Want juicy grilled chicken?
Follow three simple steps to bring out the best in the delicately flavoured meat
Countless words are devoted every year to finessing the usual centrepieces of your summer barbecues: how to grill up the perfect burgers, juiciest steaks, flakiest fish, most tender pork.
But what about the humble boneless, skinless chicken breast? The staple of dinner tables all over most of the year, it doesn’t get much attention when grilling season arrives.
This may be because as easy as boneless chicken breasts are to eat (all that uninterrupted white flesh), they can be tricky to grill just right. The usual outcome is either an attractive bronzed, criss-crossed exterior covering a desiccated centre, or something rubbery, pale and slightly burned around the edges.
But given a little forethought and attention, the grill can be perhaps the best place to cook chicken breasts, imbuing them with enough char and smoke to bring out the best in their delicately flavoured meat. So, to figure out exactly what the fastest, easiest road to grilled chicken breast perfection was, I spent some time experimenting.
The upshot is that grilling juicy, well-cooked chicken breasts involves three basic steps: pounding the breasts to even out the thickness, marinating them aggressively with salt and aromatics, then grilling them hot and fast.
The pounding, a technique I picked up from the grilling guru Steven Raichlen, is probably the least intuitive, but solves the problem of their uneven shape. Chicken breasts bulge at their middles and taper at the edges, making them hard to cook evenly over a direct hot fire. But constantly moving them around back and forth between direct and indirect heat (another option for uneven or large pieces of meat) can compromise the char because they cook so quickly.
The trick is to pound the chicken breasts, but not too thin, which could dry them out. Aim for about a thickness of about ½ to ¾ inch.
Seasoning them before does two things: It helps keep them juicy because the salt forms a brine, which locks in moisture, and it improves the flavour, which mild-tasting chicken breasts desperately need.
You can season the marinade or rub with anything you like. Herbs and garlic are classic. Soy sauce and sesame oil are rich and complex. A brown sugarbased spice rub gives them a spicy, shiny glaze, a little like barbecue sauce but less sticky. Don’t marinate them the day before; a few hours ahead is plenty.
Then build a hot fire, or get your gas grill nice and hot, and throw them over the flames. They’ll cook quickly and please nearly everyone — except perhaps the diehard dark meat lovers. If you have those in your group, just sub- stitute a couple of boneless, skinless chicken thighs for the breasts and grill them along with the breasts. Dark meat is more forgiving than white, so they don’t need pounding. But they will take a few extra minutes to cook through.
When the chicken is done, if you’ve used charcoal, you’ll still probably have some life left in the coals. Throw on some ears of corn, red pepper halves or zucchini slices, and your dinner will be complete without much added fuss. This is how summer should go.