Best Grilled Chicken Breast
This is the BEST grilled chicken breast recipe! The chicken breasts are marinated in an easy to make wet rub using pantry staple spices then grilled until juicy and crazy delicious. With a few tips, learn how to grill chicken breast so it is juicy and delicious every time.
Lets give it up for easy and delicious grilled chicken breast recipes! This one is our all-time favorites and the one we make all summer long. The chicken breasts are flavorful and always juicy.
This recipe is really simple and the perfect recipe to keep in your back pocket for when you need to get dinner on the table quickly or you just dont feel like thinking about what to make for dinner. The answer is always these grilled chicken breasts. After you make them once, youll make them again and again.
Serve these with some grilled veggies and a big salad for a quick and delicious dinner.
The Makings Of A Marinade
A chicken marinade should have four key components: fat, acid, seasoning, and time. You can play around with these in endless combinations.
- Fat. Fat plays two roles in a marinade. It transfers flavors that are fat-soluble to the meat . Fat also helps to keep the meat moist. 99% of the time, I use olive oil. Vegetable oil is another excellent, neutral option.
- Acid. Acid tenderizes the meat by breaking down its fibers. Citrus juices, vinegar, yogurt, and buttermilk are four excellent options. For todays recipe, I am using lemon juice. Lemon pairs beautifully with chicken and is easy to have on hand.
- Seasoning. Here the possibilities are truly endless! Citrus zest, herbs, aromatics , and spices can all come into play. The one non-negotiable is SALT. I use either kosher salt or, for even more complexity, soy sauce and a dash of Worcestershire.
- Time. MARINATING LONGER IS NOT BETTER! The ideal amount of time to marinate chicken is 5 to 6 hours, but even 15 minutes makes a difference. See below for more.
What Is A Chicken Marinade
A chicken marinade is a combination of herbs, spices, oil, and other flavor add-ins that you use to flavor chicken with. Think of it like a sauce that infuses flavor into your meat.
Well, what about a chicken dry rub or chicken seasoning? Dry rubs typically flavor the outside of your meat, but a marinade is going to flavor the entire cut of chicken. Sometimes, we like to use a combination of both!
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What Temperature To Cook Grilled Chicken
- Make sure you have the grill at the right temperature and that it is preheated. For grilling chicken you will want medium heat so that the meat can have enough time to cook without burning or drying out the outside of the chicken.
- Most grills have hot spots, so keep an eye on the chicken as it cooks. If you find that a piece is starting to get too brown, move it to a cooler spot on the grill to finish cooking.
How To Make The Best Sundried Tomato Cream Marry Me Chicken:
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Ready To Hit The Grill
If this all still feels new to you, I encourage you to head over to Grilling 101, a compilation of tips & tricks for all of the grilling basics everything from how to light your grill to how to clean your grill.
All this talk about grilling have you feelin ready to hit the grill? Me too! Be sure to check out this post for my 15 go-to marinades you need this grilling season. At our house, a good marinade is at the heart of grilling season. Im positive these marinades will be on repeat at your house this summer! For even more grilled goodness, be sure to check out all of our Grilling & Smoking recipes.
& lastly! Be sure to give @playswellwithbutter a follow on Ill be teaching you how to grill up some goodness all summer long, & we have so much fun on Instagram!
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What Container Do I Need To Marinate Chicken In
I have previously always used plastic bags for these chicken marinades.
Im trying to move more towards storing them in reusable containers to cut down the plastic waste, but struggling to fit too many sturdy containers in the freezer PLUS the marinade/freezing works better in a container where you can remove the air .
So Im on the hunt for reusable plastic bags to store them in. Ill update the post when Ive tested some!
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Cooking The Marinaded Chicken
The first tip is to try to cook chicken breasts of about the same size and thickness. If one is just thicker, you can use a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy pan to even them out. The maximum thickness you want is ¾ of an inch.
I prefer fresh, but frozen can be fine but it must be completely thawed. A few will come pre-brined, which is fine, but please do not brine or salt again.
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How To Make This Recipe
How To Freeze Marinated Chicken
Freezing marinated chicken is one of our secret meal-prep tips! Simply place your chicken in a large, gallon-size bag and then add the marinade. Remove as much air as possible and then seal the bag shut. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
PS: there is no need to let your chicken marinate for the full 24 hours before freezing. It will marinate as it freezes and as it thaws!
