My husband isn’t the biggest BBQ sauce fan; however, since I am the one who does all the cooking, I will occasionally do a dinner that I WANT. And because I am not cruel, I will add some of his favorite sides offset his aversion to BBQ sauce. This specific dinner, I made some green beans and low carb mac & cheese. These are both HITS in my house.
Jump to RecipeBBQ SAUCE
Specifically, I try to use sugar free BBQ sauce. I know that you can make your own, but I like having a quick option in the pantry or in the fridge. Thankfully, it seems like more and more brands are getting on-board with the sugar free trends. I do like G. Hughes BBQ sauce and the Original is my favorite. You can pick whichever you prefer and what fits in your macros. I also only use 1/2 cup total in this recipe. Because of the quantity used, even if you wanted to use regular sugar BBQ, don’t beat yourself up.
If you are looking for one of those dinners that you can whip up in 30min or less, this is the one you should try! In the morning, you could start your chicken marinating.
CHICKEN
What is your favorite of the chicken to use? Breast, thigh, legs, tenders? In this dinner, I used thighs, I prefer thighs in most recipes because I like how the chicken stays juicy. In Addition, they are also more affordable. I usually buy the value size, separate into 2 ziplocks, label and freeze. This allows me to have the right portion of chicken when needed. I also try to let it freeze flat so that it will defrost quicker.
Quick Tip on marinating: I will use a produce bags (link here and at the bottom) for my chicken. Since my chicken will only be marinating for the day or min 30 minutes, I hate wasting an expensive ziplock. Example picture is below. It works perfectly for what I need it for.
SIDES
When it comes to sides, there are so many options. For some reason, I have issues figuring that out when I am planning my menu. Thankfully, I do have a list of GO-TO sides that everyone in the house loves.
- Garlic Green Beans
- Low Carb Mac & Cheese
- Low Carb Mexican “Rice” ( will be adding recipe link soon)
- Sautéed onions with zucchini and yellow squash (my fav)
- Regular Rice (special occasions in our house)
- Grilled Asparagus
- Grilled Zucchini/yellow squash spears
- Roasted Broccoli
- Salad (those prepared ones already in a bag are awesome)
- Twice baked Cauliflower ( will be adding recipe link soon)
Other recipes to try
Check out The Best Green Beans – Only 3 Ingredients!
Check out Our Favorite Low Carb Mac & Cheese- Easy & Cheesy
Grilled BBQ Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 1-1.5 lbs chicken thighs
- 1/2 cup Sugar Free BBQ Sauce
Instructions
- In a ziplock bag, combine chicken and ¼ cup of preferred BBQ sauce. I like to let this marinate at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 deg F
- Grill chicken on outdoor grill or grill pan on stovetop for about 4-5 minutes on each side (making sure chicken is cooked to 175)
- Put chicken on foil lined baking sheet
- Using a kitchen brush or spoon, lightly coat chicken on the top side with the remaining 1/4 cup of bbq sauce.
- put chicken in oven for 5 minutes to warm up the bbq sauce on top and let it caramelize a bit.
- Let chicken sit on baking pan for 5 minutes before cutting into chicken. This keeps the chicken juicy by allowing juices to soak into chicken before the first cut.
Notes
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