Look no further…What makes this chicken de-licious is the incredible sauce!  It’s a little sweet and a little spicy. You’ll notice one unusual ingredient on the list… Root beer!  This ingredient really packs a punch with flavors of sassafras, sarsaparilla, cherry and ginger.  I make this chicken skinny by removing the skin, using very little oil and adding diet root beer instead of regular, to the sauce.  Each piece has about 141 calories, 3 grams of fat and 3 Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS.  A regular piece has 294 calories and 20 grams of fat.  I can’t wait for you to try it!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients for Chicken:

1 package legs (about 6 pieces)

1 package thighs (about 6 thighs)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Ingredients for Barbecue Sauce:

1 cup onions, diced

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

½ tablespoon olive oil

2 cups diet root beer

¾ cup ketchup

½ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup spicy brown mustard

2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Juice of 1 lemon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Sprinkle chicken with a little salt and pepper.  Arrange on a baking sheet lined with foil.  Cover chicken with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

3. In the meantime, make the barbecue sauce.  In a nonstick pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add onions and garlic and saute for about 2 minutes until onions are soft.  Stir in root beer and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until reduced to ½ cup, about 15 minutes.  Be sure to keep an eye on it as it can burn easily.

2. Stir in ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, mustard, molasses, Worcestershire and red pepper flakes.  Simmer for about 15 minutes until the sauce thickens.

3. Remove pan from heat and stir in lemon juice.

4. Remove cooked chicken from oven.  Cool slightly. Remove and discard all the skin.

5. Dip chicken pieces into barbecue sauce to coat. Note: Since the chicken is already cooked there’s no need to worry about cross contamination. Grill covered for 5 minutes.  Turn over and spread with more sauce.  Continue to grill until charred, about 5 more minutes.

6. ***To broil instead of grill: Preheat broiler. Dip chicken pieces into barbecue sauce to coat.  Place pieces on a baking sheet lined with foil.  Broil for 5 minutes, turn over, coat with more sauce and broil for another 4-5 minutes until browned.

Makes 12 pieces

Healthy Benefit
Chicken is power packed with lean protein.  It’s a good source of niacin, B-6, B-12, vitamin D, iron and zinc.

Prep Tips
This sauce can be used on chicken, pork or beef.  Store sauce covered in refrigerator for several weeks.  It can be doubled, tripled and so on.

It’s always such a chore to remove skin from chicken.  If you bake it first with the skin left on, it’s a breeze to remove.  It won’t change the calories or fat either.

Precooking the chicken in the oven before grilling makes the chicken very moist and tender.

Weight Watchers (old points) 3
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 3