In Episode 42 we are making a grilled dijon chicken recipe with some boneless skinless chicken thighs. Lemon, fresh thyme, and dijon mustard go into a quick marinade for the chicken and it all cooks up in under 30 minutes, which makes this meal a perfect weeknight dinner.
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.
RECIPES MENTIONED
These are some of the recipes mentioned in the episode, all of which are on Hot Pan Kitchen.
- Dijon Grilled Chicken Thighs
- Grilled Zucchini
- Perfectly Grilled Onions
- Easy Grilled Potatoes
- Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Some of the following are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
TRANSCRIPT
Taryn Solie: Hello grillers, and thank you for tuning in today! I am your host, Taryn Solie, and I am here to give you some grilling inspiration. Today I will be going over one recipe in detail from my recipe website, Hot Pan Kitchen, as well as some serving suggestions to make it a complete meal. The goal is to give you complete directions and helpful tips so you can make this dinner for your loved ones.
In today’s episode we’re going to make grilled lemon dijon chicken thighs. What’s great about this recipe is the marinade is quick – like 10 minutes quick. You make the marinade, you put the chicken in it, then between the time it takes you to clean up from making the marinade and heating up the grill, you’re ready to cook the chicken.
This marinade is also a good basic one that is flavorful but still pretty mild so it’s a good one for kids.
To start off let’s go over the ingredients. You’ll need:
- 1 lemon, or about 2 to 3 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 2 tbsp avocado oil, or other mild oil
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- 1.5 tsp kosher salt – I like to use Diamond Crystal, and I’ll tell you why in a minute
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 8). And you want those fresh and thawed, not frozen.
A couple of tips for this recipe.
First, my note for kosher salt: I like Diamond Crystal brand as it’s less salty by weight than other salts, which leaves a little more room for error when you’re salting your dishes. If you have a different brand of kosher salt I would use a little less salt, like a 1 to 1 and ¼ teaspoons. Or if you’re using table salt I would use about ¾ to 1 teaspoon.
Second tip is about your spices and herbs. How fresh they are is going to make a difference. If you have a bottle of dried thyme that you opened three years ago, it’s not going to be as flavorful as one that you just opened, or certainly as thyme that you may have cut from a plant and dried yourself. Pay attention to your spices and herbs this way and if necessary, toss out older ones and buy new ones.
Something to keep in mind about your grill – you want to make sure the grill grates are clean before you put food on them. If you cook food on dirty grill grates, the food is more likely to stick to the grill. It’s easiest to clean your grill right after you cook on it since you can burn off any food and then wipe or brush it down afterward, but if you forgot – and I have definitely forgotten – then I would clean your grates after preheating so that they are easier to scrape.
The last tip for this recipe, and this goes for grilling any meat, is you want to cook to temperature. I’m going to mention cooking time as I walk through the recipe, but really you want to cook the chicken until it reaches an internal temperature of about 165 degrees F. To do this you will need a meat thermometer. I have an article on my website all about measuring internal temperatures, including the meat thermometer I recommend, that I’ll link on the show notes page for this episode.
To make this recipe, first you’ll want to make the marinade. Start by cutting the lemon and juicing it into a medium to large sized bowl, either by hand or with a juicer. Then measure out the avocado oil, dijon mustard, garlic powder, dried thyme, and kosher salt with measuring spoons and add them in with the lemon juice. Stir everything together with a small whisk or other utensil until it’s combined.
Remove the chicken thighs from their packaging and, if you want, you can cut off any large clumps of fat with a knife or kitchen shears. Place the chicken thighs in the bowl and mix them up with the marinade until they’re well covered. Set the bowl aside, then wash all that raw chicken juice off your hands!
While the chicken is marinating, fire up your grill to about 350 degrees F. I usually cook this on my Weber gas grill, but you could also use a pellet grill, like a Traeger, or a charcoal grill.
Once the grill is at temperature, use a pair of tongs to place the chicken thighs on the grill. You shouldn’t need to oil the grill grates since the marinade has oil in it, but you can if you want to. Close the lid and cook for 6 minutes. After the 6 minutes are up, flip each chicken thigh and cook for another 6 to 8 minutes, until the internal temperature of the chicken is around 165 degrees F. Keep in mind smaller chicken thighs will be done sooner than larger ones! Remove the thighs from the grill and serve them up!
Some side options to go with this recipe are white or brown rice – my family usually eats a Jasmine or basmati rice with this dish. You could also do cauliflower rice if you want. Grilled vegetables is another great option. Zucchini is one of my favorite veggies to grill but others like onions or even sliced potatoes would be great too.
Another option that I like to do is to make a salad with this chicken. Often I will cook up a bunch of it at once and eat the chicken with side dishes for dinner, then the next night make a cobb salad with the chicken in it. I have a recipe on my site for that cobb salad that I’ll be sure and link on the show notes page.
A link to the full printable recipe for this lemon dijon chicken, as well as the other recipes I’ve mentioned, are included on the show notes page. To get to it you can either go to my main website at Hot Pan Kitchen dot com and click on podcast in the main menu, or you can click on the link provided in whatever podcast app you’re listening on.
If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform.
That’s it for today, thank you so much for listening, and until next time, keep grilling like a mother.
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