Best BBQ Sauce for Chicken
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This is our favorite BBQ sauce for chicken. It has the perfect balance of sweet and tangy, with a subtle hint of smokiness. It makes chicken taste amazing! It’s also quick to make and can be easily refined, sugar-free.
This is my favorite BBQ sauce for chicken. It has the perfect balance of sweet and tangy with just a subtle hint of smokiness, and it makes even the simplest chicken taste incredible. Best of all, it’s quick to make and keeps in your fridge for up to two weeks.
This sweet, tangy, smoky BBQ sauce isn’t just great on chicken—it’s delicious on just about anything you want to taste like BBQ. Once you make it, you’ll find yourself reaching for it again and again.
If you’re interested in making this refined sugar-free, use refined sugar-free ketchup and coconut sugar.
Here are a few ways to use this BBQ sauce
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.
- 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!
Best BBQ Sauce for Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup ketchup
- ½ cup brown sugar (or coconut sugar)
- ½ 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, ½ cup brown sugar, ½ 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.
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
I made this as stated but used brown sugar (as it says for a substitute). This is by far the best homemade BBQ sauce I have found. We use it on every type of meat! Pulled pork, ribs, beef, chicken, you name it. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
This is a keeper for us! We loved the balance and found that it was a very versatile base. I added a dash of allspice and used dried crushed red pepper instead of chili powder and minced garlic instead of dried garlic. We skipped the liquid smoke and it was a sweet-spicy dipping bbq sauce. Thanks so much for the awesome recipe!
When first made and after it cools does it have to be refrigerated? Thx
If you’re not using it right away then yes, it needs to be refrigerated.
I don’t have liquid smoke, is there anything else I can use or omit? Thanks
You can simply omit it.
I didn’t 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.
totally agree. I love a lot of vinegar but this is way over the top. I also didn’t have Sriracha and subbed Tiger sauce. Pretty good but way too much ACV
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. 🙂
Thee only BBQ sauce
Third time making
Thankyou
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. 🙂
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!