Check out this tasty sauce….
I never liked BBQ sauce. That’s right. I was a BBQ sauce hater. HATED it. That is, until I tasted homemade BBQ sauce. Wow. Sweet and Spicy. MMMmm So finger licking good. So good, that I licked the bowl. Seriously. I did. I’m not embarrassed to admit it – I hope this stuff makes you do the same!
I first came across homemade BBQ sauce on the blog Simply Scratch. This blog is AMAZING. It has delicious recipes as well as step-by-step photo instructions. Go check it out. Seriously. Go. Then come back here. 🙂
Let me tell you why you NEED to make this BBQ sauce. It’s sweet and delicious and SO MUCH BETTER than bottled sauce. It is super EASY to make and uses mostly ingredients you probably have in your kitchen. Oh, and did I mention it goes on EVERYTHING. yes. EVE-RY-THIN-G. Chicken, Pork, Burgers, Fries, Veggies, Chickpeas. Spoons. MMmm.
So lets talk about what we’re doing with this sweet and spicy BBQ sauce today. I made some oven BBQ pulled chicken and all I had in the house were corn tortillas, so they became BBQ pulled chicken tacos! 🙂 I’m so clever.
This recipe is PERFECT for Fall Sundays. This being a blog that focuses on fast and easy recipes – I understand that this takes time, but I LOVE these types of recipes for fall and winter: recipes that do all the work while I do other things. Cleaning, working (watching football) and your delicious dinner is slowly baking away in your oven (or crock-pot). Since I don’t have a crock-pot, I just baked the chicken in my oven. I’ve made this recipe with both boneless, skinless chicken breasts and boneless, skinless chicken thighs. These pictures are of pulled breast meat, but the dark meat looked and tasted sooo much better. So much so, that there weren’t any leftovers for me to take pictures of the next morning.
When it comes to chicken or turkey, I go to to the dark side. I’m a dark meat loving lady. There is a misconception that dark meat is bad for you, but the difference in both calories and fat are minimal. Per ounce, boneless, skinless white meat has 46 calories and 1 gram of fat and dark meat has 50 calories and about 2 grams of fat. Yes, dark meat has more saturated fat, but it also has more iron, zinc, riboflavin, vitamins B6 and B12 than white meat. *(I’m not a registered dietician, just rambling off some nutrition facts) So don’t shy away from the dark side!
Steps for how to make pulled chicken-before it goes in the oven 1. BBQ sauce 2. Saute onions and garlic 3. Add chicken, salt and pepper. 4. Cover with BBQ Sauce.
Recipe: Pulled Chicken Tacos with Homemade Honey BBQ Sauce
Servings: 8
Ingredients for Honey BBQ Sauce (slightly adapted from Simply Scratch)
- 1 cup of Honey
- 1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 and 1/4 cup of ketchup
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup water (use less if you want a thicker sauce)
- 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
- 1 and1/2 teaspoons of paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
Ingredients for Oven Pulled Chicken
- 2 lbs of Boneless, skinless chicken (Breast, thigh or mixture of both – I prefer thighs)
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil (or canola or vegetable)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 and 1/2 cups of BBQ Sauce (or enough to cover all your chicken)
- Salt and pepper
- Extra BBQ sauce for serving
Instructions:
- First, make the BBQ sauce. Add all ingredients into a large bowl and stir until well combined. Use immediately or store covered in the fridge.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
- In an heavy, oven safe pot* with a lid add olive oil, onions and garlic. Cook on medium heat until onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Add chicken and a pinch of salt and pepper to each piece of chicken as you put them in the pot.
- Cover chicken fully with BBQ Sauce
- Cover the pot – either with a lid or aluminum foil. Bake in the oven at 325F for about 90 min. or until chicken shreds easily with 2 forks.
- Shred chicken using two forks to pull apart. Serve on corn tortillas with extra BBQ sauce some avocado and pickles – or your favorite toppings!
*If you don’t have an oven safe pot, you can do step 3 in a pan and then transfer everything to a baking dish before covering in BBQ sauce. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil before placing in oven.
Delicious in a DASH 