This Powerhouse Ingredient Belongs In Your BBQ Chicken From Now On

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On the easiest end of the spectrum, all you really need to do is swipe chicken legs, breasts, and thighs with a simple, scratch-made barbecue sauce, bake, and you'll be eating delicious barbecue chicken in well under an hour. But you can improve your meal's depth and flavor by adding a little splash of something you might have left over from your breakfast table: espresso.

A slosh of the rich, somewhat bitter coffee will bolster the barbecue sauce's smoky notes. The sweeteners typically present in the sauce will, in turn, mellow the brew's harsh edge to create a harmonious blend. Just take a whiff of the espresso for a more experiential understanding of why this works. The roasted beans bring out a toasty aroma that complements a great piece of barbecued meat. And marrying these elements is as easy as making a morning cuppa. And to keep any jitters at bay, this will not make your chicken taste like espresso so much as give it a deep, bitter background, nor will it give it any kind of substantial caffeine kick.

You can use the sauce detailed in our espresso-tinged BBQ chicken skewer recipe for any bird preparation, whether it's on a stick or not. As noted in the recipe, freshly brewed is best. But you can make espresso without a big, expensive machine. The petite stovetop Bialetti Moka Express (available on Amazon), for example, makes 2 ounces at a time of a concentrated brew akin to espresso, which just happens to be the exact amount that you need. Instant is also fine in a pinch, and Chowhound happens to have ranked the best instant espresso brands. Or you can pick up a demi (3 ounces) at Starbucks.

Once it's brewed, things start to go much faster since all that's left is simmering and stirring the espresso with the barbecue sauce ingredients (in this case, ketchup, vinegar, honey, soy sauce, and black pepper) for around 10 minutes until it's finished. It's kind of too easy not to try out. You can then follow your favorite BBQ chicken recipe, swapping in your favorite new espresso-enhanced sauce for a more dynamic flavor.