This bbq marinade is perfect for chicken you plan to throw on the grill, smoke, or even sous vide! The marinade is essentially a simple, more liquidy barbecue sauce. In fact, I recommend setting some aside to brush the chicken with after cooking.
It’s made with just 9 ingredients you likely have on hand already – nothing to track down or make a special trip for.
If you’re looking for more marinade inspiration, make sure to check out my cookbook Sous Vide Meal Prep! It’s full of marinade, rub, and sauce recipes for all your favorite sous vide proteins.
Sous Vide Meal Prep
This cookbook outlines my entire method for keeping your freezer stocked with ready to sous vide meals (and some great recipes to boot!).
If you do opt to sous vide this chicken, you can finish it or not – it will be fully cooked after sous viding, it just won’t have an char or texture on the outside.
Use this marinade with any cut of chicken! Here are preparation instructions for a few staples:
- Sous Vide Whole Chicken
- Sous Vide Chicken Breasts
- Sous Vide Chicken Thighs
- Sous Vide Chicken Wings
- Air Fryer Chicken Wings
This marinade is also great for seafood and pork – don’t limit yourself to just chicken!
You can also view this recipe as a step-by-step web story here.
Get the Recipe:
BBQ Chicken Marinade (with pantry staples)
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients until completely combined.
- Set aside about 1/4 cup of the marinade for brushing on cooked chicken. Add your chicken to a large zipper top bag or tupperware container and pour the marinade over the top. Toss to completely coat the chicken in the marinade.
- Let the chicken marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, up to 24 hours before cooking.
- Cook as desired, whether it's on the grill, smoker, sous vide, stove top, oven, or air fryer.
- After chicken has cooked, brush with the marinade that was set aside for more flavor.
Notes
- Sous Vide Whole Chicken
- Sous Vide Chicken Breasts
- Sous Vide Chicken Thighs
- Sous Vide Chicken Wings
- Air Fryer Chicken Wings
This turned out so good! The flavor is better than any of the store bought marinades I’ve tried recently.