Baked BBQ Split Chicken Breasts only take 2 ingredients and a few knife skills. This is an economical recipe for moist and tender chicken with a wonderful taste.
Ingredients
Split (skin-on-bone-in) chicken breasts
BBQ sauce of your choice.
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Featured Comment from Deborah:
"Chicken barbecue is an art that even competition grillers hate. I was lazy and wanted to cook indoors. This is awesome. Perfect consistency and moisture."
Split chicken breasts are very economical, but most people have no idea how to cook them. It doesn't get simpler than this. Cut up the chicken, bake, and then baste a few times—a cooking skill level of 2/10. You can do it.
This easy step-by-step recipe for BBQ chicken produces moist and tender results with no skill. It only needs two ingredients—the chicken and BBQ sauce.
The most important part of this recipe is trimming the chicken into serving-size pieces, which aids in cooking and serving.
The quality of your results is also dependent on your BBQ sauce. If you have a sauce you love, use it. If not, use my Memphis BBQ Sauce, which you will love.
👨🍳How to Cook Baked BBQ Split Chicken Breasts
- Preheat the oven and prepare a baking tray with foil, a rack (optional), and a coat of PAM cooking spray.
- Trim skin-on-bone-in chicken breasts (split breasts) by removing the rib section and cutting it into serving-size pieces.
- Bake the chicken for about 35-40 minutes and an internal temperature of 155° to 160°.
- Brush the chicken with BBQ sauce and bake until 165°.
- Remove from the oven and brush with sauce again. Rest for 5 minutes and serve.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
✔️Tips to get it right every time
- Be sure to cut the chicken into more reasonable-sized pieces for cooking and serving reasons.
- Since the sauce provides all the seasoning, there is no reason for another seasoning. Also, oil is not needed.
- We no longer recommend washing chicken; just a good pat dry is all that is needed. For more information, please see Chicken... To Rinse or Not To Rinse?
Serving
Serve with Cornbread Biscuits, Broccoli Slaw Salad, or Microwave Corn on the Cob. Add in some Convection Oven French Fries using fresh homemade or frozen French fries. Or try some easy Roasted Small Potatoes.
Related recipes
Check out some other great split chicken recipes, like Grilled BBQ Split Chicken Breast, Crispy Baked Split Chicken Breasts, Herbs de Provence Chicken, and Baked Mayonnaise Split Chicken Breasts.
For some excellent crock pot BBQ recipes, try Baby Back Ribs in the crock pot, Crock Pot Shredded Pork Tenderloin, and Crock Pot Pulled Pork.
❄️Leftover storage and reheating
Store leftovers in an airtight container, then refrigerate for 3 days or freeze for 3 months.
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I like my leftover BBQ chicken cold, but reheating it in the oven in a covered dish is preferred. A microwave will change the texture of the chicken and its skin.
❓FAQs
If there is a “secret,” it is how to prepare a split chicken breast for cooking. Trimming into smaller pieces makes it much easier to get a safe final internal temperature of 165° without overcooking to the surface (good). It makes more surface area for seasoning (good). And makes more reasonably sized servings (also good).
Step one is cutting off the attached rib section. There is no meat; it takes seasoning and tends to burn. It is not a must-do, but a nice touch.
Step two is to cut it into two or three equal pieces. Trying to cook the whole thing at once will almost always burn it on the outside before reaching a safe 165° internal temperature.
Chicken tastes best with a BBQ sauce with some sweetness. That is usually a Memphis or Kansas City sauce.
I prefer my Gate's BBQ sauce from Kansas City or my homemade Memphis Barbecue Sauce. Cooks Illustrated like Bull's-eye Original or Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce. But use the sauce you love.
🐓About Skin-on Bone-in (Split) Chicken Breasts
Skin-on-bone-in chicken breasts are also known as split chicken breasts. They are called split chicken breasts because, during processing, the entire breast is removed with some ribs. It is then "split" down the middle of the breast bone to produce two pieces.
Many people feel they have more taste and moisture than the skinless boneless variety.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Start with preheating the oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional.
Trim the rib section off the chicken breasts (optional) and divide the chicken breasts into 2-3 equal size pieces each—pat dry.
Prepare a smaller baking pan with aluminum foil (to help clean up) and a cooking rack sprayed with PAM. If you don't have a rack, you can skip it.
Arrange the breast with the thicker parts of each piece to the outside of the pan.
Bake until internal temp of 155° to 160°. That will be about 35 to 40 minutes, depending on your oven and the size of the breasts. Remove from oven and brush on a coat of sauce. Place the chicken back in the oven until it is at least 165° before removing it—about 5 minutes.
After removing from the oven, apply another coat of sauce.
📖The Recipe Card with Step-by-Step Instructions
Easy Baked BBQ Split (Bone-in Skin-on) Chicken Breasts
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Start with preheating the oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional. Trim the rib section off the chicken breasts
- Divide the chicken breasts into 2-3 equal size pieces each—pat dry.
- Prepare a smaller baking pan with aluminum foil (to help clean up) and a cooking rack sprayed with PAM. If you don't have a rack, you can skip it.
- Arrange the breast with the thicker parts of each piece to the outside of the pan.
- Bake until internal temp of 155° to 160°. That will be about 35 to 40 minutes, depending on your oven and the size of the breasts. Remove from oven and brush on a coat of sauce. Place back in the oven until the chicken is at least 165° before removing—about 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and apply another coat of sauce.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Scale to the amount you need.
- Use a sauce you love. I usually use my Memphis sauce.
- No other seasoning is needed.
- The rack is nice to use but not required. Just a good coat of PAM on the foil will do.
- Arrange the chicken with the thickest part to the outside of the tray. This will help a lot in even cooking.
- Good refrigerated for 3-4 days.
- I never brine skin-on chicken breasts. They stay very moist anyway.
- Just pat dry the breasts. For safety, we do not recommend rinsing chicken.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You can adjust the number of servings above; however, only the amount in the ingredient list is adjusted, not the instructions.
Nutrition Estimate (may vary)
Editor's note: Originally published May 21, 2011. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Deborah says
Chicken barbecue is an art that even competition grillers hate. I was lazy and wanted to cook indoors. This is awesome. Perfect consistency and moist. Thant you.
DrDan says
Hi Deborah,
Welcome to the blog. Sorry for the delayed response.
The oven does save a lot of work and actually hard to get wrong.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe and thanks for the note.
Dan
Maya says
Hi Dan.
Thx for the bbq chick recipe. I was afraid of the high oven temp 425 but I gave it a whirl. The 40 min was perfect. They came out very good. (My mom always said 350 was for baking not for cooking meat. )
DrDan says
Hi Maya,
Sorry for the delayed responce.
I do a bit more higher temperature cooking than most. Thinks like this and chicken legs and thighs just do better at the higher temperatures. They are just more moist if you don't overcook them.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Inspired by eRecipeCards says
hey Doc... I just made one of your recipes and posted on my new blog...
erecipecards