Sweet and Spicy BBQ Chicken

Awhile back, I promised you my recipe for some delicious bbq sauce/marinade that I have used successfully on chicken. This sauce was basically the product of another refrigerator clean out. I have had several cans of Goya Fruit Nectar in the back of my refrigerator for at least 2 years. I am sure they are well past their use-by-date, but I am not the kind to give up easily. It is fruit juice that has never been opened, and I was planning to cook with it - might as well keep it around until you find a use for it, ya know? I am truly happy that I kept it around and noticed it a couple weeks ago when I was trying to come up with a new chicken marinade. I grabbed a can of the Pineapple-Passionfruit flavor, and that was the backbone of this recipe.


Of course what would a spicy, sweet marinade be without some citrus? I opted for lime which was what I had around, but lemon or even orange would work nicely in this recipe. I also had some left over chipotles in adobo sauce in the far back corner of my-little-shelf-where-things-go-to-die. (Why is it that the narrowest shelf in your refrigerator always becomes the shelf where the most things are forgotten? Or is it just me??) Finally I noticed an open jar of some pepper jelly (jam? It has chunks of peppers) that I canned last summer. I decided these flavors would all work nicely together and create a spicy sweet combination of flavors that would tingle my tastebuds - I was so right!

The first time I used this combination, I marinated raw, boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the sauce overnight before roasting the breasts. While the chicken was in the oven, I reduced the reserved marinade by boiling it for 10-15 minutes. It turned into a slightly thick, incredibly rich, sweet and very spicy barbeque sauce. I basted the chicken during the last 10 minutes of cooking with the reduced sauce. It was absolutely delicious atop some citrusy coleslaw with a brown rice salad.

I brought J extra sauce for dipping at the hotel,
which is what you see in the lid.

I had about a cup of "barbeque sauce" left over from that experiment, and I decided to tuck it away in the refrigerator to use for another time (of course it went on that-shelf-where-things-go-to-die!). Thankfully I remembered that I had saved this sauce, and I used it to marinate and baste some roasted chicken that I made for J when we went to Cleveland. J really liked the bbq sauce, but it might have been a little spicy for him. I recommend serving something like sweet potato salad alongside this chicken if you need a little starchy sweetness to cut the spicy. You can also reduce the amount of chipotles that you add to the sauce if you are nervous about heat.


Josie's Sweet and Spicy Barbeque Sauce

juice & zest of 1 lime (or other citrus fruit)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons HOT Pepper Jelly
12 oz Pineapple/Passion Goya Fruit Nectar
2-3 tablespoons chopped chipotles in adobo sauce

Combine all ingredients and use as a marinade, or reduce over medium heat to desired thickness to create a barbeque sauce.