[Photographs: J. Kenji López-Alt, Shao Z.]
If I show up at a barbecue and don’t trust the chef, I steer clear of any chicken I see—more often than not it’s going to be mediocre. But grilled chicken doesn’t have to be stringy and flavorless—use the right technique and it’ll be perfectly juicy and still have shatteringly crispy skin. And, of course, it will taste great. To show you how it’s done, we’ve rounded up 22 of our favorite grilled chicken recipes, from a simple spatchcocked bird and Thai-style satay to homemade chicken sausages with roasted garlic and feta.
Grilled Butterflied Chicken
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
Spatchcocking works just as well for grilling as it does for roasting—I never cook a whole bird any other way. To cook the chicken right use a two-step process, starting with the chicken skin-side up on the cooler side of the grill before finishing it over the coals to crisp up the skin.
Grilled Butterflied Chicken Recipe »
The Best Barbecue Chicken
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
Bigger birds aren’t well-suited to conventional grilling because it’s hard to cook them through evenly. Barbecue is the way to go for large roasting chickens—the low-and-slow technique cooks them gently and imbues them with tons of smoke. For extra flavor we like to brush the chicken with barbecue sauce toward the end of cooking.
The Best Barbecue Chicken Recipe »
Thai-Style Grilled Chicken (Gai Yang)
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
Without question, the best grilled chicken I’ve ever had was on a little island in the Gulf of Thailand. In a country full of wonderful grilled meat, the chicken stands out. The secret is marinating the meat with fish sauce and sugar, which helps create an intense, caramelized crust on the grill.
Thai-Style Grilled Chicken (Gai Yang) Recipe »
Thai-Style Chicken Satay With Peanut-Tamarind Dipping Sauce
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
In American Thai restaurants, satay is the grilled chicken dish you’re most likely to find on the menu. Our version is marinated with coriander, white pepper, palm sugar, garlic, ginger, shallot, turmeric, lemongrass, and a handful of other ingredients and served with a tamarind-peanut dipping sauce.
Thai-Style Chicken Satay With Peanut-Tamarind Dipping Sauce Recipe »
Japanese Chicken Skewers With Scallion (Negima Yakitori)
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
The average yakitori joint will serve dozens of cuts of chicken, but at home it’s easiest to stick with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which are good for grilling because they’re harder to overcook than breasts. These skewers are super easy—just alternate the chicken with big pieces of scallion, grill, and glaze with teriyaki sauce. If you want a riff on the same theme, you could also try grilling up some skewers with nanbansu, a sweet-sour sauce that can pull double duty as a dip and a marinade.
Japanese Chicken Skewers With Scallion (Negima Yakitori) Recipe »
Grilled Chicken and Peach Saltimbocca Skewers
[Photograph: Morgan Eisenberg]
If you’ve got your skewers and chicken out already, you could also give this combination of chicken, sage, prosciutto, and peach a try. The meat and fruit take a brief bath in a white wine marinade, which adds flavor even as it helps the chicken retain its moisture on the grill, and that same marinade gets reduced and served alongside as a dipping sauce.
Grilled Chicken and Peach Saltimbocca Skewers Recipe »
Planked Chicken Quarters With Lemon and Herb
[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]
If you’re not going to cook with wood, then next best option is to cook on wood. Here we cook chicken on wood planks set onto the grates of the grill to give them a little bit of wood flavor. We use a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, and fresh herbs to both marinate and baste the chicken to keep it moist.
Planked Chicken Quarters With Lemon and Herb Recipe »
Jerk Chicken
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
The marinade for Jamaican jerk chicken is pretty straightforward—allspice, thyme, and Scotch bonnet peppers will get you that classic jerk flavor, and habaneros make fine replacements for the Scotch bonnets. Unfortunately, true jerk chicken is smoked over hard-to-find pimento wood. The good news? Using bay leaves instead works remarkably well.
Grilled Chicken With Za’atar
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
Moving from the Caribbean to the Middle East, this recipe seasons grilled chicken with the earthy spice blend za’atar. I grew up eating the store-bought version of this mix of sesame seeds, sumac, and other herbs, but our homemade version is worth a little extra effort.
Grilled Chicken With Za’atar Recipe »
Greek-Style Grilled Chicken With Oregano, Garlic, Lemon, and Olive Oil
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
Sprinkling chicken with lemon juice as it grills is a typical Greek technique that sounds great until you realize that the juice keeps the skin from crisping up until long after the meat overcooks. To get the same flavors without sacrificing the quality of the chicken, we make a lemon-heavy vinaigrette and use it as a marinade and sauce.
Greek-Style Grilled Chicken With Oregano, Garlic, Lemon, and Olive Oil Recipe »
Peruvian-Style Grilled Chicken With Green Sauce
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
The chicken itself in this recipe is nothing too special—just a spatchcocked bird rubbed with salt, cumin, paprika, pepper, garlic, vinegar, and oil before grilling. The real magic of Peruvian grilled chicken is in the spicy-yet-cooling green sauce, which is made with a mayo and sour cream base and flavored with jalapeños, cilantro, and aji amarillo pepper paste. Make extra, because your guests are going to want to put it on everything. If you’re feeding a crowd, or if you just feel like eating sandwiches instead, we’ve got you covered.