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Creating The Perfect Marinade:
Creating a marinade for your chicken is the key to adding so much flavor and helps keep your chicken juicy. To create a good chicken marinade it will need the following key ingredients. A fat, salt, sweetness, and an ingredient to make it come alive.
Here are some helpful tips:
- Adding a Fat Option Olive oil is our choice of fat to add to the marinade. The buttery flavoring really pulls in all the seasoning that is added to it.
- Salt Option Plain salt is an easy addition to your marinade. Soy sauce is another one that we like using. It is slightly sweet but full of flavor.
- Add Sweetness A good addition to any marinade is brown sugar. We love how it balances out the ingredients plus gives the chicken a caramelized texture. Another option to use is honey.
- Add Brightness We love using lemon juice to really make the marinade come alive. You can also use Dijon Mustard. Adding in the seasoning really pulls the ingredients together to give it the best flavor.
How To Make Chicken Thigh Marinade
This is one of our favorite marinades because it comes together quickly with just a handful of pantry staples, and yields the most incredible, rich flavor. If you don’t have fresh herbs, dried herbs will work fine! It’s best when you can plan ahead and let the meat marinate overnight, but that’s also not necessary. Just a few hours will still yield delicious chicken thighs!
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Make The Most Of Your Marinade
Slash your chicken joints with a sharp knife, as this creates more surface area for the marinade to work on. It will also help the chicken cook more quickly the longer you cook it, the drier it will become. Because marinades give mostly surface flavours, choose how to cook your chicken to make the best of them. High heat will caramelize sugars, so barbecuing, grilling, pan-frying and roasting will transform a marinade into a delicious crust.
More like this
- Mediterranean marinade: ingredients include olive oil, garlic, lemon zest/juice, oregano, pepper, dried red chilli
- Tandoori marinade: ingredients include yogurt, ginger, garlic, chilli, turmeric, garam masala
- Jerk marinade: ingredients include garlic, chilli, ginger, thyme, brown sugar, soy sauce, allspice
- Teriyaki marinade: ingredients include honey or sugar, mirin, soy sauce
- Barbecue marinade: ingredients include garlic, brown sugar, wine vinegar, paprika
Best Quick And Easy Chicken Marinade
Most definitely the Best Quick and Easy Chicken Marinade ever! Great for any kind of chicken, and made from just a few pantry staples! A little tart, a little sweet, a little savory, and of course a lot amazing!
- 1 ½-2poundsboneless skinless chicken breasts -or chicken thighs
- ¼cupapple cider vinegar -or red wine vinegar
- 1tablespoonfresh-squeezed lemon juice
- 2teaspoonsItalian seasoning -or Herbs de Provence
- ½teaspooncracked black pepper
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What To Serve With Grilled Chicken
Grilled chicken can be served alongside or on top of so many things!
Our favorite pairings:
We hope you LOVE this recipe! Its:
Quick & easy to makeSatisfying& Delicious
How long does grilled chicken keep? We find it keeps for 2-3 days in the refrigerator, making it perfect for preparing ahead of time and enjoying throughout the week.
How To Make Marinated Grilled Chicken
The recipe card below lists detailed instructions for making this recipe, but here are the basic steps for now:
- We like to combine all the marinade ingredients in a ziplock bag. The kids love squishing all the ingredients together.
- Once the ingredients are well mixed, add the chicken in the bag and let it marinate.
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How Long To Cook Chicken On The Grill
- In this recipe we use chicken breasts which are cooked for 4-6 minutes per side. The thicker the chicken, the longer it will take to cook.
- Cuts of meat that are thick or have bones will take additional time to cook completely.
- The absolute best thing to do to ensure that you end up with perfectly tender and juicy chicken is to use a meat thermometer. Chicken should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165F.
Huli Huli Chicken Seasoning Mix Spice N Easy
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Product Details
Try our Huli Huli Spice n Easy grilled chicken seasoning mix for a sticky-sweet Hawaiian glaze. The teriyaki-inspired sauce is bursting with juicy pineapple, nutty sesame seeds, and citrusy ginger. Meaning turn turn, Huli Huli sauce or seasoning is used to glaze grilled chicken.
