consumed.
