Pioneer Woman’s Barbecue Chicken

This is my second this-has-absolutely-nothing-to-do-with-Easter-or-Passover recipe of the week. Welcome to my world!

I made barbecue chicken a few days ago, and instead of grabbing one of the four million delicious bottled options in my pantry (can someone explain to me why I have four million bottles of barbecue sauce in my pantry?) I decided just to whip up my own. Delicious storebought barbecue sauces are available everywhere, and I tend to think it’s one of those convenience foods that’s often just as good as something you can make at home. Still, the first time I made my own barbecue sauce (it was a necessity; I’d brought home five pounds of brisket and sausage from our local barbecue joint and discovered that we were plum out of sauce at the house, which is probably why I felt the need to stockpile my pantry with four million bottles. Mystery solved!) it was surprisingly good. Most of the time, I still grab a bottle from the pantry. But when time permits, it really is fun to whip up a batch from scratch. The great thing about making your own sauce is, you can churn out exactly the sauce you want.

And it makes you feel empowered. A nice little added benefit.

I like barbecue sauce that’s very vinegary and very sweet at the same time. I like it dark and flavorful. And I like it spicy.

Here’s how I make it.

Begin with a bunch of chicken. I’m a dark meat girl, and I love legs. Oh, how I love legs. But you can do thighs, too. You can also do both. Or you can do neither. You can do breasts, if you prefer white meat. But if you do breasts, please do bone-in breasts with the skin…not the boneless, skinless buttheads. Or you can if you want. Or you can’t if you don’t want. Or you can’t not if you don’t not want.

Never mind. In any event, throw the chicken onto a pan like the one you see above (so the grease can drain) and roast them in a 425 degree oven for about twenty minutes.

While the chicken is roasting, dice up a little onion (not much, just a little) and a couple of cloves of garlic. Add them to a saucepan with a little oil.

Stir them around and cook them over medium-low heat for five minutes or so…

Until they’re translucent and flavorful.

Next, grab this stuff: ketchup, brown sugar, white vinegar, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, salt…and that mysterious red substance.

Can you guess what it is?

It’s the sauce from…

A can of chipotle peppers. So, basically, adobo sauce that a bunch of smoky chipotles have been swimming in.

And here’s why I used it: it’s smoky. There are some things like this that I’d just spike with a little Liquid Smoke (my brisket recipe has it) but I like the tangy red spice of the adobo sauce. It adds a smokiness and a spiciness at once, but the spiciness isn’t overwhelming. It’s like adding chipotles without adding chipotles.

Amen.

To the saucepan with the onions and garlic, add ketchup and brown sugar…

Molasses for depth of color, consistency, and flavor…

Worcestershire…

Vinegar…

And a note: I added enough vinegar to really taste that bite, but you can certainly pull back on this quantity.

And the chipotle adobo stuff and a dash of salt.

Stir it all together, then reduce the heat to low and simmer while the chicken roasts.

It’ll get nice and bubbly and wonderful. When the chicken’s ready, turn off the heat.

Back to the Chicken: After the chicken has roasted 20 minutes, crank up the broiler to high and broil the chicken for 5 minutes, just to give it a little color on top. Then remove the chicken from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. The chicken is done at this point, but we’re going to return it to the oven with the sauce in a second.

Use tongs to dunk each chicken legs into the sauce, submerging it completely.

Place the coated chicken back onto the pan, then return the chicken to the oven for five minutes, just to anchor this base of sauce onto the chicken.

This is five minutes later. See how we’ve made sort of a “base” of barbecue sauce?

Finally, brush or dab plenty of extra sauce all over the legs.

Lay it on thick, making sure to get some chunks of onion involved. Then just let the chicken sit for awhile before serving. It only gets more and more delicious.

And that, my friends, is some darn good barbecue chicken. Stand at the counter and just snarf it all straight from the pan, or serve it with salad and bread for a yummy meal.

Be sure to play with the barbecue sauce to make it your own: spice it up or down, depending on how you like it. Add diced jalapenos to the sauce, or whiskey, or maple syrup, or different spices. It’s all yours, baby.

Enjoy!