The Best Juicy And Tender, BBQ Hoisin Chicken

We’ve all struggled to saw through dry as sawdust, tough as shoe leather, flavorless grilled chicken; chewing it until your jaw ached. Today I’m going to share some tips when grilling chicken so that it turns our tender and juicy and finger licking good. Once you implement these easy tips you can kiss dry, flavorless grilled chicken goodbye forever!

Top 3 Tips for Tender, Juicy BBQ Chicken:

• Use bone in, skin on, chicken thighs.
• Make your own easy to prepare BBQ sauce for a big punch of flavor.
• Cooking chicken low and slow, with indirect heat is the key to juicy chicken.

Start by mixing together the BBQ sauce. In a small bowl combine hoisin sauce, ketchup, rice vinegar, honey, soy sauce, sriracha and pepper. Reserve half to serve with the chicken.

Place chicken thighs in a shallow dish. Baste thighs liberally with BBQ sauce.

Cover dish and refrigerate for 1 hour or marinate overnight.

Preheat one side of the BBQ grill on the low heat setting. 

Place chicken thighs, skin side up on the opposite side of the grill away from the direct heat. Cooking the thighs low and slow will render out the fat, seal in the juices, and crisp up the skin as it cooks. 

Close the lid and check on the chicken after the first 30 minutes. If chicken is showing any signs of burning, reduce heat further.

After another 30 minutes, flip chicken over, skin side down, and baste chicken with Hoisin BBQ sauce.

After another 30 minutes, flip chicken over and baste again. Cover and continue to cook over low heat.

Continue cooking, flipping chicken every 30 minutes and basting the chicken until meat is cooked through and tender. It will take a good 2 to 2½ hours to cook the chicken all the way through. It took me just over 2 hours to cook the chicken all the way through.

Once the chicken is cooked through, flip it one more time, skin side down, and move thighs to the other side of the BBQ directly over the flame. Crank up the heat to medium-high to sear the skin. This will get the skin really nice and crispy. Keep a close eye it, they will burn if left over the flame for more than just a minute or two. 

Turn off the heat and finish off thighs with a final coat of BBQ sauce.

TIP: When chicken is done but you aren’t quite ready to serve dinner, stack chicken thighs in a pile away from the direct heat to keep them warm. This will prevent them from drying out. Rotate the pile occasionally. The chicken could keep on the grill like this for hours, getting more and more delicious.

Serve with the reserved BBQ sauce and a big pile of napkins. I served this chicken with a side of my favorite Creamy Buttermilk Coleslaw. It was the perfect creamy, make ahead, side that countered the mild heat from this BBQ chicken.

I had pretty much given up on grilled chicken until I came across this recipe at machismo.com. I’m so very happy I decided to give it one last try! A HUGE shout out to Nick for posting this recipe with all his wonderful tips for cooking some of the best BBQ chicken I have ever eaten!

NOM, NOM, NOM ❤️❤️❤️. This is a must try recipe!!!

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