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This White Barbecue Chicken is sure to become a new crowd favorite at all of your cookouts this summer!
As promised, today we’re sharing our recipe for White Barbecue Chicken. It uses that deliciously zesty White Barbecue Sauce recipe that we shared yesterday, and the chicken comes out super juicy and so flavorful! I’m even going to go as far as saying, I may never cook with red barbecue sauce ever again!
How do you make White Barbecue Chicken?
We started by mixing up a double batch of the White Barbecue Sauce (also sometimes called Alabama White BBQ Sauce) – and then used some of the sauce as a marinade for the chicken.
Once the chicken marinated for about four hours, we were ready to grill. I should note here that you do want to brush off any excess marinade before grilling because the sauce will burn before the chicken fully cooks through. But don’t worry – once the chicken is tender and juicy, you’ll brush on more of that white barbecue sauce toward the end of the cooking time, giving this White Barbecue Chicken more of that fantastic zesty flavor!
We also serve our White Barbecue Chicken with more sauce on the side – dabbing a little bit on the grilled, caramelized skin. The zesty flavors in the creamy sauce together with the grilled chicken are absolutely fantastic!
Can I make this recipe using other types of chicken pieces?
You bet! This recipe works equally as well with chicken wings or other chicken pieces as it does with bone-in chicken breasts.
In fact, we made white barbecue chicken wings for a recent cookout, and they were the hit of the party. (We should have doubled the recipe). Enjoy!
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White Barbecue Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 cups White Barbecue Sauce, see recipe here
- 4 large skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts (ours were almost a pound each)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Prepare a double batch of the White Barbecue Sauce, recipe here. Use two cups as the marinade and reserve one cup to cook the chicken and one cup to serve on the side.
- Place the four breasts in a gallon zip lock bag with two cups of the White Barbecue Sauce and marinate four hours or overnight.
- Heat grill to high.
- Remove chicken from bag and discard marinade. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.
- Brush three tablespoons of olive oil over the skin and sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
- Place skin down on the hot grill and cook two to three minutes just to give grill marks. Brush the back side with the remaining oil and flip. Cook two minutes.
- Move the chicken to an upper rack or a cooler side of the grill, skin up and lower the temperature to medium. The internal grill heat with cover closed should hover around 425 degrees F.
- Take the one cup of White Barbecue Sauce and brush a small amount onto the tops of the breasts. Cover grill and wait five minutes. Brush again and again close the lid and time five minutes.
- Do this one more time. (Each time you do this, the sauce cooks into the chicken and eventually the tops get crispy and caramelized.)
- After the final sauce goes on, cover the grill and cook another 10-20 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches between 160 and 162 degrees F, using a probe thermometer. (The internal temp of the chicken should rise to 165 degrees F as it rests.) Total cooking time should be about 30 minutes but your time may vary based on the size of the breast.
- Remove to a platter, brush a little of the remaining sauce on top and let rest five minutes.
- Serve with the reserved cup of White Barbecue Sauce.
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Made the chicken tonight, it was fabulous! I experimented, I made some breasts with skin an bone and some boneless skinless breasts. I marinated some and rinsed as directed, I left one unrinsed to see if it would burn and I tried with just putting the marinade during cooking. We definitely liked the marinated chicken breasts with the bone and skin, for me I wouldn’t rinse them as the one I didn’t rinse did not burn (maybe I was just lucky). The boneless skinless weren’t bad, they just were not as good as the bone in and skin chicken. Hopefully this helps someone. I will be making this chicken for 4th of July party! Thanks for posting the recipe!
Thanks for sharing your results Laura! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Can I cook this in the oven
Sure Janet – after it’s baked through, if you still want it crispier, just put your chicken under the broiler for a minute or two.
I’m trying this, today, with boneless chicken breasts… my son hates bone-in chicken 😉
Can’t wait to taste it!!!!
Hope you both enjoy the sauce Tammy!
People nor restaurants in Alabama marinate the chicken with the white sauce. I tried it. Certainly not needed . And I have been eating for 60 years
Thanks for your feedback Susan!
Can you bake this chicken instead of grilling and if so how long? Looks yummy!!!!!
Hi Juanita – Sure – You can bake the chicken. Ideally you want to use a probe thermometer to see the internal temperature (and also chicken breasts will take longer than smaller pieces like thighs, legs or wings), but if you are only baking chicken breasts, at the same 425 degrees, I’m estimating the cook time will be around 30-40 minutes depending on the size of the breasts.)
wow what an amazing tasting bbq sauce. I have to start by saying that I truly do not like premade BBQ sauces but when I came across this one I thought well I shall make this for my friend. Also I really usually hate anything with vinegar. OMG OMG OMG this was fabulous. I could not find horseradish sauce but I did find a mustard with it in it. So I made with drumsticks and instead of a grill I used my oven at 425 and 20 min times three basting every 10 minutes. I ate three.
Thank you – .So glad you enjoyed the recipe Angela!
Recipe looks amazing! How would this work if i decided to put the chicken in the oven? At what temperature and how long would you recommend? Thanks!
Hi Dan – Sure – you can roast the chicken breasts in the oven – I’d suggest a slightly higher temp such as 375 degrees F, and since the size of chicken breasts at the store can vary so much – the cook time will vary. We’d still recommend using a probe thermometer to judge the timing but I’m guessing it will take at least 20 minutes to cook through (or longer). Since you do want some caramelization, you can also put the chicken under the broiler for a couple of minutes toward the end of the cook time. Hope that helps!
When you say rinse the chicken after soaking in marinade, that means under water and completely removing the sauce on it?
Hi Shrese – Yes – much of the flavor gets into the chicken during the marinating process. And you’ll also add more sauce once the chicken is cooked (this white sauce would burn while grilling if you left it on the chicken the entire time it cooked on your grill). Hope that helps clarify! Enjoy!
I have never rinsed marinade off any an type of meat before grilling. It doesn’t make sense.
Hi Nancy – Thanks for your comment. In this case, we did that to ensure that any remnants of the marinade didn’t burn as the chicken was grilled.
Thank you.
Hey there! Could you try this on a combo of cast iron skillet and oven, do you think?
Hi Caitlin – Yes – that should work! Enjoy!
Good Morning! I love your blog! I’m from Decatur, AL; so, I have eaten at Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ numerous times over the years and had many variations of the White BBQ Sauce (which I love); so, I can’t wait to try your recipe. The White Sauce is also super awesome on Pulled Pork. My Grandma made her own white sauce and always put the mason jar on the table whenever she cooked a pork roast. Have a great day, Steph
Thank you so much for writing to us Stephanie! Please let us know what you think of this version! We’re more than a little addicted to this sauce – can’t wait to try it on pulled pork!