Two Ingredient Crispy Oven Baked BBQ Chicken

This crispy oven bbq chicken recipe uses only TWO INGREDIENTS – barbecue sauce and chicken (plus a little olive oil, salt, and pepper) – to make the crispiest, most perfectly glazed, sweet, sticky, and juicy baked barbecue chicken you will ever have.

Two Ingredient Crispy Oven Baked BBQ Chicken

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Servings: 8

Ingredients

8-10 chicken thighs and/or drumsticks bone-in, skin on
2 cups of your favorite bbq sauce
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or canola oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Coat the chicken on all sides with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Place the chicken skin side down on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes.
Remove chicken from oven and turn the temperature of the oven up to 425 degrees.
Coat the top of the chicken with barbecue sauce using a basting brush. Use a spatula to flip the chicken over, being careful not to tear the skin. Baste the other side of the chicken, and place back in the oven for 7 minutes.
Remove from oven, baste top with barbecue sauce, and place back in oven for 7 more minutes.
Remove from the oven again and baste again, for a total of three times, and place back in oven for 7 more minutes.
If the chicken hasn't crisped and browned to your liking, move the oven rack up and broil the chicken for 3-5 minutes, until it's more crispy.

Recipe Notes

To get super crispy skin, pat the chicken dry before cooking.
You can also place the chicken skin side up from the beginning (skip the first, skin side down step) on a baking rack nestled into a rimmed baking sheet, to elevate it so it's not sitting in its juices, resulting in more crispiness all around (and less fat!). Bake for 25 minutes, then add BBQ sauce as directed, do not flip.
Bone-in, skin on chicken thighs and drumsticks are the best for juicy chicken every time. If you use chicken breasts, I recommend bone-in, skin on.
If you really want to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I recommend baking them initially for only 10 minutes instead of 25, add some bbq sauce on the top, flip them, then continue to baste them in BBQ sauce every 7 minutes three times. This will result in a total cooking time slightly over 30 minutes. At this point they will probably be done cooking, but you should use a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part to double check that they are 165 degrees F.
Recipe and basting technique adapted from Ree Drummond's Oven BBQ chicken recipe.
The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.