Best Grilled Chicken Recipe
This easy grilled chicken recipe uses a flavorful chicken marinade for the most wonderful taste! With this marinade and cooking method, you’ll have the most juicy, tender, and full of flavor grilled chicken breasts. Cook on a hot barbecue for a fast meal ready in under 30 minutes.
Best Healthy Grilled Chicken Recipe
There’s nothing that I love more in the summer than grilling up a delicious meal! I’m also always looking for new ways to cook up flavorful, tender, juicy chicken breasts. They can so easily become dry or rubbery and not appetizing at all. Well, friends, I’m sharing the best chicken marinade recipe and my foolproof method for perfect grilled chicken breasts. You’ll never need another grilled chicken recipe!
Grilled Chicken Marinade
For juicy, delicious grilled chicken, it is essential that you marinate your chicken before grilling. Marinating your chicken is a step that should not be skipped – it helps lock in tons of flavor and the natural juices of the chicken, so you’re not stuck with dry grilled chicken.
- Poke holes in the chicken with a fork or knife. This allows the marinade to be absorbed by the chicken better.
- Keep marinating chicken in airtight container in the refrigerator until use. I like to shake up the marinade in a glass jar with a lid and then pour it into a large zip-top baggie with the chicken.
- Let chicken marinate for at least 30 minutes. I typically marinate my chicken all day, but after about 30 minutes in the marinade, thin-cut chicken will have tons of great flavor. Chicken can be left marinating in the fridge for up to two days.
- Pour any extra marinade over the chicken while it is cooking on the grill. This will give you incredibly juicy and tender chicken.
How To Make Grilled Chicken At Home
For the best grilled chicken possible, I suggest purchasing high-quality, organic, no antibiotic chicken breast. I also like to buy the thinly sliced chicken breasts. This cut of chicken, cook much quicker and evenly, in my experience. If your chicken breasts are very thick in some areas and thin in others, place them in a large baggie and use a meat tenderizer to pound them and even them out slightly.
Since boneless chicken breasts are so lean, they can dry out very easily. The best way to make tender grilled chicken breasts is to marinate them.
- Place the chicken breast in a large zip-top baggie and set aside.
- Mix all of the marinade ingredients in a small bowl or shake them up in a jar with a lid.
- Pour the marinade into the bag with the chicken.
- Seal the bag and knead with your hands to ensure that the marinade covers all areas of each chicken breast.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, but 4-24 hours is even better.
How Long To Grill Chicken Breast
This answer can fluctuate depending on how hot your grill gets and the thickness of your chicken breasts.
In this grilled chicken breast recipe, I use thin-cut chicken breasts and they will grill up super quick. Once your chicken breasts are marinated, place them on a heated grill of about 400ºF. Cook them for 4 minutes on each side, not lifting during the cooking process (you don’t want to lose your pretty grill marks!).
Flip the chicken and cook for an additional 4 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the largest part of the chicken breast reads 165°F. If you happen to be using thicker cut chicken breast, you’ll most likely need to cook them for about 7-8 minutes per side.
I recommend allowing the cooked chicken to rest about 3-5 minutes before cutting to keep it juicy (just enough time to fill your plates and get to the table). Serve with your favorite sides or atop a leafy green salad.
What To Serve With Grilled Chicken
Grilled chicken pairs perfectly with so many dishes or simply atop a fresh bed of greens. Check out some of my go-to side dishes to whip up when we make grilled chicken for dinner:
Flavorful Roasted Veggies (ignore the egg bake)
Simple Lemon Parsley Cauliflower Rice
When I’m really feeling lazy, I serve my grilled chicken with grilled corn and a fresh salad of baby greens, chopped tomato and my favorite salad dressing. The corn takes about 20 minutes, so I put that on the grill first. Grilled corn is so flavorful, all I do is spray it with cooking spray and add a little salt and pepper on it before cooking. It’s seriously so tasty, I don’t even need to add butter!
Meal Prep Ideas
I love making grilled chicken breasts in large batches to put on top of salads, in weekly meal prep, into quick pasta dishes, or even into chicken noodle soup! It goes so well with just about anything. Here are some of my favorites: Honey Mustard Chicken Salad, Skinny Enchilada Casserole, Skinny Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad, Chicken Alfredo Flatbread and Fast & Easy Chicken Enchiladas.
Helpful Tools For Making Grilled Chicken
16-Piece Complete Grill Set – We absolutely love this affordable grill set! It comes with all of the essentials like a Swiss knife, spatula, tongs, basting brush, cleaning brush, corn holders and skewers in an aluminum case. It’s stainless steel with heat-safe handles and dishwasher safe.
Cast Iron Grill Pan – If you don’t happen to have access to an outside grill, you can totally still make this recipe work using a grill pan. This one is budget-friendly, gets great reviews on Amazon and is great quality!
Wüsthof Two Piece Prep Set (Knives) – This is the knife set that I use most often and I can’t say enough great things about these high-quality knives.
If you try this delicious grilled chicken recipe, let me know! Leave a comment and if your family loves it as much as mine does, be sure to give it a five star ⭐️ rating! Also, tag @kimscravings on Instagram with a picture of your creation. It’s so fun to see what you’re cooking! Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to receive more healthy delicious recipes straight to your inbox.
Best Grilled Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds boneless skinless thin-cut chicken breast*
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Place the chicken in a large ziplock bag and set aside.
- In a small bowl or jar, add the olive oil, dijon, red wine vinegar, garlic, lemon juice, dried oregano, cumin, kosher salt, and black pepper. Whisk or shake jar with lid to combine.
- Add the marinade in the bag with the chicken. Seal the bag and then knead with your hands to ensure all of the chicken is well coated. Place in the fridge and marinate for at least 30 minutes and preferably 4-24 hours.
- To grill the chicken, heat grill to medium-high heat, about 400 degrees F. Once hot, grill chicken until cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Serve alongside or on top of a salad or with grilled or roasted veggies.
Notes
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Loved this chicken recipe. Super flavorful!
I love the flavors of this especially the cumin.
Your chicken looks perfect! I appreciate the tips you shared. And the marinade you made sound incredible!
I’ve never thought of poking holes in my meat before marinating, but it makes so much sense! great tip!
The marinade sounds fantastic! Going to use it for our chicken!
Definitely using these tips the next time I plan to grill chicken! That marinade looks seriously yummy and the chicken looks perfectly grilled!
Great, easy recipe for weeknight grilling. I can’t wait to try!
Chicken on the grill is so delicious. This is the perfect dinner salad. Made easy any night of the week.
You can never go wrong with grilled chicken, and I bet that mustard adds so much flavour.