Winter Barbecued Chicken without stepping foot outside
There comes a point every winter when endurance stops being noble and starts feeling ridiculous.
The sidewalks are gray. The sky is gray. The air hurts your face. You’ve worn the same coat so many days in a row it now feels like part of your anatomy. And suddenly—almost irrationally—you start craving barbecue. Not soup. Not stew. Not another earnest braise meant to “comfort” you while you wait for April.
You want smoke. Sticky sweetness. Char. Summer on a plate. But outside? Absolutely not.
That is precisely when Claire Saffitz’s Barbecue Chicken Recipe saves the day.
Claire Saffits never truly surprises me: Her contributions here include her Pull Apart rolls which consistently top the charts of all 1250 recipes on ChewingTheFat. Here’s a link to see why: https://chewingthefat.us.com/2021/01/claire-saffritz-pull-apart-sour-cream-and-chive-rolls.html
But looking for a recipe that could bring some summer to this endless winter, I realized her Oven-Barbecued Chicken delivers everything we associate with backyard grilling—deep flavor, caramelized sauce, crisped skin—without stepping into freezing wind, without coaxing coals to life, without negotiating with a grill that never seems to behave. I realized it is barbecue for the winter-weary. It’s not just good winter cooking. This is emotional survival food.
The Genius Move: Barbecue Chicken on a Mountain of Onions
The chicken may be the headline, but the onions are the revelation.
Instead of grilling over open flame, the chicken roasts over thick layers of sliced sweet onions. As the chicken cooks, the onions slowly soften, absorb the rendered fat, drink in the barbecue sauce, and collapse into something rich, savory, and deeply caramelized. They become part side dish, part sauce, part secret weapon.
You cannot replicate this on a grill. Not even close.
Store-Bought Barbecue Sauce: A Small Miracle of Sanity
Let us take a moment to appreciate a deeply civilized choice: bottled barbecue sauce.
If you’ve ever made barbecue sauce from scratch, you already know the drill—ingredient lists that read like a spice market inventory, simmering, blending, adjusting, tasting, adjusting again. Worthwhile? Certainly. Necessary on a freezing Tuesday night? Absolutely not.
This recipe embraces convenience in the best possible way. Use a good store-bought sauce you love. For many tasters, Sweet Baby Ray’s consistently ranks at the top for balance, texture, and just enough smokiness without overwhelming the chicken.
When winter is relentless, shortcuts are not compromises. They are wisdom.
How the Magic Happens
The process is straightforward, but the sequence matters.
First comes a quick spice rub—warm, slightly sweet, deeply savory. Then the chicken roasts slowly over the onions until tender and nearly done. The skin gets blistered under the broiler before any sauce touches it, ensuring it stays crisp rather than soggy.
Only then is the barbecue sauce applied. It caramelizes under high heat, bubbling, darkening, and clinging to the chicken in glossy layers. The result is everything we want from grilled barbecue—charred edges, sticky glaze, juicy meat—achieved entirely indoors while snow piles up outside.
When it emerges from the oven and settles onto that bed of melting onions, the effect is almost absurdly satisfying.
And in the middle of winter, that is reason enough to make it immediately.
An astonishing recipe for Barbecued Chicken without a Grill and on a flavor-filled bed of absolutely delicious onions.Claire Saffritz' Oven-Barbecued Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
