Grilled chicken with homemade sweet chili sauce – the perfect sweet and spicy combo! Make it as spicy or as mild as you want. Great straight on the grill or on skewers or kabobs (or kebabs)!
So I’ve never been much of a griller.
When I plan something on the grill for supper it’s usually so that I get the night off and can weasel the hubs into cooking supper for me.
This summer, though, I’ve been trying harder to focus on more seasonal recipes and I’ve actually really started to enjoy grilling! I can’t say I hate the pudding pops or the no-bake desserts either. 🙂
I kind of like being “forced” to think more seasonally though.
Before I had the blog, I would just cook hearty comfort food pretty much year round. I would bake all summer and eat just whatever I felt like eating. Sometimes this meant turning on the grill, and sometimes it’d be hot soup or mac and cheese.
I find that focusing more on what season we’re in (or rather, focusing more on what season we’re going to be in in a month or two or three….) has made me love those seasons even more.
In the summer, I have an excuse to grill everything and never turn on the oven.
In the fall, I have an excuse to turn that oven back on and bake like crazy, especially with apples and cinnamon and caramel and…. All that good stuff (and yes, I left out the pumpkin on purpose.)
In the winter, I have an excuse to make all kinds of Christmas cookies and pretty pink and red things.
And in Spring, I’m breaking out the citrus. For some reason, Spring is all about citrus for me!
This sauce would be incredible just served with some chicken though (or just about anything else) – it tastes so much like the store bought version but all with normal ingredients! It’s not hard at all and totally worth it!
And please, please, don’t ever try to cook the sauce and puree it while it’s hot unless your blender is designed for that! You do not need a sweet chili explosion on your hands! Either puree the peppers before cooking the sauce or cook the sauce, cool, and then puree. Trust me on this one! And it doesn’t matter if the peppers get totally smooth – a few flecks of skin here are there just make it look like what it really is.
Homemade Sweet Chili Grilled Chicken
written by Ashley Fehr
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 2 red chili peppers seeded and diced (leave the seeds in for extra spicy)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/8 cup vinegar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tbsp corn starch
- 1/2 tbsp. water
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts sliced into strips
Instructions
- Make your sauce: in a small pot, combine water, garlic, chili peppers, sugar, vinegar, and salt and bring to a boil. Simmer for 3-5 minutes until peppers have softened. Puree with an immersion blender until smooth (or as smooth as possible – it’s okay if there are a few flecks of peppers). Bring back to a simmer. Whisk together water and corn starch and add to sauce, cooking just until thickened.Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Preheat your grill to 400-450 degrees F. I like to spray my grill with non-stick so that the chicken doesn’t stick, but this is optional. If you’d like, skewer your chicken pieces or just leave them as is – it won’t affect cooking time or instructions.
- Grill chicken on one side for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Flip and brush top with chili sauce (the side that is now cooked).
- Cook another 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through (it’s always best to use a meat thermometer to ensure an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees F). Flip and brush the other side with chili sauce. Remove from the grill and serve as desired.
Nutrition Information
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Embeya says
Woooow…..Homemade!!! It’s the only thing that taste good! And so easy to do…
I think I will look for these and try your recipe this weekend. Thank you for sharing!
Dang Thai from Embeya.com !
Ashley Fehr says
Thank you!
GrannyJean says
It’s hard for anyone to grill outside in the summertime when it’s 98 degrees at 7:00pm.
So I’ll have to cook it in the oven on a oven grill until Oct. when we start cooking outside.
The sauce sounds so good! This is my first day on your site and my first post.
So hello everyone from Brownwood, Texas in Northwestern Hill Country.
Ashley Fehr says
Hello GrannyJean! Yikes that does sound hot! It doesn’t usually get that hot up here in the summer, so we take advantage of grilling season while we have it! I hope you enjoy!
Gwendolyn says
You use white vinegar and white sugar or light brown sugar for the recipe? Thanks
Ashley Fehr says
Sorry for not clarifying! I use white vinegar and white sugar.