Peruvian-Style Grilled Chicken With Green Sauce Recipe »
The Best Juicy Grilled Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts tend to be bland and dry, but that doesn’t keep them from being one of the most popular cuts of meat in America. If you’re going to give chicken breasts space on the grill come Memorial Day, treat them right by pounding them to a uniform thickness, brining them, and using an instant-read thermometer to avoid overcooking them.
The Best Juicy Grilled Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts Recipe »
Tandoor-Style Grilled Chickens or Cornish Hens
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
Tandoori chicken is cooked at a high temperature, which leads to a risk of the meat drying out. Our solution? Just replace the chicken with smaller, faster-cooking Cornish game hens. Our tandoor-style marinade is made with yogurt, paprika, cumin, turmeric, and other spices—if you want that vibrant red color you find in restaurants you’re going to have to add achiote powder or food coloring.
Tandoor-Style Grilled Chickens or Cornish Hens Recipe »
Grilled Spicy Chicken Wings With Soy and Fish Sauce
[Photograph: Shao Z.]
Despite the name, these chicken wings don’t taste like seafood—the fish sauce is there to add extra savoriness to the meat. It’s joined in the marinade by Asian ingredients like Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and as many dried red chili peppers as you can handle. A two-zone grill gets the wings juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside.
Grilled Spicy Chicken Wings With Soy and Fish Sauce Recipe »
Grilled Hoisin-Glazed Chicken Wings
[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]
If you want your grilled chicken wings to be extra crispy, sprinkle them with baking powder and salt and rest them overnight in the refrigerator. This both dries out the surface of the wings and raises the pH, which improves browning. Once you have perfectly cooked wings you can sauce them however you want—here we go with a soy sauce, honey, and hoisin glaze.
Grilled Hoisin-Glazed Chicken Wings Recipe »
Grilled Cajun Chicken Wings
[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]
If you’re going to do the air-drying step of preparing chicken wings you can also add seasonings to the mix—for these Cajun-inspired wings we mix paprika, garlic powder, thyme, oregano, cayenne, and more in with the salt and baking powder. After grilling we toss the wings in a Buffalo-style sauce that replaces the Frank’s with Louisiana-style hot sauce.
Grilled Cajun Chicken Wings Recipe »
Roasted Garlic and Feta Chicken Sausage
[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]
These sausages, made with juicy chicken thigh meat, sweet roasted garlic, and tangy feta cheese, are a fun variation on the hot dogs or brats you might expect to find on the grill come Memorial Day. We also add shallots, oregano, vinegar, and lemon juice, but in moderate quantities so as not to cover up the flavor of the chicken.
Roasted Garlic and Feta Chicken Sausage Recipe »
Buffalo Chicken Sausages
[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]
Mixing ground chicken with Buffalo sauce is a recipe for disaster—all that butter makes for sausages prone to exploding on the grill. We get around this by using Frank’s Buffalo Wings Sauce, which is made with “Natural Butter Type Flavor.” The sauce is a little on the bland side, so we add extra Frank’s and cayenne pepper to give it more of an edge.
Buffalo Chicken Sausages Recipe »
Korean-Style Fire Chicken (Buldak) With Cheese
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
This Korean bar food is perfect for a beer-filled Memorial Day cookout. Chicken thighs marinated in a spicy gochujang-based sauce are grilled until nicely charred. The crisp thighs are then covered in melty mozzarella, which cuts through the spicy and sweet marinade.
Korean-Style Fire Chicken (Buldak) With Cheese Recipe »
Grilled Tarragon-Mustard Chicken Skewers
[Photograph: Morgan Eisenberg]
It doesn’t take a lot of time or ingredients to turn chicken from boring to bright, flavorful, and exciting. The marinade for these skewers combines Dijon mustard, lemon juice, honey, and tarragon. The honey caramelizes over the grill, while the lemon and tarragon keep the skewers tasting fresh and balanced.
Grilled Tarragon-Mustard Chicken Skewers Recipe »
Grilled Tandoori Chicken Patties With Jalapeño-Mint Yogurt Sauce
[Photograph: Morgan Eisenberg]
These grilled tandoori chicken patties are a great alternative to the beef or chicken burgers most people will be expecting when you tell them you’re grilling. Inspired by tandoori chicken, we toss ground chicken with yogurt and Indian spices, then grill the patties until they’re lightly charred. Before serving, we top the patties with a tangy yogurt sauce, and wrap them in toasted flatbread.
Grilled Tandoori Chicken Patties With Jalapeño-Mint Yogurt Sauce Recipe »
Hawaiian Huli Huli Grilled Chicken Wings
[Photograph: Morgan Eisenberg]
These sticky, sweet, and smoky wings are inspired by the flavors of Hawaii. They marinate in a mixture of pineapple juice, soy sauce, light brown sugar, and sriracha, along with a few other flavor-packed ingredients. Once the wings are grilled to golden-brown, with nice charred bits from the flames, they’re showered with thinly sliced scallions and served with grilled pineapple.
Hawaiian Huli Huli Grilled Chicken Wings Recipe »
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