4th of July Party Ideas & Spicy BBQ Sauce

Kick off the summer of social distancing with a small backyard get-together for the 4th of July. Take a break from cooking and pick up some bone-in fried chicken and chicken tenders from the Walmart deli to make your gathering easy. 

Paired with a homemade, spicy BBQ sauce, this chicken will please a crowd while giving you a breather.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Tyson Foods, Inc. All opinions and text are mine, as always.

Click HERE to save recipe to Pinterest

Since being in lockdown, we’ve missed our family. We have not, however, missed cooking. We’ve done plenty of that! Anyone else feel like they’ve cooked eleventy billion meals in the last few months?

Now that it’s officially summer and our stay-at-home order has been lifted, we’re looking forward to having a small get-together in the backyard with our family for 4th of July.

Because we’ve cooked SO much lately, we’re going to take a shortcut with some fried chicken and sides from the Walmart Hot Deli.

WALMART HOT DELI

We’re still limiting our trips to stores, but I ran to Walmart for some essentials and swung by the Hot Deli to check out the chicken and sides along with some festive, patriotic decorations for our little gathering.

How cute are these plates and serving baskets? They had plenty to choose from, I had to reel myself in.

We’ve missed everyone so much, we’re going to focus on spending time together instead of spending time in the kitchen or on the grill cooking.

My menu will be centered around bone-in chicken for the adults and chicken tenders for the kids (and me). 

Walmart deli also has hot sides –  potato wedges, mashed potatoes & gravy, and macaroni and cheese.

The mashed potatoes are made with simple ingredients – potatoes, milk, and butter, and the macaroni and cheese is made with five cheeses, semolina pasta, and milk. Rosie has had it and  loved it and she is VERY picky about her mac & cheese.

Some more easy sides to pair with the chicken are macaroni salad, coleslaw, or potato salad if you want to add some easy homemade elements. 

I always like to add a touch of homemade when I’m taking a shortcut in other areas.

DIPPING SAUCES

I’ll also add a homemade spicy BBQ sauce to enjoy with the chicken strips. It’s a bit too spicy for the kids, but perfect for me. It is so easy to put together and if you’ve never made homemade BBQ sauce, you’ve been missing out.

To make it, all you’ll need is vinegar, sugar, Worchestire sauce, lemon juice, salt & pepper, cayenne pepper, sambal oelek (or hot sauce), and ketchup.

More dipping sauces you might like are Honey BBQ Sauce or Jack Daniels Sauce. Both have less heat and are more kid friendly.

PATRIOTIC DESSERTS

For dessert, cookie bars are easy to serve to a group, but if you want to keep with the Americana theme, you can bake mini cheesecakes with raspberries and blueberries to make them red, white, and blue. Or patriotic brownie cupcakes that are as delicious as they are fun to look at.

Throw some drinks in a cooler and you’re ready to have an easy (& long awaited) get-together with your family and friends.

HOW TO MAKE SPICY BBQ SAUCE

STEP ONE: Add all ingredients except ketchup to a small saucepan. Stir and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce until sugar is fully dissolved. 

STEP TWO: Pour in the ketchup, stir, and remove from heat.

That’s it! I told you it was easy.

Have you gotten together with your family and friends yet?