Should You Put BBQ Sauce on Chicken Before Grilling?

BBQ chicken is a classic summer cookout food. The sweet, sticky barbecue sauce coating the juicy, tender chicken is hard to resist. But when it comes to getting that perfect caramelized char on your chicken, there’s some debate around when you should apply the BBQ sauce. Should you coat the chicken in sauce before putting it on the grill or wait and glaze it at the end? Here’s a look at the pros and cons of each method.

The Case for Saucing Chicken Before Grilling

• Allows sauce flavors to penetrate the meat. Basting the chicken pieces with sauce before grilling lets the sauce permeate the meat resulting in more flavor. The sugars and spices have time to get absorbed.

• Dries out the surface: putting sauce on chicken before cooking dries out the outside. This makes the surface sticky, which helps the chicken caramelize better on the grill.

• Saves time: You don’t have to keep brushing the chicken with barbecue sauce while it cooks; the sauce is already on, so all you have to do is flip it and check to see if it’s done.

• Prevents sticking. The layer of sauce on the outside helps prevent chicken pieces from sticking to the grill grates while cooking. The sugars in the sauce caramelize and assist with easy release.

• Allows sauce to reduce and thicken. As the sauce cooks along with the chicken, the moisture evaporates, causing the sauce to reduce down and get thicker, stickier, and more intensely flavored.

The Case Against Saucing Chicken Before

• Can burn quickly. Barbecue sauce contains a lot of sugar, which easily burns on the grill. Saucing too early often results in blackened, charred sauce before the chicken is fully cooked.

• Makes grill flare-ups. Drippings from sauced chicken falling on the hot grill or coals below can cause large flare-ups which can impart an unpleasant burned taste.

• Dilutes smoke flavor. The bold, sweet flavors of barbecue sauce applied at the start covers up the subtle smoke flavor you get from grilling over indirect heat.

• Creates skin barrier. Heavy saucing under the skin before cooking stops smoke from getting in and makes the skin soggy instead of crispy.

• Less sauce flavor. Much of the sauce burns off or drips into the grill before serving, so you get less of that sticky sauce coating in each bite.

Tips for Getting the Best of Both Methods

For perfectly sauced and smoked BBQ chicken, you can employ a hybrid saucing approach:

• Lightly season un-sauced chicken first with a dry rub spices. Apply your rub generously on the pieces before grilling.

• Grill chicken indirectly over low heat for about 30 minutes, flipping once halfway through. This gently cooks the meat while infusing flavorful smoke. Avoid direct high heat.

• In the last 10-15 minutes of estimated cook time, brush on a layer of BBQ sauce on both sides and continue cooking over indirect heat.

• In the last 2-3 minutes, move chicken directly over the heat. Give each side a quick sear to caramelize the sauce and finish cooking.

• Just before serving, coat chicken again with another layer of sauce. The sauce will be thick, sticky, and full of flavor.

This method allows the chicken time to absorb smoke flavor before saucing. It also gives the sauce enough time over indirect heat to caramelize without burning before searing at the end. Less sauce is required, so you get optimal flavor and ideal texture.

Choosing the Right Barbecue Sauce

The best barbecue sauces for chicken have a ketchup or tomato base with balanced sweetness. Ideal viscosity is thick, but still brushable. Avoid thin, vinegary sauces which can burn quickly.

Some great sauce options include:

• Sweet and tangy ketchup-based sauces. Ketchup mixed with spices and ingredients like brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and chili powder makes an ideal chicken BBQ sauce.

• Honey barbecue sauces. Sauces flavored with a touch of honey have nice sweetness along with acidity to cut through richness.

• Regional sauces like Kansas City and Memphis styles. These sauces focus on tomato, molasses and brown sugar flavors perfect for chicken.

• Restaurant-style sauces like Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet Sauce. Many restaurant BBQ places sell their signature sauces which are designed for chicken.

• Asian fusion sauces. For something different, try an Asian sesame ginger or spicy Korean gochujang sauce on your grilled chicken.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to saucing up chicken for the grill. Just keep heat level, sauce thickness and flavors in mind. Take your time, keep a close watch, and you’ll achieve perfectly sauced, tender and juicy BBQ chicken worth bragging about.