Grilled Orange Chicken Thighs -- Bernice's Tradition, Carried Forward

Martin Luther King Day is coming up next week. In Birmingham, MLK Day has a weight that it doesn't quite have anywhere else, or maybe it does and I can't see past what I know. I was born in 1969, six years after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, twenty minutes from where I grew up. Bernice knew the mothers of those four girls. She knew Addie Mae Collins's family. She said their names sometimes, quietly, in the kitchen, while she was cooking—not to pray, exactly, not to curse, but to say: I remember. The food Bernice made was always in dialogue with history, with the specific weight of being Black in Alabama, in America, in a century that had tried to kill them all and not succeeded.

I think about this more since Marcus died. The way Black mothers have always been asked to keep going after the unthinkable. The way Bernice kept going, kept cooking, kept feeding people even knowing that the world outside the kitchen door was not safe, was not fair, was not interested in her children's lives except as a provocation. She kept cooking. She kept feeding. She kept standing at the stove with her arms full of purpose and her heart full of grief she never gave a name to and she turned it all into food and she fed it to her community and her community kept going because of it.

I made her barbecue chicken this week—the real one, the sheet pan version she made for church potlucks, the one with the sauce she made from scratch with ketchup and brown sugar and cider vinegar and Worcestershire and a few things she never told me out loud but that my hands have learned to add anyway, the things you inherit without knowing you inherited them. I made it for the Tuesday dinner, which was bigger than usual—forty-five people, a new record—and every plate came back clean. Every single plate. The chicken spoke. Bernice's chicken, through my hands, on a Tuesday in January in Birmingham, Alabama. Still feeding. Still here.

The recipe I’m sharing here is the one that carried all of that weight on Tuesday—Bernice’s barbecue chicken translated into something you can make in your own kitchen, with a tangy orange glaze that does what good sauce always does: it balances the sweet against the sharp, the tender against the char, the way Bernice balanced everything in her life. These grilled orange chicken thighs have that same deep, lacquered quality her potluck chicken always had, the kind that makes people go quiet for a second before they ask for more. Make it for a crowd if you can. That’s what it’s for.

Grilled Orange Chicken Thighs

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 3 lbs total)
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice (about 2 large oranges)
• 2 tablespoons orange zest
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

1. Make the glaze. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine orange juice, orange zest, ketchup, brown sugar, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic. Stir well and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and set aside, reserving half for serving.
2. Season the chicken. Pat chicken thighs dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, mix together smoked paprika, onion powder, salt, and black pepper. Rub the spice mixture all over the thighs, then brush lightly with olive oil.
3. Preheat the grill. Heat a gas or charcoal grill to medium-high (about 400°F). Clean and oil the grates to prevent sticking.
4. Grill skin-side down. Place chicken thighs skin-side down on the grill. Cook uncovered for 8–10 minutes until the skin is golden and releases easily from the grates. Flip and cook another 8 minutes.
5. Apply the glaze. Brush the tops generously with the orange glaze. Flip, brush the other side, and grill 3–4 more minutes per side, repeating the glaze once more, until the internal temperature reaches 165°F and the glaze is caramelized and slightly charred at the edges.
6. Rest and serve. Transfer chicken to a platter, tent loosely with foil, and rest 5 minutes. Drizzle with reserved glaze before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 365 | Protein: 29g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 19g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 510mg