The marinade for this Sweet and Spicy Chicken begins with my Everything Dry Rub. The mix of spices in this rub compliment each other perfectly and hit so many flavor notes that I named it “Everything” Dry Rub. Marinating the chicken with olive oil and Everything Dry Rub will result in super flavorful chicken that won’t stick to the surface you cook it on! Win, win! Also, with brown sugar as the base of the spice mix, it caramelizes as the chicken cooks. Yum!!! You can bake or grill this chicken with great results both ways. Grilling it will add more smokey flavor, which I really like. Given that my husband does all of the grilling in our house, if he can’t grill, I bake it. Fortunately, no one ever complains! Because it is that good.
Sweet and Spicy Chicken is great on Peggy’s Salad, Kicked Up Kale Salad with Fig Balsamic Dressing or along side Smokey and Spicy Sweet Potato Salad or Apple Slaw. The kids really like Sweet Potato Fries with it. Okay, the adults like them too.
Everything Dry Rub is also great on Oven Pulled Pork, pork loin and pork chops. In fact, I adapted this recipe after eating P90x Island Pork Tenderloin at my friend Peggy’s house (yes! Peggy, from Peggy’s Salad!). I kept craving it week after week and adjusted the recipe to make it a little easier and less spicy. I have also used it on brisket too. It just has great versatile flavor that is well balanced and easy to get addicted to! I make a large batch of it every few months and store it in a ziplock bag so that it is ready to go on the fly.
Sweet and Spicy Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 2 tsp olive oil
- ½ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ¼ tsp Chipotle Chili powder add more if you like it spicy
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ¼ cup brown sugar
Instructions
- In a bowl, baking pan or ziplock bag, mix all seasoning ingredients well. Add the chicken making sure that it is evenly coated.
- You can leave this to marinate for a few hours or overnight. The longer you let it marinate, the deeper the flavor.
- Bake at 350 degrees or grill until the chicken reaches 160 degrees (approximately 8-10 minutes per side or 16-20 minutes total in the oven). Let it rest off the heat for about 5 minutes before cutting it.