Sweet, tangy and spicy… What a powerful flavor combo. It’s strong sauces like this that allow you to take something that is otherwise boring or inexpensive and make it into an outstanding meal. So, promise me that even if you don’t want chicken, you’ll make this sauce to use on something else.
Putting the sauce together only takes a few minutes but it does need to simmer for a good 45 minutes but it stores well so you can make it ahead of time if necessary. The sauce stores well so you can keep extra in the refrigerator for up to two weeks or in the freezer for 3-4 months. This Raspberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce is super easy, will add tons of flavor to anything you cook.
I used chicken thighs as the vehicle for this yummy sauce but you could really use anything. Chicken breasts, ribs, tofu, pork chops… anything. Run wild with it.
Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce usually come in super small cans but even still, I usually only use one pepper at a time and have almost a whole can left over. I *always* freeze the rest. Divide the peppers and adobe sauce up into small aliquots and pop them in the freezer.
Raspberry Chipotle BBQ Chicken
Raspberry Chipotle BBQ Chicken
Servings 4 to 8 servingsIngredients
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil ($0.03)
- 1/2 medium yellow onion ($0.18)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.14)
- 8 oz can tomato sauce ($0.56)
- 1 cup raspberry jam ($2.23)
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar ($0.23)
- 1 pepper + sauce chipotle peppers in adobo ($0.10)
- 4 lbs chicken thighs (8 pieces) ($6.48)
Instructions
- Finely dice the onion and garlic. Cook both in a sauce pan with vegetable oil over medium heat until softened (3-5 minutes). Meanwhile, roughly chop one chipotle pepper and reserve 1 Tbsp of adobo sauce from the can.
- Add the tomato sauce, raspberry jam, cider vinegar, chopped chipotle pepper and adobo sauce to the cooked onions and garlic. Stir everything well and bring up to a simmer. Continue to simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Allow the sauce to cool after simmering (it will thicken upon cooling).
- Remove the skin from the chicken and trim any excess fat. The skin should pull away from the meat easily although you may need a small sharp knife to separate it in some places. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil and non-stick spray. Place the chicken thighs on the tray and slather with BBQ sauce (pour a small amount of sauce into a bowl before brushing onto chicken so that the whole batch will not get contaminated with raw chicken).
- Place the BBQ chicken in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Fifteen and thirty minutes into the cooking time, take the chicken out and slather with more sauce.
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Nutrition
Step By Step Photos
Chop the onion and garlic very fine so there will not be large chunks in the sauce. Cook in vegetable oil until softened.
Take one chipotle pepper from the can of peppers in adobo and chop it up. Also take one tablespoon of sauce from the can to add to the BBQ sauce.
To the cooked onions and garlic add the tomato sauce, raspberry jam, cider vinegar, chopped chipotle pepper and 1 Tbsp of adobo sauce.
Stir well until the raspberry jam has completely dissolved. Allow the mixture to come up to a simmer over medium heat. Keep it simmering (stirring occasionally) for about 45 minutes to evaporate some of the liquid.
Place your chicken thighs on a clean work surface. Remove the skin and any excess fat. (I only cooked four thighs today and froze the rest of my sauce to use later).
Here are the skinless breasts. Some people claim that removing the skin will let the meat dry out but the BBQ sauce does a very good job of sealing in the moisture. The resulting chicken thighs were some of the most moist pieces of chicken I’ve ever eaten.
Pour some of the BBQ sauce into a bowl so that you can brush it onto the raw chicken without contaminating the entire batch of sauce.
Place the chicken on a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil and non-stick spray. Generously brush the BBQ sauce on top. Place in a preheated 375 degree oven.
Bake the chicken for 45 minutes, taking time to add more BBQ sauce at 15 minutes and 30 minutes into the baking time. (photos are from after 15 minutes and 45 minutes of cooking) The sauce on the foil will scorch but the sauce on the chicken will not… so don’t let that black stuff worry you!
Ooohhh it was so delicious and moist! Sweet, tangy and with a decent kick!
When you freeze this, do you freeze just the sauce for future uses or freeze the finished product completely? Can’t wait to try this!
Found you via Pinterest, and finally got around to making this for lunch today. Loved it! I’m looking forward to checking out your other recipes. Thanks for this!
Any suggestions of a pasta to pair it with? or maybe doubling the sauce for use with the pasta??
Anon – I think it would be great with other flavors of jam, too! Raspberry is definitely my favorite with chipotle, but peach or even apricot would be great too. I’m sure strawberry, as you suggested, would be great!
I made this recipe and it was AMAZING! However, a member of my family is allergic to raspberries so I was wondering if it would still be great with strawberry jam or something else. What do you think? Thanks for posting!
I find slow cookers kill a lot of the taste. I would cook the chicken in the slow cooker with some chicken broth, maybe some garlic powder and then put the sauce over it for the last 30 or 45 minutes on high. That would probably work better then cooking the sauce to death and yield awesome chicken thighs!
Rachel – You probably could cook these in a slow cooker! Depending on how long you leave them in there, they’ll probably be fall off the bone tender. The sauce probably won’t thicken up as much as it will in the oven because slow cookers hold moisture in, but it will still be tasty!
Do you think you could make these in a slow cooker? Maybe in wing form?
I love to give parties and it’s in my habit to try different type of recipes for bbq. I have to try your recipe and hopefully I won’t screw it again like I ruined the last one which I picked from the TV.
bbq chicken recipe
Totally loved making this sauce, boyfriend and all my friends were impressed! I am not even tempted to buy BBQ sauce at the store anymore!!!
I made this tonight – absolutely delicious. I used Smucker’s sugar free raspberry jam, and put the entire 12 oz in (because the 12 oz filled my entire 1 cup measuring cup). It was a little sweet but after spending the night in the fridge, it was amazing. I used it with the chicken thighs, as stated, but I have so much left over, I think it would be a great BBQ sauce for some ribs… or even with shredded chicken & meunster cheese in a quesadilla. Delish!
I paired it with your oven roasted corn with honey chili butter, which was DEVINE. I love honey butter, and the addition of chili just made it so much more impressionable. I will definitely be making this more often to top other food items (maybe even a homemade bagel). Yum. This is my new favorite site.
Just made this with a 3 pack of chicken breasts and sweet potatoes. Washed and cut the sweet potatoes into 1″ slices, then threw the potatoes and chicken in a ziploc bag with about 3/4 of the sauce to mix it. Halfway through cooking I added the rest of the sauce, and paired it with a bottle of A to Z Pinot Gris (I’ve read to pair Gewurztraminer with spicy chipotle, but my local supermarket didn’t have any). Very good meal!
This sauce is AMAZING! thanks for sharing. It’s going to be my go-to BBQ sauce from now on!
Hi, found your blog today and surfed around a bit, bookmarking the no-butter chicken, and now this awesome recipe.
I have issues with some food additives (some known, like annatto, which is in adobo) and at least one additive I haven’t figured out yet. So it’s exciting for me to find a yummy sauce that doesn’t have the additives that I know bother me, plus gambling on the unknown. So we were thrilled to find a yummy sauce that didn’t bother me, so of course they stopped carrying it, argh!
Now I find how to make it myself, thanks to you, thanks!! I might have to double it though, since the dried chipotles at the place down street are much bigger than the little chipotles in the cans.
This recipe is amazing!!! I made a double batch and froze a bunch of it for when we have friends over…I made it with chicken breasts for the first time and my husband absolutely loved it. I did double the amount of chipotle peppers because we like spicy food and it turned out great! Thank you so much for this recipe!