OnlineCook - Smoky Spicy Molasses BBQ Chicken by Yummly

April 29, 2025

While her native South Carolina is known for mustard-based barbecue, food writer Amethyst Ganaway especially loves sticky sweet and spicy chicken with a molasses and tomato sauce. And because she’s not always game for firing up the grill, she figured out a way to make her favorite chicken in the oven, with barbecue sauce just the way she likes it. It’s a meal with a lot less mess and work than the typical southern cookout, but all the flavor. The recipe is a Yummly original created by Amethyst Ganaway.

14 Ingredients

EASY

1/1

Smoky Spicy Molasses BBQ Chicken

Yummly

Ingredients

Servings

Warning0 allergens identified

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. In a small saucepan, mix ketchup, molasses, vinegar, honey, brown sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, the cayenne, paprika, and ¼ teaspoon garlic powder. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until flavors have melded together and sauce thickens, 15-20 minutes. Remove sauce from heat and set aside.

Meanwhile, place chicken in a baking or roasting dish about 9x13 inches, and coat with oil. In a small bowl, combine remaining 1 tablespoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, and ½ teaspoon garlic powder with the onion powder and mustard. Sprinkle all over chicken. Arrange chicken skin side down and bake for 15 minutes.

Using a pastry brush or silicone brush, coat the top side of the chicken with a bit of the bbq sauce, using about one-quarter of it, so that pieces are covered well. Cook skin side down for an additional 15 minutes.

Flip chicken so the skin side is up, and coat each piece well with some bbq sauce. Increase the oven to 400°. Every 5-8 minutes, coat chicken with more of the sauce to your desired thickness (I do about 4 coats). Increase oven temperature to 500° or use your top broiler option. Finish cooking chicken until the sauce is thick, the chicken has some char, and the meat reaches 165° in the thickest part. Cooking time should be about 1 hour total.