Grilling a boneless, skinless chicken breast might sound like a simple task. In reality, it isn't very difficult. Unfortunately, though, if you fail to follow some basic guidelines your chicken breast is likely to turn out dry on the grill with very little flavor. You want your chicken breast to be nice and firm on the outside, but juicy and flavorful on the inside.
Instructions
Preparing the Chicken Breast for the Grill
1. Trim any extra fat from the chicken breast, and any attached rib meat if you wish to remove it.
2. Decide if you are going to use a marinade on your chicken breasts. If you are, it typically takes 2 to 4 hours for a marinade to flavor a boneless, skinless chicken breast nicely.
3. If you are not using a marinade, you should apply a rub to season the chicken breast. Chicken breasts work well with many different rubs. I highly recommend a rub that includes some sweetness and some spiciness. A jerk rub is great for chicken breasts. You might also want to use a mixture of oregano, paprika and pepper with just a touch of brown sugar for sweetness. After applying the rub, place the chicken breast in the refrigerator.
Grill the Chicken Breast
4. Remove the chicken breast from the refrigerator and start your gas grill or light your charcoal grill.
5. Give your grill or briquettes a good 15 minutes to warm up. Too often people make a mistake of putting the chicken breast on the grill before the coals or the grill are hot. If you are using a charcoal grill, spread the coals and place the grates above them to form the grilling surface.
6. Cook the chicken breast over direct heat. This means you should place them on the grilling surface directly above the coals in the grill. It should take about 5 to 7 minutes on the first side of the chicken breast depending on thickness.
7. Flip the chicken breast on the grill. Do not puncture the meat while flipping it. Use tongs to flip the chicken. If you puncture the chicken breast with a fork while flipping it, juices may escape while grilling, causing the chicken to dry out.
8. Apply a finishing or barbecue sauce to the side that is face up after 4 minutes on the grill for the second side. Do this so that the sauce does not burn. Many barbecue and finishing sauces have high sugar contents, which result in the sauce burning.
9. Wait 2 minutes. Flip the chicken breast and apply a coating of barbecue sauce or finishing sauce on the other side of the chicken breast. Let this cook an additional minute to start to caramelize, glazing the chicken breast. You can then remove the chicken breast from the grill.
10. Allow the chicken breasts to rest for 5 to 10 minutes on a serving platter covered in foil. Serve to your guests with any side dishes you prefer.
Tags: chicken breast, chicken breast, chicken breasts, your chicken, barbecue sauce, boneless skinless