Sweet Tea Barbecued Chicken

April. The wedding month. Travis and Jolene get married in nineteen days and the household is in the particular state of controlled chaos that precedes all weddings: decisions are being made, changed, re-made, and challenged with the frequency of a tennis rally. Jolene's binder has grown a second binder. Travis called me on Tuesday and said "Dad, she wants chair sashes AND table runners. Is that normal?" I said "Everything is normal. Say yes." He said yes. He's learning.

I've been working on the wedding food. The barbecue reception: two pork shoulders and two briskets for seventy people, plus sides. I've done the math — roughly five ounces of meat per person, which means I need about twenty-two pounds of pulled pork and twenty-two pounds of sliced brisket, cooked weight. That translates to about thirty-five pounds raw for each (you lose roughly forty percent to cooking). I'm smoking four large cuts of meat. This is the most ambitious cooking project I've ever attempted and I'm approaching it with the focus of a man building a house, which is fitting because I'm building something — a feast for my son's wedding, a meal that seventy people will eat and remember and associate with the day Travis and Jolene became a family.

The sides: Connie's coleslaw (twenty pounds of shredded cabbage — Connie is making it in a cooler), baked beans (my recipe, quadrupled, baked in three aluminum pans), cornbread (Betty's recipe, baked in sheet pans), pickles, white bread, and sauce. The sauce is my bourbon barbecue sauce: ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire, bourbon, garlic, onion powder, black pepper. Simple, sweet, tangy, with the bourbon warmth that says Kentucky.

Clay can't come. We knew he wouldn't be able to. He's deployed. But Amber is going to set up a FaceTime station at the reception so Clay can watch from Afghanistan. The best man at a wedding he can't attend, watching through a phone screen from seven thousand miles away, seeing his brother marry the woman who does the dishes. The technology is miraculous and inadequate simultaneously. A screen is not a handshake. A speaker is not a toast. But it's what we have, and what we have will have to be enough.

The bourbon barbecue sauce I’m making for Travis and Jolene’s reception didn’t come out of nowhere — it was born from years of testing on chicken before I ever trusted it on a brisket. This Sweet Tea Barbecued Chicken is the proving ground: sweet tea gives it the low hum of the South, the vinegar keeps it honest, and the whole thing reminds me why barbecue isn’t just food at a wedding — it’s a statement about who you are and where you come from. I’ll be making seventy people’s worth of memories in nineteen days, but this recipe is where the confidence comes from.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 50 min | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 cups brewed sweet tea, cooled
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon bourbon
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 pounds bone-in chicken pieces (thighs, drumsticks, or split breasts)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Instructions

Make the sauce. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the sweet tea, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, bourbon, garlic, onion powder, black pepper, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine and bring to a low boil.
Simmer and reduce. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 20–25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and divide into two portions — one for basting, one for serving.
Prep the chicken. Pat chicken pieces dry with paper towels. Rub lightly with oil and season all over with kosher salt and a pinch of additional black pepper.
Grill over indirect heat. Preheat grill to medium (about 350°F). Place chicken pieces skin-side up on the indirect heat side of the grill. Close the lid and cook for 25 minutes without turning.
Baste and finish. Move chicken over direct heat. Brush generously with the basting sauce. Grill 5–7 minutes per side, basting again after each flip, until the skin is lacquered and caramelized and an instant-read thermometer reads 165°F at the thickest part.
Rest and serve. Transfer chicken to a platter and let rest 5 minutes before serving. Pass the reserved sauce at the table.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sweet Tea Barbecued Chicken — The Sauce That Started With Bourbon and Ended With a Wedding