Strawberry BBQ Chicken Thighs

Strawberry BBQ Chicken Thighs

June 3, 2018

Servings: 4

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 40 min

Total: 50 min

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A berry fun way to spice up baked chicken thighs! The sauce is SO addicting, I'd recommend making a few extra batches you can have on hand for barbecuing all summer long. You won't regret it!

By: A Wholesome New World

Ingredients

• 1 pint of strawberries, hulled and sliced into fourths
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
• 1 TBSP smoked paprika
• 1 TBSP chili paste or seasoning (*see note below)
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• A package of 8 chicken thighs (about 1.5-2 lbs)

Directions

• Step 1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. You can start baking the chicken thighs while you make your BBQ sauce to save time.
• Step 2 Coat the chicken on all sides with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Place the chicken skin side up on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.
• Step 3 Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil and onion. Sauté for 2-3 minutes until onions are translucent. Add garlic cloves and sauté for 1 more minute until they turn golden.
• Step 4 Add in tomato sauce, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar. Stir until brown sugar is dissolved. Then, stir in your smoked paprika and chili seasoning.
• Step 5 Add in strawberries, stir and bring to a boil. Once you’ve reached a boil, reduce heat to simmer and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring every minute or so. Your strawberries should boil down, but you may wish to use a masher or immersion blender to achieve desired consistency. Remove from heat before doing so!
• Step 6 When the 25 minute timer goes off for your chicken, remove from the oven. Coat the top of the chicken (skin-side) with barbecue sauce using a basting brush. Use a spatula to flip the chicken over, being careful not to tear the skin and baste the bottom of your chicken. Place the pan back in the oven for 5 minutes.
• Step 7 Remove from the oven after 5 minutes, flip the chicken so the skin is side up now and baste with the BBQ sauce again. Turn your broiler on high and return to oven for another 5-7 minutes, allowing the chicken to crisp up. Keep a close eye so that the glaze doesn’t burn. Remove the chicken from the oven and serve with additional BBQ sauce.

Strawberry season is in full force and if the success of my other recent strawberry-themed posts are any indication, I’m not the only one who can’t get enough of these juicy red berries!  There are so many creative ways to add strawberries into your recipe line-up, I feel like I’ve just barely started to scratch the surface.  Today’s example – taking those berries and then making my own BBQ sauce from scratch – was never something I’d even fathomed trying until the day I dreamed this up.  I’m so glad I went out on a limb to try this.  Sometimes taking the biggest risks in the kitchen do pay off and this recipe is one of the rewards.  Nothing makes me happier then when a recipe like this comes together, it is really such a treat!

Can’t you tell from his photo alone how amazing this sauce is going to be?!

I find that chicken thighs are one of those easy weeknight go-to’s in our house.  I know they’re not for everyone, but here’s my case: there are endless options when it comes to preparing them (so they never get old), they cook up pretty fast, and I’m a sucker for anything on a bone.  That pretty much checks all of the boxes here!  I would say on average we probably eat them at least one night out of the week, maybe every other week, unless I have a ton of the time in the test kitchen to work on other creative recipes.  But in a pinch, I know I can always pick up a pack of chicken thighs on my way home from the office and find something to throw together.

This recipe on the other hand, required a bit more thought and innovation, but was actually still achievable on a weeknight. The most time consuming part was making the BBQ sauce; once that was done, the oven did the rest of the work.  And the nice part is, the batch of sauce this makes is big enough to have a jar left over for future recipes.  I’m thinking of trying a rib recipe with this sauce, so stay tuned!

*One note on the seasoning: If you want to add a kick to the sauce (which I hope you do!), I recommend using red chili paste in the recipe above.  However, as you can see in the photo, I actually substituted this fun Spirit of Summer seasoning we got in London at Marks & Spencer – which was a fun way to mix it up.  It’s essentially a blend of dried, smoked jalapeño chilis, which added a complex hit of spice and medium heat to the sauce. Obviously not everyone is going to have access to this seasoning, but I think this step is a great way to get creative and put your own stamp on the sauce.  If not, feel free to add the red chili paste I recommend OR even red chili flakes to give the BBQ sauce a nice balanced amount of heat.

If you want to truly impress your diners (even if it’s just your family!), I’d recommend doing a whole strawberry themed menu.  Pair our Strawberry Cinnamon Jam with a cheese plate, then serve up the Strawberry Sweet Pea Salad, and then you’ve set the stage to swoop in with these delicious baked chicken thighs.  On this particular night, we paired the thighs with some simple roasted rainbow carrots, but some other great options are asparagus (also in season), parsnip fries, grilled zucchini, the list goes on and on…  If you make all of the condiments ahead of time, you can totally throw this together for a week night meal.  It’s also great for a lazy summer Sunday too – I’m sure these chicken thighs would taste just as great on the barbecue.  If you try it out that way, comment below and let me know what you think!