Sticky Grilled Chicken with Savory-Sweet Marinade Recipe
Sticky Grilled Chicken is a delightful mix of savoury and sweet, with a country-style marinade that’s guaranteed to be a hit with both kids and adults. This recipe uses boneless, skinless chicken thighs marinated overnight for tender, juicy, and caramelized chicken bursting with flavor. Perfect for BBQs or stovetop cooking, it’s finger-licking good and easy to prepare.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 day 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 - 5 servings
- Category: Mains
- Method: Grilling
- Cuisine: Western
Ingredients
Chicken
- 700g (1.4lb) boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Marinade / Glaze
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (all purpose or light, NOT dark)
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
Instructions
- Prepare the Marinade: In a large bowl, thoroughly mix together ketchup, brown sugar, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, and minced garlic until well combined.
- Marinate the Chicken: Reserve 1/2 cup of the marinade for basting later, setting it aside as the glaze. Add the chicken thighs to the remaining marinade in the bowl, turning to coat each piece evenly. Cover and refrigerate overnight for best flavor; marinate a minimum of 3 hours or up to 48 hours. You may also freeze the marinated chicken at this stage.
- Preheat the Grill: Brush the barbecue grill grates with vegetable or canola oil to prevent sticking. Preheat the grill to medium heat to ensure proper caramelization.
- Grill the Chicken: Remove the chicken from the marinade allowing excess to drip off, and place on the preheated grill. Cook for 4 minutes on the first side until nicely caramelized.
- Glaze and Turn: Flip the chicken and brush generously with the reserved glaze. Continue cooking another 4 minutes. Flip again, brush with more glaze, flip once more and brush again to build layers of sticky flavor.
- Rest the Chicken: Remove the cooked chicken from the grill and transfer to a plate. Cover loosely with foil and let rest for 3 minutes to redistribute juices.
- Serve: Serve the sticky grilled chicken warm, optionally garnished with chopped parsley. It pairs wonderfully with sides like macaroni salad.
- Alternative Cooking Methods: For stovetop, heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat and cook chicken in batches, following the same glazing steps as the grill. For oven-baking, follow a similar recipe for sticky baked chicken for best results.
Notes
- Use boneless chicken thighs for best caramelization and cooking time; bone-in pieces require longer and may darken the marinade.
- Chicken breast can be used if pounded to even thickness; cook about 3 minutes per side and baste liberally with glaze.
- The marinade is flexible: ketchup can be substituted with Aussie tomato sauce or BBQ sauce; brown sugar can be swapped with white sugar, honey, or maple syrup; soy sauce should be light or all-purpose, not dark; fish sauce can be used but reduce quantity to 1 tbsp.
- Try different vinegars such as white vinegar, white wine vinegar, rice vinegar, or champagne vinegar as substitutes for apple cider vinegar.
- Adding black pepper, onion or garlic powder before coating, or hot sauce, herbs, and spices like cayenne, paprika, cumin, or coriander can personalize the flavor.
- Nutrition values assume about half the marinade is discarded after marinating.