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This honey bbq chicken is sure to be a hit at your next barbecue! There is something about making your own sauce that makes your food taste so much better!
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This honey bbq chicken is so great for family barbecues! Plus the homemade honey barbecue sauce is amazing and easy to make! So much better than anything that you can buy at the store. Think fewer preservatives and more great flavor! Our homemade honey bbq sauce is sweet and tangy and just delicious, we smothered it all over our chicken.
We made this chicken with our favorite pesto potatoes and it was a delicious dinner! It would also be perfect to cut up over a salad. This chicken with bbq is the perfect combination and can be used as a main dish or an addition to other meals as well. The flavor of the chicken will make your tastebuds scream!
Honey Barbecue Chicken Ingredients
You can’t go wrong when grilling chicken with this honey barbecue sauce. The combination is amazing and fills your sweet and savory tastebuds! It is simple to grill the chicken and make the sauce within 30 minutes. It is a quick and easy dinner meal that your whole family will love!
- Chicken breasts – I like to pound the boneless skinless chicken breasts a little before I grill them so it cooks evenly.
- Vegetable oil – Add this to the pan to saute the garlic and sauce ingredients.
- Garlic – Cooking the garlic in the vegetable oil will leave the inside of the pan with even more flavoring when making the honey bbq sauce.
- Ketchup – Most homemade bbq sauces start with ketchup as one of the main ingredients. This is the base, the coloring, as well as the tomato flavoring. It is an easy condiment to pour into the sauce.
- Apple cider vinegar – A bit sour but helps with the other liquid ingredients and combines them all together.
- Brown sugar – Everyone loves brown sugar and the sweetness it gives!
- Honey – We always like getting fresh, local honey. There are so many great health benefits to buying local honey. Plus, local honey just tastes better than store-bought. You just can’t beat it!
- Worcestershire sauce – Hard to pronounce but does leave the best flavors in sauces. It has main flavors that combine together adding so much flavor to the bbq sauce.
- Yellow mustard – Mustard blends very well with honey and gives that tangy and sweet taste to the sauce.
- Soy sauce – Salty and slightly bitter taste that balances out the ingredients giving the sauce more liquid to help it baste easier.
- Chili powder – Added in for a little bit of heat!
How To Make Honey BBQ Chicken
Making the honey bbq chicken is a simple process of preparing your chicken, then making the honey barbecue mixture to baste over top the chicken while it is grilling. Use a thermometer to check on the chicken before taking it off the grill. This will leave a tender and juicy chicken every time!
- Cook – In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the vegetable oil. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the remaining sauce ingredients, whisk together, and bring to a boil.
- Simmer – Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Set aside. Pour ½ of the sauce into a small bowl for basting the chicken.
- Grill – Place the chicken on the grill at medium-high heat, you want to cook it for 7 to 10 minutes on each side. It tastes best if you only turn it once.
- Baste and serve – Baste generously with a small bowl of sauce every 3 or 4 minutes. Once the temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit, place the chicken on a baking sheet to let cool before serving. Serve with the remaining sauce on the side for dipping.
Cooked to Perfection
Being a perfectionist when it comes to grilled chicken is a MUST. Chicken can easily be underdone or become overdone with grilling if done improperly. Don’t cut into the chicken to check for doneness. That will ruin your chicken and the juices will burn into the grill rather than keep the chicken moist and juicy when it reaches the internal temperature. Using a digital-read thermometer will help bake the best chicken on the grill or in the oven.
“This is my go-to BBQ sauce since it was first posted years ago. I’ve grilled it, roasted it, used an air fryer for it and even pan fry it. It’s used on chicken, steaks and even ribs. Friends and family have always asked for this recipe after tasting it. Thank you for sharing this recipe!”
-IR
Frequently Asked Questions
The honey bbq sauce is made of ketchup, tomato puree, honey, garlic powder, onion powder, and apple cider vinegar. There may be more or less in addition to this list of ingredients depending on the recipe.
Honey bbq sauce incorporates more honey-based flavors that blend well and have a thicker sauce base. Honey powder, brown sugar, and molasses powder usually are the main ingredients in honey bbq sauce whereas sweet bbq is more of seasonings and has fewer ingredients. The base of a sweet bbq sauce is usually homemade bbq sauce then added sweet seasonings are.
Depending on the type and cut of the chicken pieces you have depends on the temperature of the chicken. Most chicken is cooked or needs to be cooked to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. For a whole chicken, cook to 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Yes, this sauce would make great Honey BBQ Chicken Wings. Its also great on chicken tenders or strips or chicken thighs.
