This Asian BBQ Chicken recipe is always on my most-requested list. I often make it for company because it’s such a reliable hit. If you haven’t discovered this one, then definitely put it on your to-make list! Chicken thighs soak up a great marinade with flavors including soy sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, garlic and ginger. Make sure to check out my recommendations for side dishes at the end of this post, because it’s especially great with some of our coordinating rice sides.
Ingredient Notes
- Soy Sauce – My favorite brand is Aloha, but feel free to use any brand you like. With the exception of Aloha brand, I suggest a low-sodium soy sauce.
- Brown Sugar – this adds the perfect balance of sweetness. Use light, or dark would be fine as well.
- Ginger – this recipe calls for fresh ginger, which I think is especially great. If you’ve never worked with fresh ginger, here’s a how-to. I’ve also used powdered dry ginger in a pinch and that will work as well, if you don’t have fresh.
- Lime Juice – I recommend using a fresh lime, as opposed to bottled lime juice.
How to Make Asian BBQ Chicken
Combine all ingredients in a zip top bag and add chicken thighs. It’s that easy!
Then grill it up on your bbq (or use an indoor grill pan or broiler if you don’t have a bbq).
One of the reasons I love this chicken is that it can be served with so many things. You can go Asian-ish, or Thai-ish, or Polynesian-ish.
Serving Suggestions
I love it with this Lime-Cilantro Rice with Pineapple, and it’s also great with Sweet and Savory Coconut Rice, or even Fried Rice. When I made it for these photos I made some Jasmine rice and when it was done cooking I added a few pats of butter, a handful of both sliced green onions and cilantro, some diced mango and salt and pepper.
And if you end up with extra chicken, try this Asian BBQ Chicken Pizza!
Asian BBQ Chicken
Ingredients
Marinade
- ¼ cup brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons lime juice about 1 lime
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon curry powder
- 3-4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon ginger, fresh grated
Chicken
- 8 chicken thighs boneless, skinless
- green onions, sliced for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Combine everything but the chicken and optional green onions in a small bowl. (See note.) Whisk to dissolve brown sugar. Place marinade and chicken in a zip-lock bag. Pop that bag in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours, or longer if you have it (even overnight).
- Preheat a grill (or an indoor grill pan or broiler). Spray cooking surface with cooking spray and place chicken on it to cook. Cook for 5-10 minutes on each side depending on the thickness. Using a digital thermometer, cook chicken until it is a minimum temperature of 165°. However, you’ll want to aim for between 170-175° for improved flavor and texture.
- Optional: garnish with sliced green onions.
Notes
- I recommend making 1 1/2 times the marinade. I reserve some of the marinade before adding the chicken and then use it in the last few minutes of grilling, or just brush it on after for extra flavor.
Nutrition
Questions & Reviews
Made it with chicken tenders due tos dietary restrictions. My entire family loved it. That says a lot with my picky eaters.
Just found this and was going to make it this week for friends – one of my friends is a vegetarian, do you think I could do a veggie version with just veg? What vegetables do you think would work? Looks delicious!!
This recipe was SOOO good! Something I did to make it even better was add some chopped cilantro to the marinade… ahhh it was so good with the cilantro!!
Thanks for this recipe! Definitely share worthy!
I’m extremely excited about this recipe. I was out of chicken thighs so I’m using steak instead. I can’t see how that would be a bad thing, and leaving out the curry as I don’t have any and we aren’t huge fans of the flavor. Did I mention I’m excited about it?
Our family loves any recipe with curry in it so I made this tonight. It was delicious!! I used bone-in thighs because thats all they had at the store. I took the skin off and marinated for 6 hours. Turned out great!
I made these last night and they were so yummy. 3 boys plus 2 parents loved it which is so rare to hit a home run like that so this is definitely a keeper. Used the thighs and so glad I did. Thanks!
Looks delish! I’m trying it this week and wondered if I can use ginger powder instead of fresh? What would be the correct measurements?
Thanks!
You can- I would just check your bottle of ginger and see what it says the ratio of fresh to powdered is. If all else fails, I use a 1part dry to 3 parts fresh ratio (the ratio for herbs).
I have made gobs of this recipe. love it. I even save myself some time and prepare 4x the recipe of marinade and just freeze the portions of thighs in each portion of marinade in it’s own bag. then as its defrosting in the fridge, its also marinating. this way I only have to grate knuckle busting ginger and garlic at one time and I always have this ready to roll, when I am having one of those mommy brain days when I don’t know what to make. I also always make sure I have a can of coconut milk in the pantry too, that way I can pull this out of the freezer, and then an hour before dinner, I start making coconut rice in the rice cooker and grill up some chicken. just add a side of frozen broccoli or green beans and everybody is oohing and aahing. 🙂
Made this on the grill tonight for dinner and it is amazingly good! Made it with the fried rice recipe on this site, which I will review there, as it didn’t turn out like I thought. Still good, just different than what I expected.
I am currently without a grill and ended up without a lot of time the day I planned to make this so I threw it in my crockpot! I added more of the marinade and shredded the chicken about an hour before serving and then used it in tacos. It was sooooo good, I ate 3 tacos and made myself sick (in a good way)! We also used the juice down in the bottom to put on our rice (I did the pineapple cilantro rice). THANK YOU!!!