Your Skillet Is The Secret To Even Saucier Barbecue Chicken

Tender and charred, a heaping of barbecue chicken is truly unmatched. While the dish is usually associated with outdoor grilling and summer gatherings, it's fully possible to prepare it any time of year — even without a grill. You can opt for a well-seasoned cast iron skillet to mimic some of the grill's beloved smokiness and replicate the right amount of char.

Due to its overall heftiness, the cast iron skillet retains high heat with ease. This means the skillet will quickly cook down, thicken, and caramelize whatever sauce you choose to add. The key here is to pseudo-grill your chicken in the skillet, adding your sauce toward the end of the cooking process as your skillet maintains a comfortably medium-high heat. The result? A one-pan recipe that delivers on crunchy texture, ample sauciness, and an unexpected complexity in flavor. And as a nice bonus, no sauce will fall between the grates and burn, as it would on a grill.

For skillet barbecue chicken, we strongly recommend boneless chicken thighs. With or without the skin, it's incredibly difficult to overcook chicken thighs compared to chicken breasts, and it's resultantly easy to achieve a strong sear without resulting in a tough piece of meat. Remember to salt your chicken at least a few hours before cooking, and be sure to pat the chicken dry to encourage browning once it hits the hot skillet.

Preheat your skillet to medium-high before adding fat — preferably vegetable oil with a high smoke point. Once the oil is heated, sear your chicken for about 5 minutes on each side. As always, your internal thermometer is your best friend: Continue cooking until the internal temperature of your chicken reaches at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

During this part of the cooking stage, add your sauce, whether it be a classic sweet and tangy recipe or a Thai chili-spiked twist on barbecue sauce. You'll notice the sauce thickening, caramelizing, and browning in areas as it heats in the pan and melds to the chicken. Feel free to add generous amounts of sauce, yielding a combination of saucy, sticky, and crispy bits. 

That all said, cooking with cast iron requires a bit more arm strength. But let's be real: It's well worth it.