Absolutely Perfect Grilled Chicken Breast Recipe
What Makes this Recipe Special?
This recipe is one of those essential recipes you should have on hand. It is so easy, so delicious and comes together extremely quick. Plus, this grilled chicken breast recipe is incredibly versatile. It is perfect for a date night, improving your health for the New Year or just a quick and easy dinner recipe.
This grilled chicken breast recipe is also very flexible in terms of flavor profile. In other words, you can pretty much use whatever kind of seasoning you like and it’s guaranteed to be great. Keep it simple with salt + pepper, or make a custom blend!
What Makes a Good Grilled Chicken Breast?
In our opinion, there are a couple things to look out for when cooking a grilled chicken breast. One of the most important things to look out for is the internal temperature. Chicken breast is extremely lean, so it is incredibly easy to dry out. The best way to remedy this is in the prep. We recommend pounding out the chicken breast to a uniform thickness so that it cooks evenly.
Another key part to a good chicken breast is the appearance. In our recipe, we try to cook on a high heat and flip the chicken breast as little as possible. By doing this, we get an amazing char on the meat that presents nicely and adds depth to the flavor profile. Plus it is very hands-off since there is minimal interaction with the chicken breast once it goes on the grill.
There are other ways to go about charring the chicken breast that are awesome as well. For example, you can flip the chicken breast a couple more times and get those nice diamond grill marks on the chicken breast. This is perfect if presentation is your number one priority. If you choose to go this route, it is important to keep a close eye on the meat to make sure you can have enough time to get good grill marks without over-cooking the chicken.
Key Ingredients
For this grilled chicken breast recipe, there really are no essential ingredients. Because a recipe likes this takes seasoning so well, you have free-reign to make it as complicated or simple as you like. We have kept it simple with salt and pepper, used BBQ rubs, Caribbean jerk seasoning, Cajun blends, and plenty of other combinations and have never been disappointed.
The one thing that is slept on is using an oil to help flatten out the chicken. By doing this, we reduce friction and help our chicken breast keep a similar appearance as it is flattened out. But again, this is not necessary, just highly recommended.
Making the Grilled Chicken Breast
As far as actually making the grilled chicken breast, it is pretty straight-forward. You need to get your grill set to a high heat, chicken prepped and then get to cooking. That’s it.
We do recommend getting the grill fired up before beginning prep of the chicken breast. This will ensure that by the time you are completed with the prep-work that your grill is ripping hot and ready to go.
The reason we use a high heat when grilling chicken breast is to both get those nice grill/char marks but also get the chicken breast cooked through before it can dry out. If you cook at too low of a temperature, you run the risk of evaporating out too much moisture before the grilled chicken breast can finish cooking.
Once the grill is on and pre-heating, go ahead and place your chicken breast inside a bag with oil (optional) and pound it out flat. Season both sides and set aside. Repeat with all your pieces of chicken breast.
Now it is time to get the chicken breast on the grill. Place the chicken in a single layer across the grates and cook for about 5 minutes before flipping. After another 3-5 or so minutes, you chicken should be done but check the internal temperature of the chicken breast to ensure it. Remove it from the grill and serve it however you like!
Check out the video below for a short-video version of this recipe!
Perfect Grilled Chicken Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Gas Grill
- 1 Meat Tenderizer
- 1 Ziploc Bag Quart size (optional)
Ingredients
- 1 Chicken Breast
- Seasoning of your choice
- 1 tsp Olive Oil any oil works
Instructions
- Pre-heat grill to high heat
- Place Chicken Breast inside Ziploc Bag
- Use meat tenderizer to pound chicken breast to uniform thickness
- Remove from bag
- Season Chicken Breast on both sides
- Place chicken breast on grill
- Cook 5 minutes per side with grill lid closed
- Check internal temp for 165F
- Remove from grill and rest 5 minutes
Video
Notes
- Ziploc bag is not necessary but makes cleanup easy
- Can use any flat, somewhat heavy object to flatten chicken
- Any seasoning works on chicken breast
- Begin checking internal temp after 7 minutes on grill
