Barker's Marinade - Smokey BBQ product reviews

We enjoy BBQ sauces in our family. More sophisticated than plain tomato sauce, but not too spicy for the youngsters. I had a pack of chicken wings and other nibbles in the freezer just begging to be used so I left them to marinade overnight in the Smokey BBQ mixture. Having emptied the packet into the dish with the meat, I tasted a little of the mixture that was still sticking to the inside - it is never possible to get 100% of the contents out, so it gave me the chance to try it before the meal was actually cooked. I was interested to find it had a mild tang to it. Checking the information on the packet, I realised that there was a small amount of chipotle chilli included. Not enough to make it qualify as a "hot" flavour, but you could definitely taste it.

Next day I added chopped spring onions, leeks, and garlic, and left the dish alone for another hour before finishing it in the oven. The combination of the marinade and the oven heat turned the dish black in places, giving it the appearance of having been cooked on the barbecue. We served it with a green salad and hunks of French bread so as not to clash with the onion-y and smokey barbecue effect. Mr 13 was happy about that because he found the chicken dish slightly too hot for his taste so was able to mop up the juices with the bread. Nobody else complained about the spiciness; even the younger ones liked it.

What I liked most about this marinade was the ease of use. The initial preparation, putting the chicken and marinade into a dish and stirring them, took little more than a minute. I did not even bother to thaw the meat; as it was going to be sitting in the marinade overnight, it could thaw as it absorbed the flavour. The extra liquid generated by the defrosting process meant that, even after the vegetables were added, the mixture was not too dry. Altogether the mixing and marinading process took five minutes - the rest of the time, the dish was cooking in the oven while I was free to do other things. That is the sort of meal I like!

There were six of us at dinner (three adults and three children) and the marinade was more than enough for that number of people. The packet did say that it would serve six, but that is not always right - sometimes a product designed to feed four will barely stretch to two. In this case, however, Barker's were more than generous with their portions. I thought it was excellent value for money; not a drop was wasted, everyone had enough to eat, and I would certainly buy it again.

There is no doubting that I am a huge fan of the Barker's company and their various products, from jams and chutneys to sauces and marinades. When I was perusing the KIWIreviews site one day I was stoked to see that Barker's had released a new range of marinades, and the flavours that were available were right up my alley, my tastebuds were excited. I decided I would quite like to try the Smokey BBQ marinade on some chicken drums.

The packaging is definitely eye-catching, and your eyes would be drawn to this product while skimming the shelf, the bold background colour and the large bold letters of the flavour, then complimented by the picture of a bowl of the marinade. This product is NZ made, vegan friendly and gluten free, this marinade is said to have smokey flavours teamed with some zing from the added chipotle chilli. I grabbed the chicken drums out and placed them in a dish and coated them with the majority of the marinade, leaving enough to cover the drums one more time during cooking. The smell was mouthwatering, and I could not wait to try the product, these were put in the fridge for a few hours until I was ready to do them for dinner.

While cooking the smokey smell just got stronger and I knew I was in for a treat, after covering with the mixture again I waited another half hour then served. With the first bite I was met certainly with the smokey flavour and just a mild amount of zing, not bad enough that my children would complain, so this was already a winning flavour. The plates were all empty apart from the chicken bones and everyone agreed that this would need to be a product kept on hand for the summer bbqs.

I am intrigued to try the other flavours that are available in the range, and will be keeping my eyes peeled for more flavour filled marinades in the future from Barker's.

I love a good premade marinade... it makes life easier and is a great way to spice up your meals. Barker's is a New Zealand company, renowned for their quality products including wraps, jams, and chutneys. I had previously tried their Fiery Wings marinade and found it very tasty, if not a little hot! My girls found it a bit too hot for their liking so I was pretty confident we were going to be on to a winner with this marinade.

The Smokey BBQ marinade comes in a plastic pouch and is vegan and gluten-free. At 300g it claims to serve 6 and I wouldn't disagree, there is plenty of sauce. Because there is so much sauce, you could use half to marinade and freeze the other half if you didn't want your food really saucy. We are big consumers of chicken breast in our household as hubby is not that keen on eating chicken off the bone. I diced two breasts and left the chicken to marinate in the sauce for an hour (the minimum recommended time). The sauce was very thick and had a lovely smokey BBQ aroma. When I plated the chicken, there were admiring glances from the family and this was definitely a 'winner, winner, chicken dinner' moment. Everyone agreed it was tasty and flavoursome without being too sweet or too hot and spicy. Whereas hubby got the Fiery Wing sauce surplus, he wasn't as lucky this time. Potatoes and veggies were used to mop up the sauce and the plates were almost licked clean. Although hubby said he preferred the Fiery Wings marinade, myself and the kids both preferred this as it was tasty without being too hot and would be great for families with younger children.

Overall, this is a tasty and versatile marinade that would be good with any meat, ribs, sausages, chicken wings, and legs... you name it, this sauce will complement it! I'll definitely be buying this sauce again and am already thinking of the different ways to use it.

A like a good smokey sauce but haven't really used it in my cooking in the past few years, due to having young children who didn't really like foods with a bit of zing to them. Things are changing though, I have one child who likes to eat spicy foods now, one who will eat it happily if it isn't too hot and then one who will eat it but requires a glass of milk nearby and says "not my favourite but I will eat it". Looking at the packaging, I do like it but wish that the small font had been made a slightly brighter colour, just to aid in being more visible against its current background.

Since we had an abundance of eggs to use up (yay for having pet hens) I decided to do our usual hash quiche but with a little difference this time. We cooked a layer of hash browns which we then poured a layer of mixed eggs, garlic, onion, broccolini and mushrooms, let it cook for a little before covering with cheese. While that was cooking I took our "chicken" and coated it in this sauce, and then cooked it till it was all hot through and then serving atop our quiche. The smokey BBQ sauce went really well with the eggs, it complimented it well and I certainly ate all mine up. Everyone else but the youngest happily finished off their plates and only felt a slight zing in their mouths.

I will be getting this again, can't wait to try it in other recipies.

Our house has been hit with the flu and for the last couple of days no one has really ate because our taste buds had gone and everything had a metallic taste to it. Tonight is the first night I actually felt like something to eat. Luckily we had some chicken nibbles in the fridge and I just covered the sauce in them, cut up some potatoes and made into chip like bites. I cooked slowly in the oven for a hour, turning a couple of times to make sure that the sauce was completely covering all of the chicken.

Reading the instructions afterwards I am aware it is not the recommended method, but honestly it was a last minute decision to even eat tonight. No one was extremely hungry, just that there was a need to. In an ideal world I would of marinated over night, but throwing on top of the nibbles worked fantastically.

All the chicken had a nice coating and there was extra sauce in the bottom of the pan that I just spooned onto the plate. Only three of us ate tonight and we all agreed that our lips were burning afterwards. It had a heat but nothing to spicy. I can't really explain the flavours as my taste buds are still not completely working, but I can say, all of our coughs have subsided and we are all better for eating something.

I think the price is actually really good for how much it covered. I would like to experience this with ribs as suggested but with the chicken nibbles it was great. It didn't leave your fingers too dirty afterwards and there was no sticky residue. I did have to put the packet right up to my nose to smell the smoky barbecue but again that is more the condition I am currently in then the actual packet.

One thing I will say is the packet was kind of hard to read with the orangey, reddish, brown colour it all seems to blend in together - again that could just be my condition at present. A nice quick meal that we all just really needed.