Grilled Chicken with Cherry BBQ Sauce

Celebrate summer produce with this sweet and smoky barbecue sauce - it's delightfully sweet, deliciously savory, and has the perfect amount of smokiness to tie everything together! I think it's great on chicken, but it also works with pork, beef and hearty seafood, like tuna and swordfish. 


No cherries at the market? No problem, just use frozen, pitted sweet cherries. Thaw the cherries before chopping (I probably didn't need to tell you that).

Too much work? No way. Making your own barbecue sauce from scratch is super easy, and there's a freshness you simply can't recreate with store-bought, bottled sauce. Plus, once you're enjoyed this version, you can create variations with other fruit, such as peaches, blackberries and plums. 

Why the extra sauce? I like to serve extra BBQ sauce on the side, so folks can dip their chicken in the sauce. Just make sure you don’t place the spoon that’s touched raw chicken back into the sauce.

Grilled Chicken with Cherry BBQ Sauce

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup minced white onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup fresh or frozen dark sweet cherries, pitted and coarsely chopped 

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke

Cooking spray

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, about 5 ounces each

Salt and ground black pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

To make the barbecue sauce, heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until bubbly. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes, until soft. Add the cherries, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and liquid smoke and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Coat an outdoor grill or stovetop grill pan with cooking spray and preheat to medium-high.

Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper and add to the hot grill. Grill 3 minutes per side, until almost cooked through. Spoon the cherry barbecue sauce all over the chicken (to prevent cross-contamination, spread the sauce on the chicken with a spoon that won’t be going back into the sauce). Grill for 1 to 2 more minutes per side, until cooked through (an instant read thermometer will read 165 degrees). Serve the chicken with extra barbecue sauce on the side and chives on top.

Serves 4