Easy Chicken Barbecue — The Casserole That Survived 2,500 Miles

The drive to California took four days. Ryan drove. I sat in the back with Caleb because seven-month-olds don't understand why they're in a car seat for ten hours a day and express their displeasure through screaming. We drove through North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California. Twenty-five hundred miles. Caleb screamed through approximately eight hundred of them. Ryan and I took turns singing, playing music, offering toys, and eventually just accepting that the screaming was part of the experience. We ate road food. Not good food — gas station food, fast food, the kind of food that makes Mom's soul leave her body. But I packed a cooler with the frozen casserole and sandwiches and Mom's cookies, and we ate those at rest stops while Caleb sat in the stroller and stared at the desert with the wide-eyed wonder of a baby seeing flat, endless landscape for the first time. Texas was the longest state. I'm convinced Texas is actually two states pretending to be one. We drove for eleven hours and were still in Texas. Ryan said, 'Are we ever going to get out of this state?' I said, 'This is where we live now. We're Texans.' He did not laugh. He was very tired. We crossed into California on day four. The landscape changed — desert gave way to mountains gave way to the Pacific coast, and suddenly we were driving along the ocean on the 5 freeway and the water was blue and the sky was blue and I thought: oh. Oh, it's beautiful. Camp Pendleton is HUGE. The gate alone takes fifteen minutes to get through. The base sprawls across 125,000 acres of Southern California coastline, and it's green and brown and dotted with military housing and training areas and the Pacific Ocean stretching out to the west. Our new apartment: two bedrooms, one bathroom, base housing. Beige walls, industrial carpet. Identical to Lejeune. Identical to every base I've ever lived on. But the light is different — California light, golden and warm, coming through windows that face west toward the ocean. I stood in the kitchen. New kitchen. Same size as the old one — tiny, insufficient counter space, oven I haven't tested yet. But the window above the sink looks at a palm tree. A PALM TREE. Mom's kitchens in Norfolk had a view of the neighbor's fence. This kitchen has a palm tree. I unpacked the kitchen first. Cast iron on the stove. Recipe binder on the counter. Salt shaker. Wooden spoons. Then I called Mom. 'We made it.' 'How's the kitchen?' 'Small. But there's a palm tree.' 'A palm tree.' She paused. 'I've never had a palm tree.' 'You've never lived in California, Mom.' 'No. But you do now.' I heated the frozen casserole for dinner. Mom's chicken and rice, made in Jacksonville, eaten in California. The food traveled twenty-five hundred miles in a cooler in a car and it was still good. Home. Not the apartment. The casserole. The casserole is home.

This is the casserole. The one my mom made in her Norfolk kitchen the week before we left, wrapped in foil, tucked into a cooler between ice packs and sandwiches and approximately forty of her famous cookies. It fed us at a New Mexico rest stop while Caleb stared at a tumbleweed, and it fed us again our first night at Pendleton, heated in an oven I hadn’t even tested yet, eaten on the floor of a half-unpacked apartment because the table was still under moving blankets. My mom’s version is whatever she had in the pantry that day — she doesn’t measure anything — but this is as close as I’ve gotten. Make a double batch and freeze one. You never know when you’ll need it.

Easy Chicken Barbecue

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6 pieces)
• 1 cup barbecue sauce (your favorite brand)
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Cooked white rice, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray.
2. Make the sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk together the barbecue sauce, chicken broth, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper until smooth.
3. Arrange the chicken. Place the chicken thighs in a single layer in the prepared baking dish. Pour the sauce evenly over the top, turning pieces to coat.
4. Bake, covered. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
5. Finish uncovered. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and slightly caramelized and the chicken is cooked through (internal temperature of 165°F).
6. Rest and serve. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving. Spoon generously over cooked white rice and ladle extra sauce from the pan over the top.
7. To freeze. Cool completely, transfer to a freezer-safe container, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat covered at 350°F for 20–25 minutes.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 32g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 24g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 720mg