How To Prepare Easy Oven-Baked Barbecue Chicken

Everyone loves delicious, tender barbecue chicken. But some factors can prevent you from making those juicy thighs when you want them. If you don’t have a grill or you are indoors, this technique can guarantee you make barbecue chicken easily in your oven.

A quick marinade in the barbecue sauce before roasting helps enhance the flavour and improve the tenderness of the chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 kg chicken legs or thighs
• 2 cups prepared barbecue sauce, divided
• Salt, to taste
• Ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp liquid smoke (optional)

Equipment needed

• Pastry brush
• Baking sheet
• Metal cooling rack

Method

1. To marinate the chicken, put it in a shallow baking dish and sprinkle with salt. Brush the legs generously with half of the barbecue sauce mixed with liquid smoke, if using. Cover and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes or overnight.
2. Set your broiler (the grill in your oven) on high and position a rack a few inches below. Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil and set a metal cooling rack inside.
3. Arrange the marinated chicken on the wire rack, leaving a little space between each leg.
4. Broil chicken on one side for about 5 to 7 minutes until you begin to see dark brown charred spots. Flip, and sear the second side for about 3 to 5 minutes until also browned.
5. Reduce the heat of the oven to 350F and reposition the rack in the middle of the oven.
6. Brush chicken all over with most of the remaining barbecue sauce. Leave a little more. Slide into the oven and bake for 15 m
7. Flip chicken and brush with the remaining sauce where needed. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes.
8. Serve chicken hot with extra barbecue sauce on the side.