Add a little sriracha or cayenne pepper to the sauce to give it a little kick.
More Great BBQ Recipes
Try some of these other recipes for your next big BBQ as well. These are our favorite side dishes that complete a bbq meal or enjoy another delicious bbq recipe with ribs. You can’t go wrong with any of them!
How to Make BBQ Chicken
Honey BBQ Chicken
Video
Equipment
- Outdoor Barbecue Grill
Ingredients
- 6 chicken breasts
For the sauce:
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 3/4 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 tablespoons Worcetershire sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
Instructions
Honey BBQ Sauce:
- In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the vegetable oil. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the remaining sauce ingredients and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer about 15 minutes. Set aside. Pour ½ of the sauce in a small bowl for basting the chicken.
Grilling the Chicken:
- I like to pound the chicken a little before I grill it so it cooks evenly. Grill the chicken on medium high heat, you want to cook it 7 to 10 minutes on each side. It tastes best if you only turn it once. Baste generously with the small bowl of sauce every 3 or 4 minutes.
- Serve with the remaining sauce on the side for dipping.
Just wanted to say thanks!
I haven’t made it yet, but I gave a five star rating for the recipe truly sounds authentic. I do have a question, my Husband is the one who grills in the family and would like to know your tips on how he should grill the chicken in this Honey BBQ recipe. Should he use a low heat, medium or high heat? Should he start out with low and end on high heat? All he knows is how to season and grill chicken for BBQ, without using any sauces. He once tried to grill chicken with a soy sauce once, but burnt the chicken and the sauce. I’d like to do it right for the recipe sounds right on the money for a delicious BBQ dinner! Thank you!
Make sure to oil the grill before adding the chicken and grill over medium heat! Keep some extra BBQ sauce beside the grill to brush over the chicken if it looks a little dry.
Great! I just finished it last night and the result was unexpected, My wife loves it. She got surprised. Yeah. I am going to try this for my friends too. Nice. Thanks for your guide.
Had my tastebuds doing a happy dance! 😛
As Pooh would say, “time for something sweet” & I say, this did not disappoint 🙂
barbecue is perhaps the the most iconic American food that has regional flavours similar to the country itself barbecue, from the smoked brisket of Central Texas and the sticky ribs of Memphis to Kansas City’s burned ends and vinegar-and-mustard-sauced pork from the Carolinas. The cult cuisine has more than meets the eyes.
I made your recipe at home very tasty. Please add more.
I love a good BBQ chicken recipe and this is absolutely delicious. Thank you!
Absolutely delicious and it came together so easily – love the honey in the sauce omgsh so good.
Grill was broken so we fried it in the sauce in the frying pan and covered with the lid. The chicken was so tender. Definitely recommend frying!
This is my go-to BBQ sauce since it was first posted years ago. I’ve grilled it, roasted it, air fry it and even pan fry it. It’s used on chicken, steaks and even ribs. Friends and family have always asked for this recipe after tasting it. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Thank you so much for the 5-star rating! We are so glad you love this recipe as much as we do!
I love the idea of never having to buy a jar of bbq sauce ever again. What a great way to save some money without giving up the tangy flavor of homemade bbq sauce.
This was a huge hit at my house!! Love that sauce!
Oh my goodness does this sauce look and sound incredible. Perfect for the chicken.
This is such a delicious BBQ sauce! I could drink it! Can’t wait to make some more!
I don’t have a grill. Neither do i have a crock pot. Can i fry the chicken in a pan? Would that be okay?
Yes! I actually had someone tell me they tried frying it in a pan and it worked out great!
I completely agree about not cutting meat to see if it’s done!! It drives me nuts. That said, I can’t get over how easy the barbecue sauce is and how amazing it looks with the chicken! Thanks for sharing.
Honey and meat is great combination! It really makes meat soft and juicy! Thank you I will try this recipe!
GLUTEN FREE SOY SAUCE
If you dont want to bbq it, what about baking the chicken? My problem is that I have an event at noon, and dont want to be cooking it at the last minute. Can I bbq it the night before and heat it up in the oven the next day? Thanks so much!
I don’t see why not. Sometimes cooking it and than reheating in a crack pot keeps it from getting dried out.
I don’t have a grill and am wondering how putting it in the crock pot might work?
I haven’t tried it in the crockpot, but I am sure it would work!
You have 1/4-cup honey listed twice… (?)
Thanks! I will fix that.