Grandma's Oven-Baked Barbecue Chicken
As a child I love to go to grandmas house and have her famous chicken scones biscuits and apple pie. This recipe is my version of what she used to make for us.
As a child I love to go to grandmas house and have her famous chicken scones biscuits and apple pie. This recipe is my version of what she used to make for us.
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1 kg chicken pieces or 4-5 chicken breasts
- 1 tablespoons worcestershire sauce or 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey or 1 tbsp corn syrup
- Carbohydrate 17.999871106309 g
- Cholesterol 187.5 mg
- Fat 39.6455351426858 g
- Fiber 1.20908880876105 g
- Protein 47.5090496111087 g
- Saturated Fat 11.0603753881415 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (317g)
- Sodium 218.5333880221 mg
- Sugar 16.7907822975479 g
- Trans Fat 3.29566968756285 g
- Calories 625 calories
Step-by-step
- Mix together tomato paste, corn starch, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, honey, brown sugar, garlic, and paprika into hot water.
- Pour over chicken in 9 x 13 baking dish and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.
Maillard reactions depend heavily on precise sugar-to-protein ratios, which dictate how deeply savory a poultry skin becomes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Combining brown sugar, honey, and tomato paste creates a thick glaze matrix where natural fruit acids from the tomato paste tenderize outer muscle fibers while exogenous sugars initiate surface browning long before internal dehydration ruins the meat. Dissolving corn starch into hot water prior to blending ensures the starch granules hydrate fully without clumping, allowing them to gelatinize uniformly once the baking dish reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit in the oven. This thermal setting action traps moisture against the chicken pieces, preventing the lean breast meat from drying out during the forty-five minute baking window.
Balancing Umami and Acidity Through Substitution
Adapting this sauce requires understanding basic umami chemistry, especially when substituting Worcestershire sauce with soy sauce. Soy sauce introduces a sharper, cleaner sodium profile due to fermented soybeans, whereas Worcestershire sauce relies on fermented onions, garlic, and anchovies for a more complex, rounded depth. Maintaining the correct two-to-one ratio when swapping soy sauce for Worcestershire preserves the necessary salinity that balances out the two tablespoons of honey and one tablespoon of brown sugar. Crushing raw garlic rather than mincing it ruptures cellular walls rapidly, releasing alliinase enzymes that quickly convert to allicin, delivering pungent aromatic compounds that cut through the heavy tomato base before baking begins.
- If the glaze darkens too rapidly after twenty minutes of baking, tent the ninety-three baking dish loosely with aluminum foil to halt direct infrared radiation.
- Store leftover baked portions in an airtight glass container within the refrigerator for up to three days without losing structural integrity.
- Whisk the hot water vigorously into the corn starch mixture immediately to prevent premature lumps from forming before the oil is added.
