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    Home » Recipes » Grilling

    Grilled Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, Quick Brinerated

    Published: Oct 1, 2009 · Modified: Feb 7, 2015 by Mike Vrobel · This post may contain affiliate links · 9 Comments

    Boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a quick brinerate is my original weeknight grill recipe, and it's still the one I turn to the most. When I need a quick dinner, it's boneless, skinless chicken breasts to the rescue!

    There's a problem with this approach. If there's a food as bland as a boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I haven't tasted it. I've complained about pork loin being bland; the reason it's bland is they are trying to turn it into boneless, skinless chicken breasts. So...chicken needs a lot of help if it's going to have good flavor. That's where the brinerade comes in, and why it's the core of my quick weeknight grilling.

    The soy/sweet/vinegar combination in the brinerade gives the chicken a big hit of flavor, and helps keep the very lean meat from drying out while cooking. The soy and sugar in the brinerade also helps the surface of the chicken to brown really well, giving it another layer of flavor.  That being said...chicken breasts are still pretty neutral. I try to serve them as a supporting player in a meal with a lot of other, bolder flavors. You can see some examples in the notes at the end of the recipe.

    You'll see a lot of similarities to the pork chop recipe earlier in the week, because...well, it's pretty much the same technique. I cook the pork chops for a shorter period of time because they're so much thinner; otherwise, the two are interchangeable.

    Recipe: Grilled Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, Quick Brinerated

    Equipment:

    • Grill (I used a Weber Summit 650. Here it is.)

    Ingredients:

    • 2 to 3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts

    Brinerade

    • ¼ cup soy sauce
    • 2 tablespoon lemon juice (juice of ½ lemon, or substitute balsamic vinegar)
    • 2 tablespoon honey
    • 2 tablespoon olive oil

    Directions:
    1. Brinerate the chicken: Whisk the brinerade ingredients in a small bowl until well combined.
    *I use a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup for my bowl, and I whisk with a fork.
    Put the chicken breasts in a medium bowl, and pour the brinerade over them, reserving roughly 2 tablespoon of the brinerade for later. Toss the chicken to evenly cover with the marinade, and toss once or twice while the grill preheats.

    2. Prepare the grill: Preheat your grill, then set it up for grilling on direct medium heat. For my Weber Summit, this means turning all the burners to high and preheating for 10 minutes, then turning them all down to medium and starting to cook.


    3. Cook the chicken: Toss the chicken breasts one more time in the bowl, put them on the grill, and keep the lid closed while cooking. Let them cook for five minutes, until they have good grill marks on them, then flip them, and cook on the other side for another five minutes.
    As usual with chicken, you're looking for a temperature of 160F in the thickest part of the meat.  This timing always works for me on my gas grill, but if you have any doubts, get out the thermometer.

    4. Glaze and serve: Remove the chicken to a platter, and pour the reserved brinerade over the breasts, trying to get an even coating on all of them. Let rest for five minutes (if you can), then serve.

    Variations:
    *Asian style: the soy sauce is already giving them a little bit of an asian flavor; you can play this up by replacing the lemon juice with seasoned asian rice vinegar, and the olive oil with peanut or sesame oil.

    *Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs: I prefer chicken thighs to the breast; they have more flavor. When I can find them at my local grocery store, I cook them exactly the same way listed above. They're a little smaller, but you want to cook them more than the chicken breasts, so it works out in the end.

    *Thin cut chicken breasts or chicken tenders: If you're really in a hurry, buy these instead of whole chicken breasts. They cook in roughly half the time; I cook them like I cook thin pork chops - don't turn them, only rotate them to try to get really good browning on one side.

    Notes:
    *If you can get a jump start on dinner, start the brinerating step up to an hour and a half before it's time to cook. Don't go beyond that, or the lemon juice in the brinerade will start to pickle the chicken.

    *For the rest of your meal, serve a caesar salad, and grilled garlic bread that you cooked with the chicken. To get fancy, cut the grilled garlic bread into crouton sized pieces and serve it as part of the salad.

    *I also use this recipe for a quick soft taco dinner. Serve with tortillas, quick salsa, pickled chile peppers, and your choice of other toppings.

    *And...I use this recipe, or leftovers from it, in my White Chicken Chili. I skip the ground chicken and the browning step, and replace it with cubed pieces of chicken breast.

    *Watch out for Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) chicken breasts. They usually come "20% marinated" in a salt water solution - in other words, they're already brined, and you're paying 20% for salt water. This means brinerating is probably going to make them too salty. Also, they tend to be cut in wildly uneven sizes, which makes cooking them evenly a problem.  Get some natural chicken breasts, even if you have to pay more.  They're worth it.

    Questions? Comments? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

    Related Posts:
    This recipe is part of Quick Grilling Week
    If you have the time, I prefer grilled bone-in chicken pieces. Here's my basic technique
    Grilled Garlic Bread recipe

    Inspired by:
    Grilling: Basic Technique section in Weber's Big Book of Grilling

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    Comments

    1. WindyCityLexi says

      June 11, 2020 at 9:11 am

      Wow! A quick recipe that makes chicken breasts tender and flavorful. Say goodbye to boring and dry chicken breasts. We cut the chicken into strips and served it over baby romaine with a simple balsamic/EVOO/honey dressing. I seriously cannot wait to make this again.

      Reply
    2. Gemma says

      May 07, 2015 at 6:33 pm

      Both this and the pork chop recipe are winners! Thnx!

      Reply
      • Mike V says

        May 07, 2015 at 7:00 pm

        You're welcome!

        Reply
    3. Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says

      September 29, 2013 at 9:59 am

      You're welcome - glad it worked for you

      Reply
    4. Dana says

      September 29, 2013 at 12:11 am

      Ironically enough, I found this recipe because I had to do the cooking tonight because my husband is out of town! I have to say, I was very proud of myself! Not only was the recipe easy to follow, it was delicious! My young daughters loved it as well! I will be making this again! Thanks for making me seem like I knew what I was doing! Also, the details of the steps was very helpful too! Most folks leave that out. ....while its marinating turn the grill to high...heat 10 mins... flip chicken a few times.... turn to grill to medium..... keep lid closed. The devil is in the details so thanks for sharing!!!

      Reply
    5. Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says

      February 24, 2012 at 11:30 am

      You can broil or cook the chicken on a grill pan (or George Foreman grill). The broiler will work better; it has the same the open flame effect that a grill does.

      The broilers I've owned are kind of wimpy, though; the results are never as good as my grill.

      If you don't have a grill, I recommend is sauteing chicken breasts. Like this:
      Chicken Breast Saute with Marsala Sauce.

      Reply
    6. Mvgardens says

      February 24, 2012 at 12:07 am

      could i broil the chicken breast  instead of grilling. sorry, dont have a grill. but do have a george foreman grill, would that work and would it give me the grill taste and effect? 

      Reply
    7. Anonymous says

      October 04, 2009 at 11:56 pm

      Dear Michael,

      I am using your blog, I am so impressed with your recipes. Thank you for sharing.

      Love,

      Mom

      Reply
    8. A Year on the Grill says

      October 01, 2009 at 7:57 pm

      good back to back recipes similar ingredients saves money, but different tastes each night... clever

      I am working on my rubs right now for flavoring, but will be getting to marinades soon, and will be revisiting these posts

      Reply

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