One of the great things about summer is delicious, barbecued food. Burgers, hot dogs, and, my favorite barbecued chicken. Alas, I only eat actually barbecued food when I’ve been invited over to a friend’s house for the evening. I have no outdoor space at my humble abode, which means I don’t have a grill 🙁
But! I’ve had a great deal of success making barbecue-style chicken in my oven. This is actually one of my favorite recipes and I make it all year ’round, so I thought I’d share it! They key to making this recipe frugal is getting the chicken breasts on sale. When Safeway or Giant is having a sale on boneless, skinless chicken breasts I make sure to stock up and freeze them in individual portions. If you’re not using this strategy, start today!
The other great thing about this recipe is that you only need three ingredients and it’s super easy to throw together. And did I mention tasty? Anyway, here you have it:
Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
About 3/4 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce
Half of a small red onion
Instructions:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. If the breasts are on the thick side (ha ha!), pound them down a little bit so that they’ll cook evenly. This also tenderizes the meat a bit. When the breasts are at an appropriate thickness (ha!) arrange them in a small Pyrex baking dish (coated with cooking spray) so that they aren’t overlapping.
3. Coarsely chop the onion and sprinkle it over the chicken.
4. Pour the BBQ sauce over the chicken – you can adjust the amount of sauce to your liking. I probably use closer to a full cup because I like the chicken to be well-coated in sauce.
5. Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.
I like to serve this chicken with a pasta salad or baked potato. The other great thing about this recipe is that it re-heats really well and can be made into all kinds of delicious leftover recipes. I really like it for lunch over a green salad with ranch dressing, but it’s also good on pizza, or as a sandwich or wrap. Yum!
Happy Friday!
