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.
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
Marinade
- Brown Sugar – This adds the perfect balance of sweetness. Use light or dark.
- 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.
- Lime Juice – I recommend using a fresh lime, as opposed to bottled lime juice. If you don’t have fresh lime juice, I would recommend True Lime crystals. I always have a big shaker jar of True Lime in my cupboard!
- Cayenne pepper – This marinade is not spicy. The Cayenne just adds a little kick of flavor.
- Curry powder
- Fresh garlic
- Ginger – This recipe calls for fresh ginger, which I think is especially great. I’ve also used powdered dry ginger in a pinch and that will work as well, if you don’t have fresh.
Chicken
- Boneless, skinless chicken thighs – I highly recommend chicken thighs for this recipe because they stay tender on the grill and soak up the marinade beautifully. If you’d rather use chicken breasts, I recommend cutting them in half or pounding them thin before marinating so they will cook through quickly on the high heat of the grill before the sugar in the marinade burns.
- Green onions – For garnish.
How to Make Asian BBQ Chicken
- This couldn’t be easier: combine all of the marinate ingredients in a zip-top bag and and add the chicken thighs. Let those hang out in the fridge for a few hours.
- When dinner time rolls around, grill those babies up in just a few minutes!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store leftover cooled chicken in an airtight container in the fridge and enjoy within 3-4 days for best results.
- I actually like to make 1.5 times the marinade and reserve a little (before adding the raw chicken) to brush on in the last few minutes of cooking and/or drizzle over the top before serving.
- 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. 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can, just make sure they are cut or pounded thin before marinating. Chicken thighs are much more forgiving on the grill and full of flavor, so I definitely prefer them here!
You can definitely get these chicken thighs marinating early. They can marinate up to 12 hours. If you want to plan ahead even more, make the marinade and pop it in the fridge the day before. Once ready to grill, these cook up super fast!
We have had readers report that they have had success putting the marinade and chicken directly into the slow cooker or pressure cooker without marinading. Keep in mind if you try either of these that the marinade may be quite salty when essentially turned into a sauce. I would probably dilute it a little with chicken broth if using it in this way. Cooking this recipe in either of these manners will change the texture of the chicken (think shreddable and saucy) and will not result in the delicious outer layer the barbecue provides, but the delicious flavors will all still be there.
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°F. However, you’ll want to aim for between 170-175°F for improved flavor and texture.
- Optional: garnish with sliced green onions.
Notes
- Store leftover cooled chicken in an airtight container in the fridge and enjoy within 3-4 days for best results.
- I actually like to make 1.5 times the marinade and reserve a little (before adding the raw chicken) to brush on in the last few minutes of cooking and/or drizzle over the top before serving.
- 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. 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 gre
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!!!