Chicken is a real family pleaser because of its versatile nature that allows it to be prepared by your favorite method of cooking. You can grill it hot or smoke the chicken for a flavor-packed meal in your home.
Sadly, bringing the taste of a five-star hotel chicken barbeque to your home can be a bit challenging. It requires a skilled chef to grill the chicken at the right temperature, use the right ingredients with the correct measurements, and slather it with the right sauce.
The good news is that today, we'll reveal simple but little-known healthy chicken recipes that result in irresistible flavors. If you're a hardcore fan of tasty sauce-slathered meat, tag along to learn how to prepare delicious sauced chicken. But first, let's dig out the health benefits of eating chicken.
Health Benefits of Eating Chicken
Chicken is the most common poultry worldwide, and it's famous for a good reason. Apart from its delicious taste, eating chicken comes with dozens of health benefits, including:
It's a Great Source of Protein
Chicken is a good source of high-quality proteins that are the building blocks of life. Studies have shown that you need protein for your body to repair damaged cells and make new ones. You also need it to foster body growth and development.
Grilled Chicken Helps in Weight Control
A scientific study proves that high-protein diets increase weight loss for those watching their body weight. The research compared the effects of low and high protein diets on body weight, with a follow-up range of one week to one year. Within six months, participants on a high-protein diet (like grilled chicken) had lost more weight than those on a low-protein food regime.
For this reason, it's highly beneficial to include grilled chicken in your diet if you're watching your weight. After all, grilled chicken is a low-carb meal and contains less fat than most fried meat. These healthy characteristics ensure you consume fewer carbohydrates and reduce calorie intake in your meals, which is critical in weight control.
It's a Rich Source of Essential Vitamins
Chicken is an excellent source of vitamin B12 that keeps your nerve cells healthy and improves the production of genetic materials in your body. On the other hand, vitamin B6 in chicken is essential in immune system chemical reactions and boosts your immunity as a result. It also helps your body make serotonin, which regulates your mood.
The Best Healthy Chicken Recipes
1. Tony Roma's Inspired BBQ Chicken Recipe
If you're a fan of Tony Roma's amazing BBQ chicken jerky, you're familiar with the irresistible taste that has been around since the late 1970s. Here's the recipe to get the flavor you're looking for.
This four-servings recipe requires the following ingredients:
- Tony Roma's BBQ sauce
- Two cups of vinegar and ketchup
- A half teaspoon of garlic powder and onion powder
- Four teaspoons of sugar
- Sixteen pieces of chicken with bone and skin
- Pepper and salt
Once you have all the ingredients ready, put them in a saucepan and stir. Then, boil the mixture and let them simmer gently for forty-five minutes. Set the oven's heating temperature to 400 degrees and season your chicken with pepper and salt.
Next, cook the chicken for about 40 minutes before coating it with Tony Roma's BBQ sauce and putting the pan (with the meat) under the broiler for about two minutes. After that, put the pan on the broiler's top rack and leave the oven door open. That way, you'll be able to watch the sauced chicken get browned to your liking.
Once your chicken is ready, serve it with coleslaw, onion loaf, and extra Tony Roma's BBQ sauce for the best taste.
2. Grilled Chicken Breasts Recipe
For four servings, you'll need the following:
- one and a half tablespoons of lemon juice
- one clove of minced garlic
- A quarter teaspoon of dried thyme
- Four chicken breasts (bone-in)
- A quarter cup of olive oil
- Freshly ground black pepper (a quarter teaspoon)
- A quarter teaspoon of salt
- A half teaspoon of dried red-pepper flakes
Light the grill, mix all the ingredients in a shallow dish and coat the chicken with the resulting mixture. Broil the chicken breasts for about ten minutes or grill them over moderately high heat. Turn and cook until the meat turns brown. After that, you can sauce the chicken with Tony Roma's sauce and heat it for a few minutes to get the ultimate flavor.
3. Smoked Chicken Recipe with Tony Roma's Barbecue Sauce
This recipe takes about fifty minutes and requires the following ingredients for serving 4 people:
- Eight pieces of chicken adding up to three and a half pounds
- Vegetable oil
- A half a cup of hickory wood chips
- Freshly ground black pepper and salt
- Tony Roma's barbecue sauce
Light your gas grill. Get a heavy-duty foil and use a skewer to pierce it all over. Then, wrap the hickory wood chips with foil and place them on the grill. Be sure to cover the wood chips when placing them on the grill and let them smoke for about five minutes.
Brush the meat with oil and season it with pepper and salt. Grille the chicken (covered) over reasonably high heat while turning the pieces occasionally. Do this for about forty minutes to get a lightly charred chicken. Serve the chicken with Tony Roma's barbecue sauce.
4. Grilled Marinated Chicken Recipe
It's an eight servings recipe that entails soaking your chicken in spices before grilling it. The following are the ingredients you'll need:
- Three-quarters cup of molasses
- A half a cup of ruby port
- Worcestershire sauce (one tablespoon)
- One minced shallot
- Two tablespoons of soy sauce
- A half a cup of olive oil
- Two tablespoons of Dijon mustard
- Freshly ground pepper (two tablespoons)
- Tony Roma's barbecue sauce
- Four three-pound chickens (cut into quarters and backboneless)
Get a large bowl, mix all the ingredients (except the last two), and keep them at room temperature for half an hour. Put the chicken quarters inside the mixture, ensuring every part is coated. Then, keep them in a fridge overnight.
After that, light your grill. Remove your meat from the mixture and arrange the chicken quarters on large baking sheets. Next, brush the meat with Tony Roma's barbecue sauce and grill over moderate heat. Occasionally, turn your chickens until they are evenly cooked and serve at room temperature or hot.
5. Grilled Greek Chicken Recipe
This recipe is for six servings, and it requires the following ingredients:
- Garlic (six cloves)
- Dried oregano (two tablespoons)
- A half a cup of lemon juice
- A quarter cup of olive oil
- Distilled vinegar (one tablespoon)
- Freshly ground black pepper (one tablespoon)
- Red pepper flakes (one teaspoon)
- Six chicken leg quarters
Mix the first six ingredients in a large bowl. Then, make two slashes on the thigh section of each chicken leg quarter. Next, season the chicken quarters with salt and put them in the bowl with the mixture. Cover the bowl and leave it in the refrigerator for four to twelve hours.
After that, remove the leg quarters from the marinade and let it drain slightly. Place the meat on a grill and let each side cook evenly for about seven minutes. Once the leg quarters are nicely grilled, serve with Tony Roma's barbecue sauce for the best flavor.
Get the Best BBQ Chicken Sauce from Tony Roma's Jerky
We understand that plain, unseasoned chicken hardly makes for a delicious, satisfying meal. That's why we have Tony Roma's barbecue chicken sauce to help bring a bold, mouthwatering flavor to your chicken meal.
Even better, our chicken jerky bites will do the trick for those craving that distinct barbecue taste in their chicken but lack the time to cook. Give our jerky snacks a try!