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Reviews From Real Customers
This was wonderful with a whole cut up chicken and a few extra thighs thrown in. After pressure cooking the chicken with the ingredients on high for 9 minutes, I separated the grease from the leftover sauce and cooked the sauce down until thick.
This was used as a condiment at the table. The chicken browned up nicely on the grill, with grilled pineapple and a diced fruit and vegetable salad, everyone was very happy. Thanks savory!.
Great flavor on chicken thighs, as well as bone in chicken breasts. It tasted as if I spent a long time preparing, the rub, but only took a few minutes. I will buy it again, as well as use it for Hostess gifts.
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Easy Grilled Chicken Breast
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Grilled Chicken Breast is a quick meal with tender juicy chicken in a flavorful marinade. Its extra quick to make and perfect to enjoy on its own, add to pasta, or even put on top of a salad!
A quick and flavorful marinade and an even quicker grill time means this is meal on the table in no time at all!
Ideas For Serving Grilled Chicken
Chicken goes great with so many other foods. I like to grill up a big bunch of this chicken in the healthy chicken marinade and serve it the following ways:
- All by itself with a side of rice, noodles, or even a plain dinner roll.
- Slice the chicken into thin strips and serve over a salad.
- Cut the chicken and roll it up into a tortilla with your favorite taco toppings.
- Add the chicken to a big mound of mashed potatoes and even a side of gravy if youre feeling in a gravy mood.
- Add diced, grilled chicken to a pasta salad or make a chicken salad.
Now you know youll always have an answer to the question: How should we make this chicken tonight? Your answer? This Easy Chicken Marinade!
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How Much Chicken Will This Recipe Make
This recipe will marinate 1 ½ pounds of chicken, however, it is easy to scale up or down to suite your needs. 4 oz. of chicken is the recommended single serving portion of chicken, but this varies depending on the individual and what sides are being served. I would say 6-8 ounces is closer to realistic.
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How To Cook The Chicken After Its Been Marinated:
TOP COOKING TIP 1 Buying a meat thermometer is THE best thing you can do to cook chicken well. They are about £7 and they will take all of the guesswork out of cooking meat. Just prod it into the thickest part of the chicken, if it reaches 75C its cooked. No overcooking, no raw chicken YES! I have .
TOP COOKING TIP 2 I sometimes like to bash the fattest part of the chicken breast down with a rolling pin. To do this, I lay the breasts between two sheets of cling film and whack them until they are an even thickness all across. The benefit of doing this, is they cook more quickly AND more evenly, no dry overcooked thin end.
TOP COOKING TIP 3 The cooking time will depend heavily on the size of the chicken breasts you are using, this is why I like to use a meat thermometer. If you dont have one, cut into one of the thickest parts of the breast when you think its done, and check that there is no pink left.
Oven Bake Preheat the oven to 200C , pop onto a baking dish, line with a reusable baking sheet , and bake for 20 25 minutes until cooked through.
Barbecue When a barbecue is ready, cook for about 7 8 minuteson each side. Dont move them about, as you want to keep the pretty grill marks! Be sure to check they are cooked through as this will depend heavily on your barbecue temperature.
Grill Heat your grill to very hot. Pop your chicken on a grill rack and cook on each side for 10 12 minutes. Again, be sure to check its cooked through.
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Tips & Tricks For Marinating And Grilling Chicken
- If you have several different sizes of chicken breasts, you can pound some of the bigger ones down until they are all of equal size. This will help them to cook all at the same time so you dont run the risk of overcooking some and undercooking others.
- Letting the chicken rest or cool down for about 5 minutes after baking or grilling will allow the juices to reabsorb into the meat, thus rendering a juicer chicken breast all around.
- Unlike shrimp, which only need a few minutes to marinade, chicken can stay in a marinade for a few hours, even overnight.
- Chicken will grill most easily on a clean grill. Make sure you scrape off any old bits of past grilling adventures and oil the grates too if needed.
- Cook chicken over medium heat so that it cooks evenly and you dont end up searing/burning the outside to a chewy chicken jerky before you even have time to cook the inside. Lower and slower is the name of the chicken grilling game here.
- Toss out the marinade that you used for the chicken. You dont want to re-use it and get sick. Thats no good. If you want to make up a big batch of marinade, use only what you need for the chicken you have then save the rest in an airtight container for another day.
- Any unused marinade will keep for up to 1 week in the fridge.
