BBQ Chicken

Oven BBQ Chicken

serves 6-8 people

(make sauce on weekend, refrigerate until use)

  • 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed or cut to about the same size filets

Spicy Sweet Sauce:

  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 2/3 cup strong brewed coffee  (use leftover coffee from the morning or day before cooking)
  • 1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon honey
  • 1/4 cup vinegar (I like apple cider vinegar for this, but also use red or white wine vinegar)
  • 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion (1015 or yellow onion)
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro or parsley
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 seeded jalapeno pepper, minced (tone down the spice by substituting a dash of black pepper)
  • 2-3 dashes Tabasco sauce (What’s a dash?  For Tabasco, remove cap and tilt the bottle towards the pot;  shake the bottle hard, once. What comes out with that one shake is a dash.)

Make the sauce on the weekend or up to several days ahead to get this meal on the table quick at the end of a work day.  To make the sauce, combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pour into a sauce pan.  Turn on the heat to high and bring to a boil.  Keep stirring while you are heating the sauce to keep the sugar from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.  When the sauce reaches a boiling point, reduce the heat to simmer (2-3 on a scale of 1-10) and stir from time to time while you simmer the sauce for another 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to cool before storing.  If you are cooking the chicken right away, you can use the sauce warm, no need to let it cool.

Baking chicken doesn’t always produce a nice brown color.  To achieve a “grilled” look without a grill, heat a non-stick skillet on high heat for 30 seconds and spray with Pam and brown the chicken breasts for 2-3 minutes on each side.  This doesn’t cook them thoroughly, so don’t try to eat them now, this is just for color.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with Pam and transfer the browned chicken breasts to the baking dish.  Bake as is for 15 minutes, then cover with sauce and bake 15 more minutes. Cut through the thickest part of one of the breasts to make sure there is no pink inside.  If you see pink, cook 5 minutes more and check again. There should be no pink in completely cooked chicken breasts.

If you purchased butterflied chicken breasts, they are much thinner than regular boneless skinless breasts and will cook faster, add the sauce after 10 minutes and cook 10 minutes more.  Check for pinkness before turning off the oven.