Sweet Heat BBQ Chicken
It’s been a nice change of pace in my world these days – the studying is over, the paper-writing is history, and I actually have been working on DIY projects around the house. I have also been catching up on reading material other than for classes – that in itself has been heaven. Reading because I want too! The stack of books I need to catch up on is getting just as tall as the DIY list! Of course, somewhere in all of that is the search for a job now that I have this degree behind me. Come on dream job, hit me up! Until that perfect job appears, I’ll just continue sharing wonderful simple and delicious recipes with you all.
Recently I was asked to contribute to a round up of recipes celebrating National BBQ Month which is throughout the month of May. Memorial Day weekend has long been the unofficial start to summer and grilling season, although we grill out year round, even when we lived in upstate NY in the winters. My husband grills most of the meat-type foods for our family while I tend to do more of the vegetables or side dishes on the grill from time to time. We work well together when it comes to preparing meals. He can grill a mean burger and when we top it with my easy homemade blender salsa, it’s a winner in all areas! Salsa-Topped Cheeseburgers change up the ordinary burgers for us. I like grilling the entire meal if possible and these Grilled Chicken Fajita Skewers are perfect for that.
Personal Creations specializes in personalizing gifts for any special moment in one’s life by adding those unique touches to nearly any gift they sell on their site. They have some truly wonderful gifts for even the hard to buy for people on your list. To celebrate National BBQ month, they graciously sent me a personalized item of my choosing and in return asked me to do what I love to do – share a grilling recipe! How could I turn this down! Plus the item I choose a perfect gift for my husband for Father’s Day – his King of the Grill grilling tongs. I was not disappointed in the quality of the tongs or the personalization I had added. Fortunately for me, I was also enjoying a new cookbook and found the perfect BBQ recipe to share.
This new cookbook, Country Cooking from a Redneck Kitchen, is crazy good! If you haven’t read my review on it (or entered the giveaway to win a copy), please go here and do so. While reading the book, I immediately knew which recipe I was going to start with – the Sweet Heat BBQ Sauce. One of our favorite BBQ joints has a sweet-heat sauce that is out of this world so I was just a bit giddy to find this recipe.
The Sweet Heat BBQ Sauce has a subtle sweet taste when you first try it, then the heat gets you. Not too spicy (though you can adjust the spices to your tastes) but just enough for you to notice the sweet-heat combination. It’s the perfect combination for a BBQ sauce.
My husband, geared up with his new grilling tongs grilled chicken breasts for us and used this BBQ sauce that I made. Oh my word, the chicken was so good! The BBQ Sauce recipe makes a lot and I halved the recipe for us and there was more than enough left over to brush on our burgers the next day – again so good! The rest of the sauce is good to go in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.
Sweet Heat BBQ Chicken
Ingredients
For the BBQ Sauce:
- 2 cups ketchup
- 1/2 cup spicy brown mustard
- 1/2 cup cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp Texas Pete hot sauce
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp dried onion
- 1/4 tsp ground chipotle
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- boneless and skinless chicken breasts as many as you need to feed your family
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
Instructions
To prepare the sauce:
- In a medium sauce pan, combine and stir the ketchup, spicy brown mustard, cider vinegar, hot sauce, brown sugar, dried onion, and ground chipotle.
- Bring to a simmer over medium heat and let cook till thickened, about 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Set aside to cool and use at room temperature. Store unused sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator. for several weeks.
To cook the chicken:
- Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper
- Heat grill to medium temperature
- Grill the chicken till it's cooked through, about 20 minutes, turning once halfway.
- Brush on sweet heat BBQ sauce when there is five minutes left of cooking time. Turn and repeat the other side.
- Serve with extra sauce on the side.
- Recipe from: Country Cooking from a Redneck Kitchen cookbook.
Nutritional Disclaimer
“Blogghetti” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Enjoy!
This looks so yummy and can’t wait to try it!! We love spicy in our house so we will look forward for the spice to kick in!! Hope your hubby enjoyed using his new tongs also!
Have a wonderful rest of the week!!
Lisa, that’s just how I like my barbecue sauce for chicken — sweet heat!
Your post is awesome and thanks so much for sharing it with us at Full Plate Thursday. Hope you are having a great day and come back to see us real soon!
Miz Helen