My grandma makes a mean barbecue chicken. I tried to duplicate her recipe at least four times just winging it and each time, it turned out so-so…nothing like Grandma’s, which is falling-off-the-bone tender, nicely browned and sweetly sticky. For my most recent attempt, I smartened up and called her to find out exactly what she does to make her barbecue chicken taste amazing every time. Get the printable recipe for Grandma’s Barbecue Chicken below, and don’t come crying to me if you skip a step or substitute an ingredient and it doesn’t turn out awesome. The devil’s in the details.
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How to make Grandma’s Barbecue Chicken Recipe—no substitutions allowed!
- Use bone in, skin on chicken. [See: “don’t come crying to me”, above.]
- Yes, you have to put the onions on top, even if everybody hates onions.
- Don’t be chintzy: use the whole bottle of barbecue sauce.
- Line your baking dish with foil, then with parchment, or you’ll be scrubbing all night.
- No, you can’t make it in the crockpot. No.
- For the love of all things holy, don’t try to microwave it.
- Cover it with foil, even if foil freaks you out.
- You need 2 hours start to finish to make this recipe right. The chicken will be cooked through to 160° in about one hour, but hour #2 is where the magic happens: blackened, bubbly, sticky tenderness.
- High Fructose Corn Syrup is the Devil, and it’s ingredient #1 or #2 in most barbecue sauces. The KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce at Costco does not have HFCS (but just use 2 cups, not the whole Costco-size bottle!). Stubb’s Original Legendary Bar-B-Q Sauce is made with cane sugar. A Paleo barbecue sauce made with date syrup would be ideal, but making that adds time, and the beauty of this recipe is how easy it is: dump, cook, and devour.
- Double check your barbecue sauce label and ingredients list to make sure it’s gluten free.
Print Grandma’s Barbecue Chicken recipe:
- 3 lbs bone in, skin on chicken
- salt and pepper
- 1 bottle barbecue sauce (about 18 oz)
- 1 large onion, peeled and sliced into rings.
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Line a 4 qt (10x15x2) baking dish with foil, then with parchment.
- Arrange chicken in a single layer.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Pour barbecue sauce over the chicken.
- Cover the chicken with the rings of onion.
- Cover the baking dish with foil.
- Bake at 350° for 1:45–2 hours, until chicken is very brown and tender.
The ubiquitous 11×13 Pyrex baking dish is a little too small to make 3 lbs of chicken, so I use this 10×15 baking dish. The photos show a disposable baking pan, because I made this dish to take to a friend with a new baby! If you use a disposable pan, you don’t need to line it with foil, but do use parchment so the sauce doesn’t burn to the pan.