Everyone desires a great, thick barbecue glaze adhered to the skin of their grilled barbecue chicken, and the only way to achieve this is to brush the glaze on as the chicken cooks. However, due to its high sugar content, barbecue sauce quickly turns from brick red to solid black, so you need to be careful! I rapidly sear the skin, then cook it skin-side up on a covered grill, brushing on the glaze as it cooks to achieve a sticky, sweet glaze that is not charred. The glaze never makes contact with the grilling surface, thus it never burns.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 40 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, cut into halves
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ cup barbecue sauce, or as needed
Instructions
- Cut 1/2-inch deep slashes in the skin-side of each chicken half: two cuts in each breast, two in each thigh, and one in each leg. Remove wing tips.
- Whisk vinegar, 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce, and garlic together in a large bowl. Place chicken in the bowl and turn to coat. Arrange chicken halves in the bottom of the bowl with the cut sides down; cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil the grate.
- Remove chicken from the bowl and pat dry with paper towels; discard any remaining marinade. Place chicken halves, skin-side up, on a plate and season with salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, and cayenne pepper.
- Cook chicken, skin-side down, on the preheated grill until grill marks appear, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn chicken over, close the grill lid, and cook, basting with remaining barbecue sauce every 6 minutes, until no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear, about 35 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, near the bone should read 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 464 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 11 g |
| Cholesterol | 149 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 48 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 1583 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 24 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I was planning on making chicken tonight and this recipe popped into my in box. Sweet. My only mistake is that I added all of the seasonings in the marinade. No big deal, when I removed the chicken from the marinade, I just patted it dry and added more pepper, salt and smoked paprika. I also used a ziplock bag instead of a bowl. Setting the grill to medium high keeps the flare ups to a minimum, but I needed more than 40 minutes to get the internal temp up to 165 degrees. This was one of the best BBQ chicken recipes I have ever used, it will be a keeper and in my normal rotation. Thanks Chef John!
I did not make any changes
it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good
Simply wonderful with my homemade BBQ Sauce
Love this recipe! I think the addition of rice vinegar to the marinade, helps elevate this (I confess that I haven’t made this with rice vinegar, as I have never had some on hand, So I’ve used red wine vinegar, or white wine vinegar), whatever I have had on hand; Still turns out amazing. Everyone that I have served this to has absolutely loved it.
Simply delicious! We paired it with corn on the cob and had a small barbecue. March 8, 2022.
This was perfect! I don’t do well with onion and garlic so that was left out but other than that, we followed recipe/directions. Amazing! Chef John never disappoints!
The key is only flip 1 time and cook skin side up after 3 minutes on skin side first.
Tried this for our Memorial Day barbecue! It turned out delicious! I wouldn’t change a thing! My whole family gave it a thumbs up! I can make it again. Made a homemade pasta salad and some grilled fresh asparagus. Simple and delectable! Thank you Chef John!
This was exceptionally good. We grilled it outside in 10 degree weather in northern Minnesota- first time we tried this recipe- and it received great compliments from our guests. Thank you Chef John
This is so delicious! I have made this a couple of times. I recommend not marinating more than the hour, chicken will be too vinegary.
Since grill temps are highly variable, I’ve been having the most luck keeping mine between 350 and 400. Rufus Teague’s Touch o Heat sauce has done wonders for me. Perfect blend of heat and sugars.
Chicken was so moist & tender. I used bone in chicken breast and leg quarters.I will definitely use this recipe again.
My husband made this for dinner and it was amazing!! Best BBQ chicken I have ever had by far! We used split chicken breast and Stubbs original BBQ sauce. It’s a new family favorite.
Omg, so delicious
Be very careful with the medium high heat. I ended up torching the skin in the first 3-4 minutes and had to pull it off. I ended up turning my grill way down, and then it takes FOREVER to cook bone in chicken pieces. I ended up finishing the big breast pieces in the oven. The thighs were still a little pink after 40 minutes. All that said, the flavor was terrific! I might wrap the pieces in foil next time and do the sauce thing at the end.
It was pretty good I would make it again I just think the whole process took longer than necicary
Best barbecued chicken I ever made.
Mercy sakes alive this was the best barbecue chicken ever. I have never had success with barbecuing chicken until I tried this recipe. I followed recipe exactly as written. Cooked to perfection. The meat was very moist throughout. The rub had a nice kick without being overly hot or spicy. I used Sweet Baby Rays original barbecue sauce. This is definitely a keeper. Thank you Chef John.
Excellent recipe. I used bone in chicken thighs with skin. Marinated for several hours. After grilling the chicken for 4 minutes skin side down I turned the grill down to medium/low to finish grilling for the remaining 30 minutes.
I love this recipe. I even prepare boneless chicken breasts this way. They come out delicious. I skipped the cayenne pepper, use way less salt, add few pinches of creole seasoning in place of those.