The Juiciest Grilled Chicken Breasts

By Christie Vanover | Published August 31, 2021 | Last Updated April 11, 2023

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts: Be sure to buy the skinless breasts that still have the rib or tenderloin meat connected. This ensures even thickness.
• Water: A bottle of water is the perfect size for this recipe, but you can also use 2 cups of tap water.
• Christie Vanover’s Chicken Rub from Spiceology: You’ll use this in the brine and as a rub.

How to Trim a Chicken Breast

When shopping for chicken breasts, you can buy bone-in or boneless chicken breasts. Personally, I like to grill boneless, skinless chicken breasts hot and fast. Whereas I barbecue bone-in, skin-on breasts longer at lower temps. 

Today’s recipe is for boneless, skinless chicken breasts with rib meat. 

I have found that how chicken breasts are butchered varies greatly, depending on the brand. You can purchase breasts that say pre-trimmed on them, but they’re usually more expensive, so I’m going to show you how to trim them yourself. 

When you take the breasts out of the package, look them over. One side will likely have a thin white layer of fat. I like to trim this off. 

The other side will have the socket where the wing was connected to the breast. Feel it with your finger. If you notice a little gristle, trim it away with a sharp boning knife. 

When you flip the breast over, it should have a flap. This is the chicken tender or rib meat. I like to leave this attached, because it helps balance out the thickness of the breast. 

If the breasts you buy already have the tenderloin removed, you may notice that one end will be significantly thicker than the other. If that’s the case, place the chicken between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound the thicker side a bit, so it’s even with the thinner side. This will help it cook more evenly.

How to Make Sure the Chicken Breast is Juicy

Now that your chicken breasts are trimmed, it’s time to ensure they are juicy. 

While some people like to use marinades, I find the brine method works much better to create juicy and flavorful chicken. Marinades are generally made with oil and vinegar and flavor enhancers like soy sauce and garlic. 

Those do a great job at flavoring the meat, but they don’t necessarily make it juicy. And if you leave your chicken in an acid-based marinade for too long, it will actually start to cook and will get rubbery. 

Brining, on the other hand, works differently. When the chicken breast is introduced to a salt water bath, the proteins begin to break down and relax while the meat absorbs the liquid. It’s like juicy chicken magic.

Brining Bonus: Brining liquid doesn’t include oil, so it’s much healthier and lower in calories than marinades.  

A typical brine is made up of water, kosher salt, sugar and seasonings. For this recipe, you don’t need to make a big batch. I use a really simple technique.

Mix one bottle of room temperature water with a tablespoon of kosher salt, a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of my personal Chicken Rub, which is a blend of salt, pepper, sugar, paprika, garlic, onion, bell pepper, lemon zest, chiles and natural hickory smoke.

You don’t need to heat the water or anything. The salt, sugar and seasonings will dissolve just fine. Place the brine ingredients in a bowl and mix it well. Place the chicken breasts in the zip-top bag and add the brine. Seal and massage it gently. It’s a good idea to place the bag in a large bowl (just in case it leaks). 

How Long Does it Take to Brine Chicken

Honestly, there is no need to over think this. I have brined chicken for 30 minutes, and I’ve brined chicken for 24 hours. 

I find 1 hour to be a nice sweet spot. It gives the meat plenty of juiciness without me having to plan dinner hours in advance.

I have a recipe for Turkey Brine, too. Check it out.

I start the meal by trimming the chicken, making the brine and letting it soak in the bag on the counter. Then, I heat up the grill, prepare my sides and set the table. Once that’s done, the chicken is ready to be seasoned to go on the grill. 

How Long to Grill Chicken Breasts

One of the most important things to learn about grilling is that it’s better to cook to temp versus time. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has outlined safe minimum internal temperatures for all proteins.

However, if you’re using full chicken breasts with the tenderloins attached and you follow the instructions for the type of grill you have, they should be cooked through in about 15-25 minutes, depending on your grill and the thickness of the chicken. 

Place the foil pouch in the back of the grill over the heat. Once it starts smoking, add the chicken breasts to the grill. 

Then, place the breasts on the grill top-side-down. Grill them for 3 minutes. Flip them and cook another 3 minutes. Flip and cook for 3 more minutes. 

Then, flip them one final time and let them cook for another 3-5 minutes to that internal temp of 165F. 

For kettles and campsite grills, I like to use Cowboy Hardwood Hickory or Apple Briquets. Fill a charcoal chimney with briquets and add a firestarter under the chimney. Light it up and let it burn, until the briquets are gray. Then, dump them into the grill.

When I’m cooking in a ceramic cooker, I prefer Cowboy Oak and Hickory Hardwood Lump Charcoal. You can add the lump charcoal to the inside of the grill, tuck in a few firestarters, light it up and let it burn, until it ashes over and the smoke runs clean. 

Once the coals are ready, adjust the vents on the grill until the temperature reaches 350F degrees. 

Then, grill the breasts top-side-down for 3 minutes. Flip and grill another 3 minutes. Flip again and cook for 3 minutes. Then, flip one final time and continue grilling until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165F degrees.

It should take about 3-5 more minutes, depending on the thickness of the breasts.

If you’re using a campsite grill without a lid, plan for a little more time, since it doesn’t have a lid to lock in the heat.

Pellet grills are setup with indirect heat, so you’ll want to set your grill temperature to 400F degrees. If you cook it at a lower temp, it will take much longer to cook the chicken, which can cause it to have a dryer texture.

With this cook, you’ll be opening and closing the grill door frequently, which may cause your grill temperature to fluctuate. Just keep it set to 400F degrees throughout the cook, and you should be fine.

Place the chicken on the pellet grill top-side-down and cook for 5 minutes. Then, flip and cook for another 5 minutes. Flip again and cook for 5 minutes. Then, give it a final flip and continue cooking it to an internal temperature of 165F degrees.

This should take another 9-11 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts.

Grilling Chicken Breasts on a Ninja Foodi Grill

The grill’s automatic alert that tells you when to flip your food will chime during the cook. Just ignore that for this recipe.

How to serve grilled chicken breasts

This chicken breast recipe is great straight off the grill. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes, and then slice it up and serve the juicy grilled chicken with some of your favorite sides.

For an added low calorie pop of flavor, you can squeeze on some fresh lemon juice and sprinkle with salt. black pepper and fresh herbs.

If you like BBQ chicken, brush the chicken with your favorite BBQ sauce during the final few minutes of cooking. Maybe try my Korean BBQ sticky sauce from my Grilled Korean Chicken Wings recipe.

Storage

You can store leftover grilled juicy chicken breasts in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days. It’s best to leave them whole and then slice them when you’re ready. You can also freeze them for about 4 months.

Leftover chicken is great hot or cold. It can be served on sandwiches, in tacos and on salads.