Best Grilled Chicken Recipe - Kristine's Kitchen (2024)

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Tips for the Best Grilled Chicken Breast

• Use a marinade. Marinating chicken breasts both adds flavor and helps to tenderize the meat. The marinade used in this recipe is made with just a few simple ingredients and makes the best grilled chicken.
• Pound the chicken to an even thickness. Pounding your chicken is an essential step to making tender, evenly cooked chicken breasts. When you buy chicken breasts at the store, they are often thicker on one side and thinner on the other. You want to pound them to an even thickness so that they cook evenly. The pounding process also tenderizes the meat.
• Clean the grill. You want to start with clean, oiled grill grates for the best grill marks.
• Grill over moderate heat. This ensures that your chicken won’t burn or dry out.
• Use an instant read thermometer. Overcooking chicken is a surefire way to dry it out. The best way to tell when chicken is done is to use an instant read thermometer to measure the internal temperature of the meat.
• Let the grilled chicken rest for 5 minutes before slicing or serving. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. If you slice the chicken right away when it comes off the grill all of the juices will run out, which is definitely not what you want.

Grilled Chicken Marinade

Flavorful, juicy grilled chicken starts with a great marinade. This grilled chicken recipe uses a simplified version of my Chicken Marinade recipe. Here’s what you’ll need for the marinade:

• Lemon Juice: The lemon juice adds bright, fresh flavor. You can add the zest of two lemons to your marinade for more lemon flavor. When you marinate chicken in lemon juice, you don’t want to marinate for more than 2 hours or the acid will start to make the chicken tough. I recommend marinating your chicken for at least 30 minutes and no more than 2 hours.
• Olive Oil: Olive oil is essential in a good marinade because it keeps the meat moist and helps to transfer the flavors of the marinade to the chicken. The lemon juice is acidic, and without olive oil to balance the acid your chicken would turn out tough.
• Garlic: You can’t beat the flavor of fresh garlic!
• Dried Oregano: Feel free to substitute Italian seasoning if you prefer.
• Chili Powder: Adds a little extra flavor to the marinade, but it does not make the chicken spicy.
• Salt and Pepper: For flavor.

You may season the chicken to your tastes by adding other herbs that you enjoy, fresh or dried, to your marinade. Or try some Dijon mustard for extra flavor. This Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken recipe is another one of my favorites!

How to Grill Chicken

Start by whisking together the marinade ingredients in a small bowl.

Place the chicken breasts in a zip-top plastic bag and pound them with a meat mallet (or rolling pin) to an even thickness, about 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick.

Add the marinade to the bag with the chicken, seal, and squish/turn the bag to coat all of the chicken with the marinade. Place in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

How Long to Grill Chicken Breast

Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the extra marinade. Grill the chicken breasts for 5-8 minutes per side with the grill cover closed, until cooked through. The internal temperature of the chicken should reach 165 degrees F. For the best grill marks and juicy chicken, begin cooking the chicken on a hotter part of the grill for a few minutes and then move it to lower heat to finish cooking through. Using two heating zones keeps your chicken from burning on the outside or drying out while the inside cooks through.

Let the chicken rest on a clean plate for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Troubleshooting: Why Would your Chicken be Tough?

If your chicken gets tough or blackened on the outside by the time the inside is cooked through, it may have cooked over too high heat. Next time, try cooking your chicken more slowly over lower heat.

If your chicken is tough and dry all the way through, it is most likely overcooked. This can happen with very large chicken breasts if you do not pound them to a thin, even thickness. Aim for 1/2 to 3/4 inch thickness for grilling.

If you do end up with overcooked chicken, a simple sauce is an easy way to add moisture. Serve the chicken with some BBQ Sauce, Chimichurri or Honey Mustard.

Serving Suggestions

This grilled chicken recipe is so versatile! Here are a few ways to enjoy it.

• BBQ: Serve it with a few tasty side dishes for a BBQ or cookout. Try Potato Salad, Coleslaw, Fruit Salad, Corn Salad, Tabouli or Cilantro Lime Rice.
• Grilled Chicken Salad: Serve with lettuce and your favorite salad ingredients, or add grilled chicken to one of these salad recipes.
• Grilled Chicken Sandwich or Wrap: Serve a grilled chicken breast on a toasted burger bun with lettuce, tomato, onion and a sauce – we love it with Guacamole! Or use it to make a chicken wrap for lunch.
• Burrito Bowl: Try it in this Burrito Bowl recipe.
• Pasta: Add sliced grilled chicken to Pesto Pasta or this Caprese Pasta.
• Meal Prep: Cook extra grilled chicken to save time with meal prep later in the week.

More Grilled Chicken Recipes

In the summer time, we cook dinner on the grill as often as possible. Here are a few more delicious grilled chicken recipes to inspire your meal planning!

• Grilled Chicken Thighs
• Chicken Kabobs
• Grilled Chicken Fajitas
• Cilantro Lime Chicken
• BBQ Chicken Salad