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How to Make Grilled Chicken Breast
A lot of people trash talk the boneless skinless chicken breast. That’s understandable. There’s no skin or bone to keep in flavor and tenderness.
It’s really easy to turn it into a disaster. Well I was thinking about it and I believe I have a way to salvage this.
I mean what are you supposed to do when your wife comes home with a pack of 6 boneless skinless breasts? You might as well have a plan in place to nail it. Here’s what I came up with.
The key to grilling juicy boneless skinless chicken breast is twofold: you need a punch of flavor and it can’t be overcooked.
3 Keys to Flavorful Grilled Chicken Breast
I have three ways to increase the flavor: a BBQ dry rub, smoke, and a caramelized BBQ sauce.
To cook it perfectly you need a thermometer and the reverse sear method of grilling.
The first thing is to cover the chicken breast liberally with dry rub.
You can use any dry rub you want. I have a basic dry rub here that will work on just about any bbq. Apply the rub and let the chicken rest in the fridge for a few hours.
Basic Dry Rub for Grilled Chicken
- 2 tbsp Kosher Salt
- 1 tbsp Black Pepper
- 1 tbsp Thyme
- 2 tbsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 tbsp Granulated Garlic
- 1 tbsp Granulated Onion
- 2 tbsp Brown Sugar
Normally people grill chicken over direct heat the same way you would cook a steak.
A few minutes on each side, or more likely a lot of minutes on each side, and then you have big grill marks and classic grilled chicken.
Well this method doesn’t really work well for a thick unbutterflied or unflattened piece of chicken.
This method of grilling chicken also results in an almost crisp outer layer of chicken that can be quite dry.
Ingredient List
- 24 oz Chicken Breast 4-6oz. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp BBQ Dry Rub
- 4 tbsp BBQ Sauce
Instructions
- Season the Chicken Breast with dry rub seasoning on all sides
- heat grill using a 2 zone indirect method, One side direct heat, one side indirect heat
- Grill boneless chicken breast over direct heat flipping every 3 minutes until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F.
- Move Chicken breast to indirect heat and lightly baste with bbq sauce until chicken is fully cooked (165 degrees F.) Rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
Reverse Sear Method for Grilled Chicken Breast
The reverse sear method is when you cook meat over indirect heat (away from the coals) and then finish the cooking over direct heat (directly over the coals).
So the general plan here is to put the rubbed chicken breast on the indirect side of the grill and let them sit there without flipping until they reach about 150 degrees F internal temperature.
It will take about 30 minutes to get the chicken cooked to about 150. You’ll want a dome temperature of about 400-450 degrees F.
To get this you’ll need about ½ of a charcoal chimney lit and ashed over. Also, you need to add a handful of wood chips (not chunks) or a product such as Kingsford’s new smoke briquettes.
This really adds some nice flavor. Don’t worry about soaking any wood or being all fancy.
Just throw in some wood chips or smoke briquettes on top of the coals and you’ll get about 10-15 minutes of moderate smoke.
Cooking Boneless Chicken Breast over Indirect Heat
When the chicken reaches 150 or so move it to the grate directly above the coals. Now, after 30 or so minutes of grilling this area won’t be high heat.
It will more likely be a medium low heat which is just what you want. Grab a basic BBQ sauce and slowly brush it on each breast.
During this phase of the grilling you can leave the grill dome open and stand there attending to the chicken. It will only take about 5 more minutes.
Brush the chicken, flip the chicken and repeat. Enjoy this time at the grill. Keep doing this until the chicken is nicely coated with sauce and is cooked to 165 degrees F.
I use an instant read thermometer to make sure that I know exactly what the temperature is.
Oh yeah, look at that. Perfectly sauced, lightly smoked chicken breast.
In summary, this method of grilling juicy boneless skinless chicken breast includes: adding a BBQ dry rub, using smoke wood or smoke briquettes, grilling with the reverse sear method and brushing a BBQ sauce on while the chicken finishes cooking over direct heat (about 165 degrees internal temperature).
More Amazing Recipes
How to Grill Juicy Boneless Chicken Breasts
Ingredients
- 24 oz Chicken Breast 4-6oz. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp BBQ Dry Rub
- 4 tbsp BBQ Sauce
Instructions
- Season the Chicken Breast with dry rub seasoning on all sides
- heat grill using a 2 zone indirect method, One side direct heat, one side indirect heat
- Grill boneless chicken breast over direct heat flipping every 3 minutes until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F.
- Move Chicken breast to indirect heat and lightly baste with bbq sauce until chicken is fully cooked (165 degrees F.) Rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
Tom Furman
Thanks for sharing! I’ve recently been doing the indirect heat for chicken, pork of course, and beef. Works great! I found that if I coat the chicken with oil, olive or canola, before I put the seasoning on, it really does help to keep the meat moist. Why didn’t somebody figure this out decades ago? Well, they probably did. But they didn’t have the Internet to share these delicious tricks! Thanks for the tasty help!
chaybee
This was absolutely fantastic and dead on – even the timing is 100% correct. I followed the method to a T and couldn’t be happier. I will never make boneless grilled chicken on the grill again without using this technique. Thank you!
Rich The cook
I’ve grilled chicken for years and sometimes it comes out perfect, tonight we were invited to dinner than asked to do the barbecuing along with chicken our host purchased steak, I looked up how to cook steak and am looking forward to trying your steak 3’s method, it sounds great.
I’ll let you know how it worked for me.
Thank you for the clear breakdown.
Do de
The dry rub receipt will not open. Please reply with ingredients
Culinary Lion
that was a dead link but its fixed now, thanks for the heads up. it is posted now.
Culinary Lion
2 tbsp Kosher Salt
1 tbsp Black Pepper
1 tbsp Thyme
2 tbsp Smoked Paprika
1 tbsp Granulated Garlic
1 tbsp Granulated Onion
2 tbsp Brown Sugar