Techniques: Working Out Carbs for Foods with Barbecue Sauce

Barbecue sauce is difficult to work with because with many preparation methods, no matter how carefully you try to measure the sauce, a lot of it winds up on the pan rather than on the food. It’s really hard to eyeball how much barbecue sauce remains on a piece of meat after cooking.

I solve this problem by covering the meat (in this example, chicken drumsticks) with a dry rub, then cooking it most of the way, then carefully adding barbecue sauce by dropping a dollop of sauce in the middle of the meat and brushing it on to cover.

A serving of barbecue sauce is usually 2 tablespoons, but using this method you can get away with putting only 1 tablespoon of sauce on each piece of chicken and still get plenty of great flavor. The dry rub is what makes it, and spice rubs without added sugar are carb-free! Finish the chicken in the oven to caramelize the sauce.

I bake chicken drumsticks at 400 for 30 minutes, add barbecue sauce, and bake 10 minutes more.

Carb count will vary depending on the brand of barbecue sauce you use, so check the label and double-check the serving size.