BBQ chicken made with chicken quarters oven-fried until crispy and then lacquered with your favorite BBQ sauce. It's a simple dish where the type of BBQ sauce can be switched up for different versions. While this is an oven BBQ chicken recipe. You can certainly BBQ or grill the chicken until done and crispy and then slather on that BBQ sauce. That's the secret to really good BBQ chicken. Cook it up crispy first and then apply the sauce.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken Quarters - Cleaned and trimmed
- 1/4 C Fat - to brush the chicken, use melted lard, or neutral oil
- 1 portion Sweet Chili Tang BBQ Sauce - or other BBQ sauce, see notes
Salt & Pepper Blend
- 1 Tbl Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp White Pepper
Instructions
- Chicken Quarters: Clean and trim the chicken; crack the joints to let in more heat and for easier eating. Place the chicken onto a thick-bottom roasting pan, presentation side up. For easier cleanup, line with foil and brush with fat to prevent sticking. Season with the salt & pepper blend and set aside until the oven is heated.
- Crispy Oven Chicken: Preheat the oven to 400°F with the rack in the middle position. Dab the chicken generously with fat and transfer to the oven to cook for 40 minutes. Brush the chicken with fat from the pan again or additional oil about halfway through.
- BBQ Sauce: While the chicken is cooking, prepare the BBQ sauce. Keep the BBQ sauce thin if you plan on glazing the chicken, or cook longer to reduce to a thick BBQ sauce for lacquering.
- BBQ Lacquered Chicken: After 40 minutes to crisp the chicken, then the BBQ sauce is applied. Flip the chicken over, presentation side down, and dab only the backside with BBQ sauce. Place back into the oven for about 5 minutes. This will tack up the BBQ sauce while crisping up the presentation in leftover fat in the pan. Dab again with BBQ sauce and flip over to brush the presentation side with BBQ sauce and back in the oven for 5 minutes. Brush the top again and back in for 5 minutes or thereabouts. Remove and let rest before serving. You can optionally broil to get a really hardened tack and char when applying the BBQ sauce for lacquering. Keep it at 400°F for glazed BBQ chicken.