How To Grill Chicken Breasts & Thighs
Its tough to say exactly how long to cook chicken breasts and thighs, since it totally depends on their size, whether they have skin on or bones in, and the type of grill youre using. Consider this a general rule of thumb, but tweak it based on the cuts of chicken and grilling equipment that youre working with:
Top Tips For Perfect Grilled Chicken Breast
- Remove moisture before cooking
How do I grill the perfect chicken breast? In order to make the best grilled chicken breast, we suggest heating your grill to 400ºF. Grill chicken for 5-7 per side and continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 165ºF.
Should I pound my chicken before grilling? The option is yours. We dont personally pound our chicken before grilling because we love when a few edge pieces get nice and charred, but option to use a meat tenderizer to pound your chicken so that the entire thing is the same thickness.
How long to grill chicken breast? Grill your chicken breast for around 15-20 minutes, flipping after 7-8 minutes. Grill until the internal temperature reaches 165ºF.
How to prevent your chicken from sticking to the grill? We recommend spraying your grill grates with nonstick cooking spray right before before cooking. Alternatively, you can use a piece of tin foil with nonstick cooking spray.
Is it okay for chicken to be slightly pink? As long as your chicken has an internal temperature of 165ºF, it is safe to eat even if its a little pinkish.
Should you let chicken rest after grilling? Yes! By allowing your chicken to rest you not only 1. let it cool so you can eat it, but 2. the chicken continues to cook a little bit and becomes extra juicy and moist.
How long does grilled chicken last in the fridge? Your grilled chicken breasts will last up to 3-5 days in the fridge.
How To Store And Reheat Leftovers
- Storage: store cooked grilled chicken in airtight containers in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- Microwave: chop up or slice the chicken so it reheats more evenly then transfer a small portion to a microwave safe dish. Heat for one minute then at 30 second intervals as needed.
- Oven: transfer chicken to an oven-proof dish. Cover with foil and reheat at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes or just until warmed through.
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More Recipe Notes And Tips
- The cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of your breasts. The best way to check that the chicken is done is to use an instant read thermometer which should register at 165F.
- Cook the chicken on a medium-high heat. If the grill is too hot, the outside of the chicken will burn and the middle wont be cooked through.
How To Cut Up A Whole Chicken For Grilling
- Theres no need to buy separate chicken pieces, or cut a whole chicken into individual pieces. Buy a whole fryer and with a good sharp knife cut the chicken into two pieces.
- To do that, use the tip of the knife, or kitchen shears, and cut along each side of the back bone. Once the back bone is removed, turn the chicken over and cut the chicken into two pieces. Youll be cutting the breast bone in half. Youll have two separate chicken halves. Each with the leg section, a wing attached.
- Youll find this cut is easier to manage on the grill and the chicken halves will cook evenly.
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+ Best Grilling Recipes
See my guide on how to use an Instant Pot.
In the summer, theres nothing better than cooking dinner on the grill and enjoying a meal al fresco. These grilling recipes are flavorful, easy to make and perfect for a casual weeknight meal or a BBQ get together. These tasty grill recipes include grilled chicken, grilled meats, burgers, skewers, grilled vegetables and more!
There are so many delicious mains and side dishes that you can cook on the grill! Not only is grilling easy , it also makes foods incredibly flavorful. Hello, tasty grill marks!
This list is full of fresh ideas for what to cook on the grill. I hope it inspires a season of good food, enjoyed in great company!
Simple Grilled Chicken Recipe
This Simple Grilled Chicken Recipe has a lemon, garlic, and herb marinade that makes for the absolute best grilled chicken. Youll make this recipe again and again!
This Simple Grilled Chicken Recipe has a lemon, garlic, and herb marinade that makes for the absolute best grilled chicken. Youll make this recipe again and again!
This recipe for Grilled Chicken Breasts is so simple, but packs a lot of flavor. It can be made on a gas grill, charcoal grill, or indoors on a grill pan or electric grill. Mix and match the herbs with fresh or dried herbs of your choice to switch things up. The lemon and garlic will pair well with almost any herb combination so you can experiment to your hearts desire.
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How To Clean & Season Your Grill
While the grill is heating up, use a damp grill brush to clean the grates thoroughly, ridding them of any food particles and bacteria. If you dont have a grill brush, you can also use tongs to rub a crumpled ball of aluminum foil against the grates the friction between the foil and grates will remove even the stickiest bits of food. Its helpful to scrub the grates while the grill is preheating because the warm surface helps release grime.
