Bonus Recipe: Grilled Soy Sauce BBQ Chicken & Broccoli
Charred chicken & broccoli with sweet and tangy BBQ flavor
Hi Friends!
I wanted to sneak a grilled chicken recipe in before Labor Day while also encouraging you to get some veggies on the grill. If you don’t already own a grill basket for vegetables, it’s not too late!
A grill basket lets you grill almost any type of vegetable without worrying about it falling through the grates. In this recipe, we’re going to grill broccoli, but you can also grill bite-sized zucchini, bell pepper, cabbage, onion, mushrooms or cauliflower. You can grill asparagus stalks or broccolini stalks or thin, long carrots. You can even grill potatoes, as long as you boil them until just tender first.
Just toss the veggies with olive oil & salt and fill up the grill basket. Most veggies will take 10 to 15 minutes over medium-high heat, tossed occasionally with tongs. You’ll have tender, charred veggies with a smoky grilled flavor that can’t be replicated in an oven. Just dump the grilled veggies on a platter and serve them plain or with a squeeze of lemon or a drizzle of vinaigrette over the top. There are lots of grilling baskets out there, this is the grill basket that I use.
Now, about that grilled chicken! This marinade has a sweet and tangy BBQ flavor with a hint of soy sauce and sesame oil. It’s based on similar marinades that use hoisin sauce, but I use ketchup (yes, ketchup!) instead. Hear me out. Ketchup is sweet and tangy and unlike hoisin sauce, it’s always in my kitchen (I don’t like having to buy special ingredients that I use for one recipe, then they sit in my fridge for months).
When ketchup is mixed with soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, honey and garlic it turns into a flavorful BBQ marinade with a little bit of Asian flavor thrown in.
This recipe tastes best grilled, because the chicken and broccoli get all crispy and caramelized around the edges, but I’ve included instructions for oven roasting, too.
Grilled Soy Sauce BBQ Chicken & Broccoli
Servings: 4 to 6
Cooking Method: Grilling (oven roasting instructions also included)
Preparation Time: Ideally, marinate the chicken overnight (but at least a few hours). It will take about 20 minutes to grill the chicken and broccoli and make rice.
I like to serve this grilled chicken and broccoli over rice, but you can also serve it over your favorite Asian noodles.
A printable pdf of the recipe can be found at the bottom of the page.
Questions? If you have any questions about this recipe, just ask in the comments!
Ingredients
1 to 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 to 4 pounds broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets
⅓ cup ketchup
⅓ cup soy sauce (lower sodium or regular)
¼ cup toasted sesame oil
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Optional garnished: black sesame seeds, sliced green onion
Instructions
Mix together the ketchup, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, vinegar and garlic in a container that can be used to marinate the chicken. Make sure the marinade is mixed well, so that the honey is completely blended in. Marinate the chicken for at least a few hours, but ideally the night before.
Heat a grill (gas or charcoal) to medium-high heat. If your grill is big enough, you can grill the broccoli on one side (in a grill basket) and the chicken on the other side at the same time.
If you’re serving rice with the meal, put the rice on the cook. (I always make Instant Pot white rice or IP brown rice).
Broccoli: Lightly coat the broccoli florets it in olive oil or sunflower oil and season with salt. Use a grill basket (I use this one by Grillaholics) to grill the broccoli, tossing occasionally with tongs until it’s nicely charred, which usually takes about 10 minutes. *Make sure to use pot holders to move or shake the grill basket, it gets really hot!
Chicken: Use tongs to lift the chicken out of the marinade and let excess marinade drip off before placing the thighs on the hot grill grates. Grill the chicken thighs for 6 to 7 minutes a side until nicely browned and charred, trying to avoid flare-ups. When you flip the chicken, it should come up off the grill fairly easily. If it’s sticking, let it cook another minute or two, then try again. If the chicken starts to burn, turn the heat down to medium or move the chicken to a part of the grill that has less heat.
Take the broccoli off the grill. Turn the grill heat down to low (or move the thighs to cooler part of the charcoal grill) and put the lid on the grill. Finish cooking the chicken for another few minutes until cooked all the way through (boneless chicken thighs have the best texture if they are “well done” and reach in internal temp of at least 170F).
Slice the chicken thighs and garnish with black sesame seeds and/or sliced green onion. Serve with broccoli and rice.
Oven Roasted Chicken & Broccoli
You can cook this dinner in the oven instead of on a grill. The chicken doesn’t get quite as charred, which I think makes the marinade taste better, but I’ve made this recipe as a sheet-pan dinner several times and it’s still good.
Heat the oven to 425 F. Cover 1 or 2 large rimmed sheet-pans in foil. If you’re using 1 pound of chicken + 2 pounds or less of broccoli it can be cooked on one sheet-pan, but any more than that and you’ll need two sheet-pans.
Toss the broccoli in enough olive oil to lightly coat and season it with salt. Spread the broccoli out evenly on the sheet-pan(s). Add the marinated chicken to the sheet-pans. Don’t shake excess marinade off of the chicken before putting it on the pan; a little extra marinade on the sheet-pan helps flavor the broccoli too.
Roast for 25 minutes. No need to stir or flip anything.
The chicken won’t get as crispy and caramelized in the oven as it does on the grill. If you want more browning, you can take the broccoli out of the oven after 25 minutes and then put the chicken thigh back in under the broiler for a few minutes to brown.
Recipe Notes
Olive oil can be substituted for toasted sesame oil
Black sesame seeds are a very pretty garnish, especially over rice dishes. I bought a container of them at a co-op that sells bulk dried goods, which was less expensive then buying black sesame seeds from the spice aisle of a grocery store. Either way, the sesame seeds will last a really long time if you just use a sprinkle here or there as a garnish.
