How to Get Barbecue Sauce to Stick to Grilled Chicken

Barbecue sauce can be as spicy or a sweet as you prefer.

You could have the best-tasting barbecue sauce in the world for barbecue chicken, but if you can't get it to stick well enough to the chicken, your guests won't really be able to enjoy it. The key to getting barbecue sauce to stick properly is to make a sauce that is very thick, which can be achieved in a variety of ways, from reducing the sauce to a sticky glaze to adding extra molasses. Does this Spark an idea?

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Butter
Molasses
Broiler rack
Small pot
Cornstarch
Flour

Instructions

- 1
  
  Toss the chicken with butter. Butter, or any saturated fat, clings to the chicken as it becomes solid at room temperature, allowing the barbecue sauce to stick to the butter. It's one of the reasons why hot wings are tossed in hot sauce mixed with butter.
- 2
  
  Use a lot of molasses. If you are making barbecue sauce from scratch, go heavy on the molasses, especially if you like sweet barbecue sauce. The thickness of the molasses will make it easy to stick to chicken and any other meat.
- 3
  
  Reduce the sauce. If your sauce has turned out much too thin, you can make it thicker by reducing it over high heat. Pour the barbecue sauce into a small pot and bring it to a boil, then lower the heat to bring the sauce to a simmer. Cover and allow it to reduce, and thicken to your desired result; then baste your chicken with it.
- 4
  
  Use the dry-heat method. Turn your oven to the broiler setting, then brush a coat of the barbecue sauce onto the chicken and place it on a broiler rack under the broiler for about 2 minutes, until the sauce begins to bubble. Remove the chicken from the oven and baste again, turning it over; then place back in the oven for another 2 minutes under the broiler. Repeat several times until you have a thick layer of sauce that clings to the chicken.
- 5
  
  Add cornstarch to the barbecue sauce. Combine 1 tbsp. of cornstarch with 1 tbsp. of water for every cup of barbecue sauce you have. Heat the barbecue sauce over medium heat in a pot on the stove and stir in the cornstarch. You can also use 2 tbsp. of flour mixed with 1/4 cup cold water instead of cornstarch. Stir either mixture until the sauce thickens and starts to bubble. Stir for one additional minute if you used flour and two more minutes if you used cornstarch before removing from the heat.