Best BBQ Sauce for Chicken
This is our favorite BBQ sauce for chicken. It has the perfect balance between sweet and tangy with a little hint of smokiness. It makes chicken taste amazing! It's also quick to make and easily refined sugar-free.
If you're a fan of BBQ chicken recipes, try our Smoky Gochujang Korean BBQ Chicken or our Grilled Chicken Wings. Both are delicious!
THIS. Yes, this sweet, tangy, smoky, and oh so tasty BBQ sauce that is perfect for chicken. Or perfect for nearly everything you want to taste like delicious BBQ.
How to make the best BBQ sauce for chicken
- Put the ingredients into a pot.
- Let it simmer for 10 minutes.
And just like that, you'll have better BBQ sauce than anything you'll find in a store. So easy!
Full recipe in the recipe card below.
READ MORE: Baked BBQ Chicken
Of course, you can use BBQ sauce to marinate your chicken before you throw them on the grill, but it has so many more uses.
Here are a few ways to use this BBQ sauce
- Pour it over chicken thighs and bake them in the oven.
- Sear a juicy steak and then add this BBQ sauce at the very end, just long enough to warm it up.
- Brush it onto veggies before you grill them.
- Coat the inside of a portobello mushroom in this BBQ sauce, pop it on the grill then use it as a delicious meatless burger patty.
- Mix a small spoonful into some ranch dressing and use it to smother your burger.
- Mix it into some mayonnaise and make a special dip for your fries.
- Add some to your potato salad for a smoky BBQ potato salad.
- Simmer meatballs in it and serve them as an appetizer. Mmm BBQ meatballs!
Popular BBQ recipes
- Juicy Grilled Pork Chops
- Grilled Garlic Butter Mushrooms
- Best Grilled Chicken Breast
- Grilled Hawaiian Chicken Skewers
Best BBQ Sauce for Chicken Recipe
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 1 cup ketchup, refined sugar-free, if needed
- Ā½ cup coconut sugar, can sub brown sugar
- Ā½ cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons EACH: dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, and sriracha
- 1 teaspoon EACH: garlic powder, onion powder, and chili powder
- 6 drops liquid smoke
Instructions
- Whisk the ingredients in a small pot over medium-high heat. Bring the pot to a boil then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Prop the lid over the pot to prevent splatters but do not cover the pot completely.1 cup ketchup, Ā½ cup coconut sugar, Ā½ cup apple cider vinegar, 2 teaspoons EACH: dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, and sriracha, 1 teaspoon EACH: garlic powder, onion powder, and chili powder, 6 drops liquid smoke
- Remove the pot from the heat and allow the bbq sauce to cool before using or storing it.
Notes
Pin this BBQ sauce for chicken recipe!
I don’t have liquid smoke, is there anything else I can use or omit? Thanks
You can simply omit it.
I didnāt have liquid smoke, so I subbed the chili powder for chipotle chili powder. Worked quite well, lots of smoky flavor
Just made this and the only thing I did different was that I put some soy sauce in there as well which really made it pop even better.
Can you omit the liquid smoke if you are grilling the chicken low and slow?
I would definitely use much less vinegar. There’s already vinegar in the worchestshire and mustard so you don’t need so much ACV straight. I had to add tomato sauce to cut the vinegar after tasting it as-is. Thanks though, besides the vinegar this was a decent base.
I made this using Purecane as a substitute for brown sugar and low sugar ketchup. This is truly the best barbeque sauce on the planet.
I tried this sauce recipe yesterday and it was so good. I made my chicken on my electric grill and used this sauce on it. It was so delicious. Thanks for sharing!!
Hi how are u chef,im interest to cook new recipe .thanks to u
I am so excited to make this! Sounds wonderful.
What do you recommend using for a sugar substitute? I’m going sugar-free and will take any suggestions.
I would try blending dates into the sauce. š
Thee only BBQ sauce
Third time makingĀ
ThankyouĀ
We used this tonight on pulled chicken sliders and it was amazing, thank you for sharing. How long will it keep for it the fridge?
It will keep for at least a week (probably closer to 10 days) in your frdge. š
Made this for some grilled chicken cause I ran out of bbq sauce and didn’t want to run to the store. The flavor was great and it was pretty simple to make. Thanks for saving dinner!
Made this yesterday and it was SO GOOD! I used it to bake some chicken and my kids went back for seconds which never happens when I cook chicken. This will be a staple for us!
Love it! That’s so great to hear!
This was sooo good and sooo easy to make! And in my opinion it makes more than 6 servings. We made it in an Instant Pot and added 15 mins per hour to the cooking time. It came out perfectly.
That is wonderful to hear, Diane!