Pepper Jelly Glaze for Chicken

I have just discovered something fantastic. It’s a new sauce/glaze for chicken, and I can’t believe I haven’t tried it before.

I was cleaning the refrigerator recently and found half a jar of red jalapeno pepper jelly left over from the holidays. I was considering having pepper jelly and cream cheese on crackers for dinner when I remembered seeing a reference to pepper jelly sauce for chicken. I didn’t know where I’d seen it, so I hit up Google.

Turns out there are quite a few recipes out there. As usual, many of them are far more complicated than they need to be. I love to cook, but I don’t want to julienne celery and slice up Anaheim peppers, or mix together a ton of seasonings on a school night. So I made Pepper Jelly Glaze a lot easier, and it still tasted incredibly good.

I used this Pepper Jelly Glaze as a thick basting sauce. I pulled out a sheet pan and cooked the chicken part of the way through before starting to baste it. I wanted the sauce to stay on the chicken and caramelize rather than drip off, and I didn’t want chicken juices to dilute the glaze. The results were wonderful, but make sure to cover the pan with foil or parchment first. Life is too short to spend time cleaning burnt sugar off a sheet pan.

You should know that any spicy heat from the pepper jelly is reduced somewhat by cooking. There is still a tiny hint of spice, but the chicken isn’t fiery hot at all–not even close. I’ve included some optional red pepper flakes or hot sauce to the recipe, but if your family isn’t into heat, feel free to leave it out.

I know someone is going to ask if it’s okay to use green pepper jelly. Sure it is! You do you! The color will be a little different from what you see in the photos.

I’ve used wings here, but most any part of the chicken will do as long as you’re careful with breasts. It’s easy to overcook and dry out chicken breasts. I don’t recommend skinless breasts for this recipe.

So what else can you put Pepper Jelly Glaze on? I’ll definitely be trying pepper jelly baby back ribs next. And I think it will be terrific on game birds. (Pepper Jelly Glazed Roast Quail? Yum.) The flavor will be great with grilled chicken or pork, but I can’t imagine cleaning the grill afterward because the sauce is pretty sticky. If I were using it for grilling, I’d cook the meat first and brush the glaze on the top of the meat after the last flip. Or you could grill the plain chicken, then finish it off in the oven with the glaze.

Move over, BBQ sauce!