Oven Barbecue Chicken with Baked Beans for Deep South Flavor

If you have set up your grill but are still waiting for warm spring temperatures before barbecuing outside, an easy barbecue chicken entrée that can be baked in the oven might be just what you are looking for. An oven baked barbecue recipe is not only a good choice for those cold spring days, it is an easy entrée that can be served alongside delicious sides of baked beans and green salad.

For a barbecue entrée that contains healthy ingredients without a lot of added fat and salt, the Oven Barbecued Chicken below is a good choice. Not only is it an easy entree to prepare, it contains healthy ingredients like onion, tomato sauce, pineapple, apple cider vinegar, and honey. When spiced up with Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and hot pepper sauce, you have a delicious entrée that has both sweet and spicy undertones.

A side dish that that is a great addition to any entrée that has been slow-cooked, grilled, or basted with barbecue sauce are baked beans. If you have found yourself disappointed with canned versions of baked beans, a homemade version that you might want to try is Easy Baked Beans featured below. This recipe contains a variety of beans that are baked in a sweet tasting mixture containing brown sugar, vinegar, and onion. After serving this side dish, I can guarantee you won’t want another serving of canned beans again.

A healthy alternative to using canned beans in recipes like Easy Baked Beans is to substitute dried beans that have been cooked ahead of time. I usually cook up large batches of dried beans and freeze them in one and half cup portions using quart size freezer bags.  When substituting cooked beans for canned beans, I add one thawed bag of beans for every can of beans called for in the recipe.  

Dried beans are not only easy to cook, they are a lot cheaper to use in your recipes than canned versions.  An easy way to cook dried beans without pre-soaking is to cook them in a large pot of salt water on your stovetop. For every cup of dried beans, add three cups of water and one teaspoon of salt.  Bring the salt water containing beans to a boil, cover the pot, and cook on medium heat for about two hours or until the beans are softened.

A perfect ending to any meal with southern flavors is to add a slice of Dixie Pie. While spending my first year of college in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dixie Pie was one of those popular dessert items that quickly became a favorite of mine. This rich custard pie is delicious with its trademark ingredients of chopped nuts and chocolate chips. Although there are many recipe variations for Dixie Pie, the one I’ve included below contains chocolate chips, pecans and coconut.

If you are not a fan of coconut, you can add extra pecans and chocolate chips to this recipe. And if you are out of chocolate chips, you can even substitute raisins for a delicious alternative.  For a Dixie Pie with raisins, just be sure to plump up the raisins first by cooking briefly in a saucepan filled with water.  Once the water has been brought to a boil, remove the saucepan containing the raisins from the heat and cover for about 10 minutes. Then drain the water and add the plumped raisins to your pie batter.

So until summer weather arrives, warm up your home with the aroma of barbecued meat and baked beans. And when summer does finally arrive, these same foods can be easily adapted to your warm weather menu. Regardless of whether the chicken is being baked in the oven or grilled outdoors, the inside of your home will be filled with the delicious aroma of baked beans cooking in the crock pot and the sweet scent of Dixie Pie cooling on the counter.

Oven Barbecued Chicken

4 chicken breasts

1 sweet onion, chopped

1 can tomato sauce (8 oz.)

1 can pineapple chunks (8 oz.), drained

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup honey

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 Tablespoon prepared mustard

½ teaspoon hot pepper sauce

1 teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon salt, optional

1. Place chicken and onion in 2 quart baking dish.
2. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over the top
3. Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 50 minutes or until juices run clear.

Easy Baked Beans

1 can dark red kidney beans

1 can red beans

1 can black beans

2 cans pinto beans

2 cups brown sugar

½ cup vinegar

1 Tablespoon mustard

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon pepper

1 sweet onion, chopped

1. Combine all beans in strainer and drain well.  Place beans to 2-quart crock pot or oven safe baking dish.
2. In a medium bowl, mix brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, garlic powder, and pepper. Pour over beans. Add chopped onion.
3. Bake at 350 for two hours. If using crock pot, set temperature at high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-7 hours.

Dixie Pie

1 partially baked pie crust

¾  cup butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar

5 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¾ cup pecan halves

¾ cup coconut

¾ cup chocolate chips

1)    Cream butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth.

2)    Stir in pecans, coconut, and chocolate chips.

3)    Pour pie mixture into crust.

4)    Bake at 350 for 45 minutes until set. Cool on wire rack.

5)    Garnish with whipped topping.

Partially Baked Pie Crust

1. Line a 9-in. pie plate with pie crust (see pie crust recipe ).
2. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour to prevent crust from shrinking in oven.
3. Pierce bottom and sides of crust with a fork to prevent air pockets from forming.
4. Line the crust with a double thickness of aluminum foil.
5. Fill the foil with pie weights or dried beans.
6. Bake at 425 for 6-8 minutes or until bottom is just beginning to color.