I call this dish Berry Chicken. It’s an oven-baked or BBQ Chicken coated in a sweet, smokey, tangy kind of BBQ Sauce.
It is a BBQ Sauce that, when you make it, is extremely potent and carrying the aroma well outside your house. I love it! Everyone will know, you making BBQ Tonight. People are going to walk by your house, smell what you’re cooking, and all of a sudden start craving BBQ. Once you know how to make this sauce. You will be making it all the time.
The trick is to layer the BBQ Sauce on and give it some time to adhere. Then coat in another layer of BBQ Sauce. Building the layers up before serving.
Make sure you have some napkins close by, this gets messy good.
Chicken
Chicken Quarters separated or just Thighs and/or Legs. Trim off any excess Fat & Skin, place these into a Ziploc bag, and freeze to use for other recipes later where the fat and Skin can be rendered out.
Chicken Quarter
Check my post for How to Prepare Chicken, which discusses how to Clean and Trim, as well as Break down a Whole Chicken into pieces.
Cleaning Chicken Quarters
The main thing is to scrape out the internal organs with Chicken Quarters if the backbone is attached.
Berry BBQ Sauce
Make the Berry BBQ Sauce before cooking the Chicken or during, so that it is ready when lacquering the BBQ Sauce towards the end of cooking.
How Thick or Thin the BBQ Sauce is will determine how well it lacquers on the Chicken. Depending on the consistency, more or less time will be needed. Generally for a lacquering you want the sauce to be on the thick side, just like a BBQ sauce. For Glazing on the thin side.
Berry BBQ Sauce
- 1 C French’s Ketchup
- 1 C Red Wine Vinegar
- 1/2 C White Sugar
- 1/4 C Molasses
- 2 tsp Liquid Smoke
- 1 tsp Sea Salt – or Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder – each
- Combine all Ingredients into a pot, whisk well and bring to boil over max heat. Be careful, this can boil over if it gets too hot.
- Reduce heat and simmer on medium to medium low, whisking once in a while, until desired consistency, about 15–20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Lacquered BBQ Sauce
With a Lacquered BBQ Chicken, you want to cook the Chicken mostly through. Then brush the BBQ Sauce on 1 – 2 times while you finish cooking the Chicken. Just to get the BBQ Sauce to stick and create a base to which you can start lacquering or building up the layers of BBQ Sauce.
Once the Chicken is ready, place the oven on broil. The high heat will caramelize additional layers of applied BBQ sauce in minutes. Which will cause it to go tacky, to which another layer can be brushed on. It’s this layered caramelized BBQ Sauce that makes this Barbecue Chicken so messy good.
Equipment
- 1 Broiler Pan
- 1 Sauce Pot
- 1 BBQ Bowl and Brush
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken Quarters - Cleaned, Trimmed and Washed.
Berry BBQ Sauce
- 1 C French's Ketchup & Red Wine Vinegar - each
- 1/2 C White Sugar
- 1/4 C Molasses
- 2 tsp Liquid Smoke
- 1 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper, Garlic Powder & Onion Powder - each
Instructions
- Preheat the Oven to 375 F with the rack in middle position.Combine all Ingredients for the Berry BBQ Sauce into a pot, whisk well and bring to boil over max heat. Be careful, this can boil over if it gets too hot. Reduce heat and simmer on medium to medium low, whisking once in a while, until desired consistency, about 15–20 minutes.
- Clean the Chicken and trim off any excess fat.Place into the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes. Brush on your first coat of BBQ Sauce, flip chicken over and brush the other side. Cook for another 10 minutes.Brush on your second coat, flip Chicken over and brush the other side. Cook for another 5–8 minutes.
- At this point, we're going to build up the layered BBQ Sauce pretty fast. Turn your oven to broil. Flip the Chicken over so what ever side you want displayed is facing up.Brush on a coat and cook until the sauce becomes tacky and bubbly, a few minutes. Repeat brushing on the BBQ sauce when the previous layer is tacky, just a few minutes.