Even if your grill looks slick, wed recommend brushing it with high-heat cooking oil like vegetable oil or grapeseed oil to ensure that nothing sticks. The easiest way to do this is by spritzing the grill with oil so that it has a light, even coating. This step is especially important if youre grilling skin-on chicken, as chicken skin tends to stick to the grill if youre not careful, Lupaczyk notes.
Ingredients For Grilled Chicken Marinade
This marinade is the perfect combination of sweet and tangy. It reminds me a bit of Italian dressing without the herbs! This truly is the BEST Grilled Chicken Marinade!
- Chicken: I used chicken breasts, on the other hand, you could use chicken thighs, just make sure they are cooked to 165°F and no longer raw inside.
- Vegetable oil: You can use canola oil or something a little healthier like avocado oil or olive oil here.
- Red wine vinegar: Its sweet and tangy, and tastes amazing in this grilled chicken marinade!
- Garlic powder & onion powder: Instead of using fresh garlic and onion I went for garlic and onion powder. Its much easier than chopping vegetables and still delivers on flavor.
- Honey: Just a hint of sweetness goes a long way in this grilled chicken recipe, and it really helps the other flavors to shine.
- Lemon: Both lemon juice and zest get added to the grilled chicken marinade for a little touch of citrus.
- Dijon mustard: Mustard brings a little heat and another layer of flavor.
- Pepper and salt: To finish off, a little seasoning is added to enhance the other layers throughout the recipe.
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How Long Does It Take To Grill Whole Chicken
We used an outdoor gas grill for this recipe. Once spatchcocked, our grilled chicken will take about 45 minutes to 1 hour over indirect heat.
While the grill is heated to 400 degrees F, the burner directly below the chicken will be turned off, the other burners surrounding it will be on. That’s what we mean by indirect heat here .
Why indirect heat? Grilling whole chicken over indirect heat is the secret to juicy, well-cooked chicken. The indirect heat essentially roasts the chicken to perfect doneness without dealing with flare-ups, burnt chicken skin, or underdone meat.
Rest The Chicken Breast
Just like in the oven or the Instant Pot, it’s crucial to rest cooked chicken breast. This helps all the juices settle so that they don’t rush out everywhere when you cut into the chicken breast.
I recommend covering when resting your grilled chicken breast. I cover with a bowl or baking dish on a clean plate or cutting board. The chicken will continue to cook through as it rests.
Rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing up that chicken.
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Grilled Chicken With Goat Cheese Sauce
Grilled chicken breasts go from weeknight standby to special occasion-ready, when you dress them up with a special, flavorful grilled chicken with goat cheese sauce. This recipe includes instructions for an elegant roasted red pepper puree, which adds extra color and texture to this already-impressive dish.
Grilled Chicken With Bone Recipes
It is the best season to grill your favorite grilled chicken with bone recipes. So many people love their delicious grilled chicken recipes especially grilled chicken with bone recipes. That is because they are considered healthy food. They contain a lot of essential nutrients that are essential for the body and can keep you from getting sick. Today, well give you a list of grilling recipe ideas that include beef, pork , fish and chicken. This will help you get grilling for this weekend or for the whole summer season.
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Cuts Of Chicken For Grilling
In our kitchen, were most commonly making grilled chicken breasts, but you can grill every cut of chicken. They all serve a unique purpose.
- Breast: it doesnt get much better than a perfectly grilled chicken breast! Chicken breast is lean and perfect for topping salads with.
- Legs: having a party? Go chicken legs! Why? Theyre super flavorful, inexpensive, and easy to grill! Try our famous Grilled Chicken Legs recipe.
- Thighs: my personal favorite cut of chicken to grill is chicken thighs. You can get the skin nice and crispy while keeping the meat juicy and delish.
- Wings: game day? Try grilling your chicken wings for easy clean-up! You can use our dry rub or buffalo chicken wing recipes, but grill them instead!
- Whole chicken: a whole chicken?! Thats right! You can grill an entire chicken and its easier than you think. Try our grilled beer butt chicken for starters!
How To Grill Chicken Breast
If you’ve ever wondered how to grill the perfect chicken breast, we’ve got the answer for you. Luckily, it’s easy to grill juicy and delicious chicken breast.
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Tips For Grilling Chicken
You can cook your chicken on an outdoor gas or charcoal grill, or indoors on a grill pan. You want to start with clean, oiled grill grates for the best grill marks. Clean grill grates also minimize the amount of potentially harmful blackened bits on your food.
You want to grill over medium high heat . Using moderate heat ensures that your chicken wont burn or dry out. Start grilling your chicken over direct heat to get nice grill marks and browning and then move it to a low heat part of the grill to finish cooking. Using two heating zones keeps your chicken from burning on the outside or drying out while the inside cooks through.
