This Apricot Barbecue Chicken is a tangy and sweet chicken recipe for the grill that you’ll find yourself eating all summer long. It’s made from dried apricots rather than sugar-laden jam!
If you’ve never made your own barbecue sauce, promise me you’ll give it a try soon! Don’t get me wrong, I love store-bought BBQ sauce but there’s something about making a recipe from start to finish. Plus you get to make fun flavor combinations that aren’t available in store… like this apricot barbecue chicken sauce.
The other day I was complaining to C that I was getting a little tired of my typical BBQ chicken breasts. We both agreed we needed to try something a little different. I had a bunch of dried apricots on hand and picked up some chicken thighs from the grocery store. I remembered that I developed this apricot barbecue sauce recipe 6 years ago so I decided to make it again. Sometimes I go back to old recipes and sometimes I forget about them. In this case I forgot, but I wish I hadn’t!
This apricot barbecue chicken cured all of our boring chicken woes. I promise it will solve yours too!
Apricot BBQ Sauce Ingredients:
- ketchup
- apple cider vinegar
- molasses
- unsweetened, unsulfured apricots
- water
- dried ground mustard
- onion powder
- garlic powder
- sea salt
Marinating 101
In my experience, the longer you marinate, the better. Up to a certain point of course! I try to marinate overnight but if you forget to prep in advance, you can marinate for just an hour.
Place your chicken in the container you’ll be using (you can use a large ziplock bag or a glass storage container) and pour the sauce over the chicken. I like to make sure every piece of protein is covered and has a little sauce massaged in. Then you just place the container in the fridge and let it sit until you’re ready to cook.
I recommend removing the chicken from the fridge 10-20 minutes before grilling. Room temp chicken cooks more evenly.
Storing Marinade
You may not want to use all of the marinade for your chicken or maybe you’re making the marinade in advance before cooking your chicken. If so, this marinade will last a few weeks if kept in an airtight container in the fridge. So if you want to just marinate and grill a little bit of meat at a time, you can!
A general rule of thumb is that once the marinade is on the raw meat, it has been used. Only store fresh barbecue sauce!
PrintApricot Barbecue Chicken
- Total Time: 2 hours
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup ketchup*
- 1 1/2 T apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 tsp molasses
- 1/2 cup unsweetened, unsulfured apricots**
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 1/2 tsp dried ground mustard
- 1 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 12 chicken thighs (or 6 chicken breasts)***
Instructions
- Place apricots in a bowl and cover with water. Let soak for at least 1 hour.
- Drain apricots and place in a blender or food processor and blend until a smooth paste is formed.
- In a medium-sized pot add all ingredients including apricot paste.
- Bring ingredients to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes.
- Let cool slightly before marinating chicken for at least 1 hour in fridge (I left mine overnight).
- Preheat grill to medium-high and lightly oil grates.
- Using chicken thighs, mine cooked in about 6 minutes on each side (12 minutes total). Cook longer for larger chicken thighs or breasts.
*I like Nature’s Hollow Sugar-Free Ketchup from Whole Foods.
**I buy these from Trader Joe’s but any kind of dried apricots will work.
***Marinade keeps for a few weeks so no need to marinate a ton of chicken if you don’t want to.
Like this post? Here are others you might enjoy:
- Grilled Asparagus Salad
- Fattoush Salad with Grilled Chicken
- Grilled Kale Caesar Salad with Spicy Shrimp
- Honey Mustard Grilled Salmon
- Grilled Shrimp Tacos
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40 Comments
Kim
June 1, 2014 at 5:03 pmYum – I saw your picture earlier on FB (or some other source) and couldn’t wait to get the recipe. I’m going to mix up the marinade and let Chris grill these this week (I don’t grill!!!).
Heather @ Run Like a G!
June 1, 2014 at 12:32 pmThis looks super delish!!!!! I love when people help you out 🙂 I am sure he was watching you so he could get a piece of chicken 😉
Amanda @ .running with spoons.
June 1, 2014 at 11:26 amI’ve been terrified of the grill ever since I had a buddy torch his eyebrows off. Let’s just say that the eyebrow-less look isn’t a good one for anybody, and that guys have it rough since they can’t exactly pencil them in 😯 But I would -almost- take my chances with the grill for these babies… look SO good.
Florence
June 1, 2014 at 10:28 amThis looks so amazing! I don’t usually love chicken but I think the apricot would be such a good pairing…plus BBQ anything is hard to turn down!
Megan @ The Skinny-Life
June 1, 2014 at 9:13 amI didn’t start grilling until last year. I always felt intimidated by it. It’s so easy though and makes cleanup easy too!
Sam @ Better With Sprinkles
June 1, 2014 at 8:08 amIt makes me sad that we don’t have a grill in our apartment – we could put one on our balcony, but it’s already pretty small so I don’t really want to clutter it up some more. Whenever I’m craving grilled food, I just head over to my parents 😉 And my dad is definitely the grill master – I can do it, but he just does it better.
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine
June 1, 2014 at 7:15 amYay, grilling! I just started grilling a few weeks ago and I am obsessed now! I was always so scared I wouldn’t cook it right (i.e. undercooked), but it is actually really easy…and so tasty! I have yet to try and grill fish, but chicken and veggies I have down pat!
Becky @ Olives n Wine
June 1, 2014 at 6:32 amThe hubs is most definitely in charge of grilling in our household. Something about open flames in a large contraption scares me… but a gas oven is okay. Apparently there is no justification to that comment but I totally understand what you’re saying about grilling!
Laurie
June 1, 2014 at 6:29 amGreat post. Made this non-grilling girl smile.
Davida Kugelmass
June 1, 2014 at 8:58 amHehe thanks Laurie 😉
meredith @ The Cookie ChRUNicles
June 1, 2014 at 5:50 amI do not grill. I wouldn’t even know where to begin nor do I have the desire to figure it out (works just fine for me as a vegetarian at the moment). Growing up my dad did the grilling and wouldn’t even let me near it in fear I might hurt myself. Then when I was married my husband (at the time) was all about manning our fancy grill (he was actually an excellent cook/griller). I used to love apricot chicken! I used to buy it ready-made from the kosher butcher lol. I may use this marinade for my son and cook it indoors. I have made something like it using apricot preserves.
Ann
June 1, 2014 at 5:45 amI always thought recipe need to be developed and tried several times before perfection and posting!? Do you ever do that or do your dupes turn out perfectly already each time? 😀
Anyway, yesterday I was the grill master! My mum and me did a bbq, no men, no trouble. She managed to torn on the grill, I prepared the food, put them on the grill and flipped them. It was perfect! Who says only men can grill?? That’s a myth!
Davida Kugelmass
June 1, 2014 at 9:02 amHi Ann. The apricot BBQ sauce was made twice although truth-be-told it worked perfectly on the first try! And I’m certainly not the first person to grill chicken 😉 I’ve had my fair share of failures though with practice those failures become less and less thankfully!
Agreed, women can totally grill..except in the rain cause that’s when I insist it’s the man’s job 😉
Arman @ thebigmansworld
June 1, 2014 at 5:34 amI actually take back everything positive and nice I discussed with you today.
Remember yonks ago when someone asked for recipes which didn’t involve a food processor? It’s like out of spite it was all damn food processor required recipes.
I actually now forgive you because you used thighs. Thighs > breasts.