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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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Very good follow the recipe. The sauce is very good on corn on the cob.
Thanks for the suggestion Chuckie!
So good . Love this recipe.
Thanks Carolann!
Haven’t tried this yet but was wondering how you would cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts on a George Foreman type grill using the white barbecue sauce. Thanks.
Hi Jeannine – I haven’t used a George Forman grill in years, but the white barbecue sauce should work with the boneless skinless chicken breasts just fine. You could lightly brush the sauce on before grilling, and/or brush it on after the chicken is cooked. The sauce does brown (and possibly scorch a bit) as it cooks so you don’t want to heavily coat the chicken before cooking it. Hope that helps!
Hi. Just wanted to know if I marinated the chicken first in buttermilk overnight, then discarded the buttermilk, could I then follow the remaining instructions of grilling or cooking in a
cast iron skillet in the oven and basting with the white bbq sauce? I’m thinking of how could you turn this into an appetizer with bite sized chicken pieces with that delicious sauce on it?
Hi Kim – Yes – another cooking method will work (although charring adds great flavor). We’ve made this recipe with chicken wings and they were devoured! We haven’t tried it with chicken tenders or nuggets – I think the skin-on chicken works best. Hope that helps!
Thankyou👍
Could this recipe somehow be turned into small bite sized appetizers?
I plan to make this looks yummy. Was wondering how would one go about trying any airfryer? Has anyone tried this?
Hi Carla – I don’t recall any previous comments specifically stating that they made this recipe in an air fryer. Having said that, an air fryer is basically a small convection oven so it should work. Just watch the cooking time – it will probably air fry more quickly.
I am trying tonight, wish me luck. I hope I don’t mess it up.
Hope you loved it Mary!
We followed the directions exactly as posted & the chicken came out perfect ! We loved it !
So glad to hear that Donna! 🙂
Chicken has to have an internal temperature of 165 degrees. You might want to update your recipe
Thanks Laurie! You’re right – we typically take our chicken out a little before that, knowing that the residual heat will bring the meat up to the 165 as it rests. But – to your point – 155 is probably a little too low. Thanks for pointing that out.
A new favorite! I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs and they turned out great. This recipe is worthy of serving to guests. Thank you!
You’re very welcome Laura – glad the recipe was a hit!
Followed the directions except I used boneless skinless chicken breast. Amazing, thank you for such an awesome recipe!!!!
You’re very welcome Heather!