Cover your grill while cooking to keep the heat even around your meat. An instant read thermometer is the best way to check if your chicken is done. Insert the thermometer into the center of the thickest part of the meat. You want your grilled chicken to reach a temperature of 165 degrees F.
Once your chicken is cooked through, let it rest on a clean plate for 5 minutes before slicing and serving. Slicing it right away when it comes off the grill will cause all of the juices to run out, which is definitely not what you want.
Grilled Chicken Breast Ingredients
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts Our main ingredient!
- Minced garlic Press it yourself and it tastes better than jarred.
- Dijon mustard Adds a zing to your chicken breast marinade.
- Worcestershire sauce Gives your chicken breast marinade more depth and more of a smoky quality.
- Italian seasoning The perfect grilled chicken seasoning that brings all the flavor in your grilled chicken marinade.
- Apple cider vinegar Added to your grilled chicken marinade to make the chicken tender.
- Lemon juice For an umami taste in the best grilled chicken marinade.
- Olive oil to help it grill.
- Parsley You can use dried or chop some up fresh.
- Salt and pepper Helps round out your marinade.
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Easy Grilled Chicken Marinade Ingredients
This easy grilled chicken marinade is made with a balance of savory, tangy ingredients and a unique spice blend for an oomph of effortless complex flavor. You will need:
- Chicken: boneless chicken breasts pounded to an even thickness or chicken thighs.
- Olive oil: use quality extra virgin olive oil for the best flavor.
- Soy sauce: grounds the marinade it will not give the chicken an Asian vibe. Use reduced sodium soy sauce so we can control the salt.
- Balsamic vinegar: adds a subtle, complex fruity, sweet tanginess. Use Balsamic Vinegar of Modena I.G.P. for the best flavor like this one. Grape must should always be the first ingredient followed only by vinegar.
- Lemon juice: brightens the flavor profile. Freshly squeezed is best but you can get away with bottled because its just a splash.
- Brown sugar: balances the soy, balsamic and lemon juice and helps caramelize the chicken as it cooks. Use light brown sugar for rich sweetness.
- Dijon mustard: adds a depth of tanginess. I promise it wont make your grilled chicken taste like mustard!
- Seasonings: dried oregano, dried basil, dried thyme, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes inject the grilled chicken marinade with a rainbow of flavor.
The Best Grilled Chicken Marinade For Crazy Juicy Flavor Exploding Versatile Chicken Every Time
This grilled chicken marinade will make dry, bland and boring chicken a memory of the past and is destined to become your favorite go-to marinade! Its savory, tangy, slightly sweet, with layers of complex flavor due to a few key seasonings. Its stand-alone scrumptious or fabulous in salads, sandwiches or wraps. Best of all, this grilled chicken marinade is made with pantry friendly ingredients of soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, honey, Dijon mustard, and seasonings so you can create effortlessly flavorful chicken in minutes. Come dinner time, just cook the chicken and serve with your favorite sides like roasted potatoes, fruit salad.
We love chicken marinades! They are the easiest way to infuse chicken with flavor and make dinner time a breeze. Some of our most popular chicken marinades include: Greek chicken,cilantro chicken, chili lime chicken, Hawaiian chicken,buffalo chicken and now you can add this grilled chicken marinade to the list!
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Can I Freeze Chicken In This Marinade
Yes! It works perfectly to freeze chicken in this marinade. Here are the steps.
Package. Place chicken into freezer-safe container and pour over the marinade. Make sure that all of the chicken is well coated. Remove as much air as possible as you seal the container. Label the container with the contents and date.
Freeze. Arrange in the freezer so that the container is as flat as possible. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Thaw. Remove from the freezer and thaw in the refrigerator overnight. After its thawed, then remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the marinade. Finally, cook the chicken according to your favorite chicken recipe.
How To Grill Chicken Breasts That Are Sooo Juicy
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Learn the method for how to grill chicken breasts that are juicy, and never ever dried out.
Everybody loves chicken, and all cooks love a good chicken How-To. I know this because the most popular post on this site is How To Cook Chicken Breasts From Frozen and the most popular post on my sister site, TheCookful, is How To Bake Chicken Wings That Are Sooo Crispy. With summer and grilling season coming up, I thought it would therefore be a good time to tackle that real conundrum of how to grill chicken breasts that are juicy, every time.
The thing about chicken breasts is that they are not typically of an even thickness. This means that the thinnest part tends to dry out before the thickest part is cooked all the way through. There is only one way to fix this and it involves a tiny bit of work, but not hard work. Dont worry!
What youre going to do is flatten the chicken out to an even thickness, then marinate them a bit for flavor, and then grill for as short a time as possible. Heres how!
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