Chicken Barbecued in Foil

Nothing says "I love you" like good home cooking.  I have been in need of spoken and unspoken I love you's lately... and because I am blessed with an abundance of loving people in my life, I have come out like a bandit in recent weeks!

Hubs and I have been going through some tough times. To be honest, all I really want is to make this dish for him but when life gives you lemons, make this dish. :) I know he would love it.

Recently my father's lovely girlfriend and life partner made this for me to patch the holes in my heart and feed my hungry soul.

What a beautiful and well balanced dish this turned out to be. Don't forget the mashed potatoes, because that was the perfect side dish for soaking up the gorgeous, savory sauce.

The following recipe serves 2-4 but we made a doubled the recipe for 4 gigantic Texas chicken breasts that weighed about 1 lb each:

Ingredients:
3 tbsp of butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
3/4 c. chopped onion
1 tsp vinegar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp prepared mustard
1/4 c. lemon juice or juice of 4-5 small lemons
1/2 c. ketchup
1 (2 1/2 to 3 lb) broiler-fryer, cut in half or (2) 1 lb chicken breasts

Prep:
Combine all ingredients except the chicken. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, rub chicken with salt and pepper. Place each broiler half or chicken breast on a piece of heavy aluminum foil, large enough to tent-wrap each piece securely.  Put half of the sauce on each piece of chicken. Tent and fold tightly.

Bake:
Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F) 1 hour, or on a very slow oven (200 degrees F) for 2 hours. Carefully open packages to avoid burns from escaping steam; turning back the foil slowly.

Broil chicken until browned. Serve the foil package as is or you can serve the chicken and sauce separately. We didn't bother removing the foil, we just put the foil packages on plates, opened and served them as is with awesome mashed potatoes.

**Of course, you can grill these for about 45 minutes but everyone's grilling experience is different so I won't cover any grilling instructions here except to say that heavy foil works best and a meat thermometer is always a good idea if you have a hard time controlling your grill temperature.  But baking is easiest when trying this recipe for the first time, so do give that a whirl.