Simple BBQ Chicken Thighs

Last Updated on August 3, 2023 by What’s Smoking

BBQ chicken thighs are a sticky finger, melt in your mouth, downright delicious meal that anyone from a pit master to a summer BBQ weekend warrior can enjoy. With an incredibly basic set of ingredients and a easy grilling style, you will be eating some mouth watering BBQ chicken thighs before you know it.

What You Need For BBQ Chicken Thighs

You will need a grill, obviously, I am going to do this recipe on my gas grill. Doing this recipe on the gas grill, makes this for an easy way to cook chicken thighs, give you a great weeknight recipe or for a large crowd for your summer BBQ.

We will need about 1-2 lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and some original Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce. If you have a favorite BBQ sauce, by all means, use that as well, there is no secret here to using the Sweet Baby Ray’s. And just with these two ingredients you can make some juicy, flavorful BBQ chicken.

How To Make Barbecue Chicken Thighs

We are going to get the grill going to 400°. The key here is to do this with indirect heat on the front end of the cook. I have a gas grill that is large enough to do this without any issues. I have 4 burners so I can fire up two of them and then place the chicken over the 2 unused burners for some indirect heat. The benefit to cooking like this as opposed to doing it over the flames is the chicken cooks but does not get dried out. If you do not have enough room on the grates leverage the warming rack.

We are then going to place the thighs on the grill. Reminder, we are doing boneless and skinless for this recipe. There can be differences in how bone and skin thighs are done. Place the thighs where you are going to cook with the indirect heat and close the grill. A plus to also using thighs, they can take the higher heat because of more fat and as we do in this recipe, we can get away without having to brine them. If you feel more comfortable brining them, we have a recipe for brining thighs, take a look.

We are going to let these cook for about 15 minutes. While we want the lid closed during the cooking process, you may want to move so the chicken around once does not get stuck to the grate. You can also spray the grate down with some cooking spray or wipe the grate down with some vegetable oil, before putting the chicken on the grill. When the thighs get to an IT of 140°, we are going to start coating with the BBQ sauce. Because we are cooking with indirect heat, no need to worry about flipping right now.

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When we are coating with BBQ sauce, brush it on one side, flip and brush it on the other and the close up the grill again. You are going to take the thighs to 160° with indirect heat. Now chicken only needs to reach an IT of 165° for it to be safe, but in most cases that would apply to chicken breasts. Chicken thighs because of a higher fat content, can go higher IT. I have taken thighs upwards of 175° and there were still tender and juicy to bite into.

Once the internal temperature reaches 160°, we are going to move over to direct heat. Place over direct heat, brush the top of the thighs again with BBQ sauce and let cook for 2 minutes over direct heat. You can then flip, brush again with barbecue sauce and cook for another 2 minutes over the direct heat. Each grill will be a little different and has those hotter spots so just keep an eye on them. You can do this last part with the grill open. By moving over at 160°, there should not be a need to check IT, will you easily reach a safe IT of 165°.

Once you start to see some char on them you are good to go and can pull, let rest for 5-10 minutes and then serve!

Bringing Home Our BBQ Chicken Thighs Recipe

This is an amazing finger licking recipe that is just incredibly easy. Whether its a weeknight recipe for the family or a crowd for your 4th of July BBQ, this will be a hit. Just don’t go telling them how easy and simple it actually was!

Thanks for being here and checking out this BBQ Chicken Thighs recipe. I hope you enjoy it! We always appreciate comments, 5 star recipe rating and social media shares. As always, keep that smoke rolling!

Need some other chicken thighs recipes or grilling recipes, here are a few suggestions:

• Grilled Blackened Fish Sandwich
• Grilled Twice Baked Potato
• Grilled Chicken Street Tacos
• Tandoori Chicken On Charcoal Grill
• Smoked Bone In Chicken Thighs
• Smoked WSM Chicken Thighs
• Stuffed Chicken Thighs Wrapped In Bacon

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