Make This Cherry BBQ Chicken Recipe with Yakima Cherries

Talk about farm to table! It's time to whip out the barbecue grill or at least get the oven prepped, because you are going to wanna make this trending recipe that has home cooks in Washington and me shooketh!

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TL;DR: This article includes 5 summer recipes for grilled chicken (or baked chicken) that you can make with locally grown Yakima Cherries! Cherry season starts in June!

Ever since Memorial Day Weekend, folks have been dusting off the Traeger and cheap backyard grills to put some wings on the barbie. "Grilled Chicken Thighs" is the second-highest recipe being searched by Washington residents according to Google Trends, and queries for "summer recipes" were not far behind it.

When I noticed that it's about to be cherry season in the Yakima Valley, the largest producers of sweet cherries in the state of Washington, a light bulb went off in my head. As I started searching for summer recipes somehow, I came across one for cherry BBQ wings.

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I like to go to the Johnson Orchards fruit stand (4906 Summitview Ave, Yakima) to get my pumpkins every Halloween, but this year, I'm adding "get cherries" to the shopping list. Another great place locals love to get cherries is at Washington Fruit Produce (1209 Pecks Canyon Rd, Yakima). Their U-Pick season starts in a few weeks.

This Cherry BBQ Sauce Recipe Looks Fire

The cherry BBQ sauce recipe is simple: boil some sweet Yakima cherries (make sure they're pitted) in a saucepan along with brown sugar, salt, minced garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, chili powder, white sugar, corn starch, tomato paste, and water. I got the recipe from Cooking in the Yard on YouTube. If you're fancy, you can use an immersion blender (or regular blender) to get all the ingredients in a compote once everything has been boiled and simmered to perfection. (Use the cornstarch at the *end*)

Marinate your chicken in this then grill it or bake it!