Baked BBQ Split Chicken Breasts only takes 2 ingredients and a few knife skills. This is an economical recipe for moist and tender chicken with a wonderful taste.
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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.
Serve with Oven Fried Chicken, Cornmeal Biscuits, or Corn on the Cob.
Check out some other great recipes, like Grilled BBQ Split Chicken Breast, Crispy Baked Split Chicken Breasts, Mayonnaise Parmesan Split Chicken Breasts, and BBQ Shredded Pork Loin for Pulled Pork in the Oven.
👨🍳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.
✔️Tips
- 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?
🐓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.
❓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. 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.
❄️Leftover storage and reheating
Store leftovers in an airtight container, then refrigerate for 3 days or freeze for 3 months.
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.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Start with preheating the oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional.
Trim the rib section off the chicken breasts 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. (Image still has ribs attached.)
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.
After removing from the oven, apply another coat of sauce.
📖 Recipe
Easy Baked BBQ Split (Bone-in Skin-on) Chicken Breasts
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.
Your Own Private Notes
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.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editor's note: Originally published May 21, 2011. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
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 moist. Thant you.
DrDan
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
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
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
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