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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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This chicken turned out flavorful and moist. I followed the recipe as written, and wouldn’t change or add a thing. The white sauce has loads of flavor, and would be excellent on just about anything. Thank you for making me look good and for the great recipe. Will make again for sure.
Thanks Joan – so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Could you marinate it, bake it for a bit in the oven and then finish on the grill to caramelize the sauce the last couple minutes? I made this years ago totally on the grill. Just trying to cut the time down a bit.
Thank you.
Sure Teresa – You can do that. Or, sometimes, people will boil chicken in water for a bit to start cooking it and then finish on the grill. Either would work.
Why do you have to rinse the chic after marinating?
Hi Shawn – We rinse it off to avoid having the creamy marinade burn while the chicken grilled. But I know in the comments that some readers skipped that step and didn’t mind a little extra char on the chicken. Your choice!
I absolutely loved this recipe! I used two boneless skinless chicken breasts cut in half cooked in a cast iron pan! The sauce was amazing! We loved this so much, a definite make again!
Thanks Crissy!
This will be my second time making this recipe and I used strips of chicken breasts because that’s what I had in hand and I didn’t rinse the marinated chicken. I used my cast iron skillet and it got a big thumbs up with the teenagers. This time I’m going to try some grilled onions and sprinkle with fresh grated parm cheese. Thank you for the great recipe!
Sounds delicious Angel – so glad everyone is enjoying the recipe!
I made this according to the recipe and it was a big hit. I added grilled onions and provolone cheese to some and it was amazing!
Sounds delicious Jynette! Thanks for the suggestion!
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the white barbecue sauce by itself and was hesitant as to how it was going to taste on the chicken…it was amazing! I ended up using bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs instead since that what was available at the store and they were perfect. My family loved it, I will definitely be making this again. Thank you for the recipe!
You’re welcome Aislinn! So glad the recipe was a hit! (Agree – the sauce alone can be quite strong!)
This was delicious and a huge hit with the family. We used boneless skinless breasts and I cooked it in cast iron to replicate the crispy char of a barbecue. This one’s a kepper!
Thanks Angela!
Thanks for the great recipe. I brined my boneless chicken breast for 1 whole day in salt water. It came out super juicy.
You’re welcome Sun!
I only gave it a 4 b/c I didn’t follow recipe exactly. We prefer chicken thighs in our house. I used boneless/skinless thighs. Made the White BBQ sauce as written. Placed thighs and sauce in zip bag, placed in fridge about 4 hours. And just grilled them. They turned out good. Next time will try regular thighs. BBQ sauce was great!