This weeknight BBQ chicken recipe requires little more than sauce and an oven
During the week, I try to let my oven do all the heavy lifting. Sheet pan meals are my love language, and I call a meal a win when the bulk of the cleanup (ahem, not my strength!) requires taking the aluminum foil off the sheet pan and wrapping up the leftovers in it.
Yes, I love to cook. But I *know* I’m not alone when I say that one of the last things I want to do on a weeknight is stand around hovering over the stove. I’d much rather sit at the kitchen counter, drinking wine, watching my oven do the hard work.
This meal requires so little of you: place the ingredients on baking sheet, let the oven bake or roast it, then eat it.
Sauce. Makes. Everything. Better.
Our go-to weeknight meals usually include something from our rotating selection of noodle bowls, some sort of niçoise salad, and roasted chicken thighs. They’re all delicious and easy to make. And guess what? They all include some kind of sauce (yes, I consider dressing to be a sauce).
The BBQ sauces Achilles Murray makes for his J&T Gourmet Sauces line have completely changed my weeknight cooking game. They taste perfect as is and can be used to marinate, braise, or dip whatever you’re eating.
But this is about more than sauce.
These sauces are about finding a taste of home. Now a retired Marine, during Achilles time in the military while stationed in Okinawa, there wasn't much access to the sauces and condiments he enjoyed. He was always barbecuing with his fellow marines and other service members, but felt that something was missing. As a result Achilles decided "If you want things done well, do it yourself." He began brainstorming ideas to incorporate his California flavor palette with his knowledge of good barbecue. And boom. J&T’s Gourmet Sauces was born.
And let me tell you, we go through jars of these sauces regularly. They’re the perfect tool on a weeknight, or really any time you want to level up whatever you’re eating.
This meal is more of a method than it is a recipe.
You can use it with any protein and vegetable and you’ll have dinner on the table in 30 mins. The method is simple: marinate the chicken, throw it on a pan in the oven, add veggies to the pan, take it all out when it’s nice and crispy. You of course don’t have to use chicken for this to work. Marinate some shrimp, steak, pork, tofu, whatever works for you, and throw it in the oven. Or on the stove. And while our go-to veg is usually broccoli, you could throw asparagus, cauliflower, carrots — whatever you’re feeling that night — onto the pan mid-roast and it’ll be a whole new meal.
Are you more of a set-it-and-forget-it kinda person? I recently I dumped an entire jar of Backyard Boogie into a slow coker with chicken breasts, and by the time dinner rolled around it took us 2 minutes to plate innnnncredible shredded BBQ chicken sliders.
Once you get this method down, I bet it becomes part of your weeknight rotation too. I’d love to hear what combos you come up with! Leave a comment to let me know how you made it.
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Weeknight BBQ Chicken Thighs with Roasted Broccoli
Ingredients:
Serves 2 (with leftovers)
4 chicken thighs
Any of J&T’s Gourmet Sauces
1 head of broccoli
2-3 TB olive oil (I use Seka Hills Arbequina olive oil)
Method:
Season 4 chicken thighs with salt & pepper then place them in a zip top bag. Add enough sauce to cover them, then seal the bag and swoosh it all around so the sauce covers all the chicken. Let the chicken marinate for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil the place the chicken thighs skin side up on the foil. Bake for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut the broccoli into florets. Take out the baking sheet, then move the chicken to the edges of the sheet to make room for the broccoli. Put the florets in the middle of the sheet, then toss with olive oil, salt & pepper. Bake for another 15 minutes.
Once chicken is cooked through, remove everything from the oven and serve with more sauce!
