Skip to main content

How to Grill Chicken Correctly for a Tender, Delicious Barbecue

It’s grilling season. It’s time to stock up on charcoal, pellets, and propane and get ready to enjoy some quality outdoor time with your friends and family. Aside from burgers and brats, chicken is also a grilling go-to for those guests who require a healthier option.

The difference between burgers and brats and the delicious white meat is that chicken can be tough to get right on the grill. We’ve all had a piece of grilled chicken that was drier than shoe leather. This quick guide will help you every step of the way through the process of grilling up tender, moist, and delicious chicken.

Related Videos

Related Guides

The Tools

Besides a grill, chicken, and some beers to enjoy while you’re cooking, there’s only one other thing that you’ll need that is an essential tool in the grilling process. That thing is an instant-read thermometer. This little gadget should be attached to your grill, not for just grilling chicken, but for any meat. Those guys that try to look like tough-guy expert grillmasters and say they know when meat is done by touching it is just plain poppycock. There’s no shame in temping your meat frequently to ensure the meat is not under or overcooked.

With chicken especially, you want to make sure you’re not serving it undercooked (165 degrees is always our target temp). The only other way to really do this is to cut it open to check for doneness. But, when you do this, you lose precious juices that keep the meat moist. Chicken can be hard to gauge if it’s done by touch alone, especially if it’s not deboned. A thermometer will allow you to access the center of the breast, thigh, drumstick, or wing to ensure that your bird is ready to come off the grill.

Brining Chicken

An extra step to make your grilled chicken extra juicy and the skin crispier is to brine the chicken. A simple brine of 2/3 cup salt and 2/3 cup sugar per gallon of water will do the trick. You should brine boneless chicken for no longer than an hour, or the meat will become too salty. Bone-in pieces can be brined for up to two hours. If you’re brining a whole chicken, plan on letting it chill in your fridge for 12 to 48 hours, depending on the size.

Marinating Chicken

Marinating chicken is an excellent way to add a unique taste to your chicken. If you really want to infuse the flavor, we recommend marinating overnight. However, if you’re planning on brining before you marinate, make sure to use a low-sodium marinade, as your chicken will already be infused with salt from the brine. Also, brining your chicken before you marinate it will drastically reduce the time it will need to sit in the marinade (two hours at most). When making a marinade, pay attention to the amount of oil as well. A marinade that is too oily will create grease fires in your grill, resulting in a blackened and burnt outer crust.

How to Grill Chicken

How the chicken is prepared will affect how you want to grill it. Below are all ways a chicken can be broken down and grilled.

Whole

If you’re planning on grilling a whole bird, we recommend the beer can method. To do this, all you need is a 16oz or 12oz can of cheap beer (depending on the size of the chicken).

  • Rub the whole chicken with your favorite seasonings.
  • Drink the beer until the can is one-third of the way full, then ram it up into the chicken cavity.
  • Balance the chicken upright on a baking pan or on the grill grates themselves, and cook with indirect heat between 250 and 300 degrees.
  • Use a thermometer to check for doneness (165 degrees).

Related Guides

Bone-In & Skin-On

If your chicken pieces have both the skin and bones, there’s a process that will get you the best results.

  • Before grilling, rub the chicken in some of your favorite seasonings.
  • Bring your grill up to high heat, then season the grates with a healthy portion of oil to keep the chicken from sticking.
  • Sear the chicken skin-down with the grill uncovered for about 3-5 minutes, or until you have heavy grill marks on the skin.
  • Flip the chicken to the skinless side. If you’re grilling with propane, move the chicken to one side and turn off the burners underneath using indirect heat. Then cover the grill with the lid. If you’re grilling with charcoal, simply flip the chicken and continue to grill uncovered.
  • Use a thermometer to check for doneness (165 degrees).

Boneless Skinless

Grilling boneless skinless chicken will yield the quickest (and healthiest) results. However, these types of chicken cuts are the easiest to get wrong. Grilling the chicken with too high or too low of heat can both result in dry, tough chicken. You’re going to want to shoot for a grill temp between 350 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot enough to give you a good sear, but not too hot as to dry out the outer portion of the meat. A good rule of thumb for boneless, skinless chicken is to grill for five minutes per inch of thickness and flipping it once in between. But, don’t worry too much about this, because you’ll have your trusty thermometer at hand.

  • Before grilling, rub the chicken with a little cooking oil and your favorite seasonings. Be sure not to use too much oil to start a grease fire in your grill.
  • Bring your grill up to around 350-375 degrees, then season the grates with a healthy portion of oil to keep the chicken from sticking.
  • If possible, sear over direct heat, then finish grilling covered with indirect heat.
  • Use a thermometer to check for doneness (165 degrees).

Editors' Recommendations

Expert pitmasters reveal their top tips to make smoked brisket
Expert pitmasters shows us how to make smoked brisket
hill country barbecue market brisket 3

No one can argue that smoked meat is one of the great joys in life. If someone does, immediately unfriend them — they are not worthy of your time. Kidding, but only kind of. And while we love all pieces of smoked meat, from sausages to ribs and beyond, there’s something truly special about biting into a perfect piece of brisket, with its pink smoke ring, flavorful bark, and juicy meat that is just the right texture. While we’ve cooked many briskets in the oven in our day, smoked brisket is a much bigger undertaking, especially if you’re new to the backyard barbecue game.

New York City barbecue has been coming into its own during the past decade, which can be seen in the city’s many meaty festivals that take place every year. (Don't believe us? Check out this episode of Beards, Booze, and Bacon with Arrogant Swine's Tyson Ho.) One such event, Brisket King NYC, which has been going on for over ten years and draws pitmasters from near and far to compete for the best brisket in the city. This year, top pitmasters will be throwing down for the title on April 26, 2023, in what is sure to be a meat-tastic day.

Read more
Bubbly? Full-bodied and red? Zesty and white? Your favorite wine types, explained
All the primary types of wine (and everything you need to know about them)
Glasses of different kinds of wine

Trying to understand everything about wine all at once is an impossible endeavor. Wine is a beautifully complicated, ever-changing quiddity, and even the most decorated and prestigious wine experts in the world often find themselves confounded by its constant little surprises.
That isn't to say that, if you care to, you shouldn't become educated on the subject of wine. It's a hobby and a passion that's tremendously fun to pursue, and there's much to learn on the matter.
If you find yourself in the beginning stages of your wine education, just as in everything, you'll want to start with the basics. It's possible that up until now, you haven't put much thought into the several different kinds of wine there are, except for, say, red and white. But while there are obviously exceptions within every hard and fast rule, for the most part, wine can be broken down into roughly nine categories. Here we'll take a minute to break those categories down, explain what they mean, which wines fall into them, and, our favorite - how to drink those wines.

Sparkling wine

Read more
This NYC restaurant’s $518, 19-course tasting menu of Chinese cuisine is amazing
Chef Guo in New York is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a feast for the senses and the palate
Chef Guo food.

Butterfly Falls in Love with the Flower.

Step inside the restaurant Chef Guo, and the first thing you'll be greeted with is a majestic model of a ginko tree, the national tree of China, complete with brightly colored golden leaves. The tree cascades over the dining room, a space filled with Chinese calligraphy on the walls and regal Indonesian Zi Tan rosewood chairs. Soft and pleasant Chinese instrumental music plays in the background, an oasis in an otherwise hectic Midtown Manhattan.

Read more