Simple Oven BBQ Chicken

Simple Oven BBQ Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

1 chicken (4-5 lbs)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1-2 cups bbq sauce (your fav)

4 sprigs fresh thyme

Juice of 1 lime or lemon for washing the chicken.

* Optional, but you can add some pepper sauce or freshly cut scotch bonnet pepper in the mix to give it a wicked kick!

I’m good at taking apart a chicken, so cutting it into four pieces was not a problem. You can always ask your butcher or use chicken parts for this recipe. If you’re worried about the white meat going dry, rest assured that it won.  It will be the most moist, tender and juicy chicken breast you’ll ever have (that’s not brined). In a future episode on the Food FAQ cooking channel I’ll show you how to take apart a whole chicken.

You’ll be tempted to remove the skin from the chicken, but do leave it on. However, do trim off the fat and excess skin. Having the skin on, is one of the key things to having  tender and moist bbq chicken in the oven. Wash the chicken pieces with lemon juice and rinse with cool water. Pat dry and get ready to season

In a small bowl or plate, mix the salt, black pepper, cinnamon, dry mustard, allspice and fresh thyme, then work it on all the pieces of chicken. I know my Caribbean friends are probably saying that this is not fully seasoned, but trust me. Be sure to coat both sides of the chicken.

With your oven set at 375 F, place the baking dish with the seasoned chicken on the middle rack and let cook for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, tip the baking dish and spoon out any liquid/fat from the bottom of the dish (discard). In the picture you’ll notice that I lined the dish with foil to make the clean-up easier when I’m done. We need to get rid of all liquid as we want the bbq sauce to really stick to the pieces of chicken for that gooey goodness. Using your favorite store BBQ sauce, baste the chicken pieces and place back in the oven for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, turn the pieces of chicken over and give this side a nice coat of that BBQ sauce and back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

It’s time to flip it over again and give it a final coat of that luscious BBQ sauce. Be generous as we want this to sort of caramelize and form a sticky coating over the pieces of chicken. Back in the oven for 10 minutes. The last 3 minutes I turned on the broiler and got the perfect color on my BBQ chicken.