These Marinated Grilled Chicken Breasts are a super simple dinner recipe. Made with a 4-ingredient marinade, they cook up quickly on a gas grill and result in tender, juicy chicken. Your family will love this slightly sweet and tangy addition to their next meal. Plus, these boneless skinless chicken breasts are gluten-free, paleo, and Whole30 compatible!
If you worry about dry chicken breasts, worry no more because this marinated grilled chicken breast is where it’s at.
I will admit, I do prefer grilled boneless chicken thighs over chicken breast most days of the week – they tend to be a more forgiving cut of meat. In the past I’ve run into the same issue that I know a lot of people have, where my chicken breasts dry out on the grill.
But then I dug in and discovered ways to cook breasts to keep them juicy and delicious.
- Brining. For me, specifically dry brining, which involves salting the meat ahead of time to let it sweat then absorb back in the moisture and salt for flavor. I love a dry brined chicken breast as it stays incredibly juicy.
- Marinades. And again, specifically, using a sauce as both a marinade and a glaze to really get some good flavor and moisture. That is what we’re doing in this recipe.
Regardless of which method you choose – the most important part is cooking your chicken to the right internal temperature. Sooo…
How do you grill chicken breast without drying it out?
It’s simple:
Don’t let the internal temperature go past 165 degrees F.
Once chicken breast gets above this temperature, it’s going to start getting dry.
The only way to know the internal temperature of your grilled chicken breast is to use a meat thermometer – and you want one that will take temperature quickly and accurately so you’re not holding your hand over the hot grill forever trying to get an accurate reading. (Trust me on that – ouch!)
The one I always recommended is the Thermapen by Thermoworks. We have had one for years and absolutely love it – we actually own two now.
That’s all you really need to know, but if you’ve never used a meat thermometer when grilling consider checking out this post I wrote on how to use a meat thermometer for grilling.
Grab these ingredients!
(Note: the full ingredients list, including measurements, is provided in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.)
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts – make sure they’re thawed as you can’t make this recipe starting with frozen chicken breasts.
- Coconut aminos – double check that you didn’t get soy aminos or liquid aminos as they don’t have the same slightly sweet and salty flavor profile as coconut aminos do.
- Oil – you want a high heat oil as you’ll be grilling it over flames. I like to use avocado oil.
- Dijon mustard – this adds a great amount of tang to the marinade. I tend to use Organicville or Primal Kitchen brand dijon mustard.
- Kosher salt – I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt in this recipe. If you are using a different type of salt (kosher or otherwise), you’ll want to use this salt conversion chart from Epicurious to determine how much salt to use.
What if my chicken breasts aren’t the same size?
This happens all the time – you buy chicken breasts from the store and one is smaller than the other. Or maybe one of the breasts is pretty flat while the other is really thick at one end and thin at another.
While this doesn’t make a difference in taste, it will make a difference when cooking them as the different parts of each breast will be done at different times.
To help ensure your chicken breasts cook evenly, you’ll want to flatten them by pounding them out with a meat mallet or rolling pin.
To do this, place the raw boneless chicken breasts on a large cutting board. You can also place them in a sealable plastic bag or under a large piece of plastic wrap if you want to avoid the mallet or rolling pin touching raw meat.
Start out by gently pounding the flat side of the meat mallet onto the thicker part of the breast. Once you have a feel for it, you can increase the strength of your pounding motion to help flatten it more quickly.
After the chicken breast is a uniform thickness, stop pounding and continue on with the rest of the recipe. Your chicken breast will now cook more uniformly – just be sure to check their internal temp when cooking so you know when to pull them off the grill!
How to make grilled boneless chicken breast
(Note: please see the recipe card at the end of this post for the complete written instructions.)
This recipe has several steps, but don’t let the directions overwhelm you!
Below are pictures showing you exactly how to make these grilled chicken breasts and I’ve written out each step in detail in the recipe card to ensure your success.
Marinate the chicken breasts
Start by creating the 4 ingredient chicken marinade.
Start grilling the chicken breasts
Next, get the raw boneless chicken breasts on the preheated grill after they’re done marinating.
Turn the marinade into a glaze
Don’t throw out the used marinade! Turn it into a glaze for maximum flavor.
Finish grilling the chicken breasts
Flip the chicken breasts over and finish them off with a swipe of glaze.
If the chicken breasts finish cooking on the grill before you’ve been cooking the marinade for at least 5 minutes, you can brush it on the chicken after removing it from the grill. You can also brush additional glaze on the chicken as well.
Wait, can you really reuse marinade?
In this case, yes, because we’re boiling it for at least 5 minutes before reusing it – which is what’s needed, according to the USDA.
I would not recommend reusing it to marinate other chicken breasts, but boiling it and turning it into a glaze is a great way to add flavor to your cooked chicken.
Sides for marinated grilled chicken
If you’re wondering what the heck to serve with these grilled chicken breasts, look no further! I’ve got some great ideas, including:
- A simple salad, like this spring green salad.
- Fruit would be great with this chicken – try some grilled pineapple!
- If carbs are your thing, grilled potatoes would be great too.
To see more options, check out this list of side dishes for grilled chicken!
Pin this paleo chicken breast recipe for later!
YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM AND PINTEREST TO SEE MORE GOOD TO EAT, GLUTEN FREE FOOD ON AND OFF THE GRILL.
If you like this gluten free grilled chicken recipe, then please leave a 5-star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below!
Juicy Marinated Grilled Chicken Breast
Equipment
- 1 mason jar
- 1 Ziploc plastic bag
- Meat mallet optional
- 1 Pair of tongs
- 1 Small saucepan
- 1 Small whisk
- 1 Basting brush
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts 1 to 1.5 pounds
- 1.5 oz oil I use avocado oil
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Instructions
- Measure out the marinade ingredients and place them in a container that has a lid (like a mason jar). Secure the lid onto the jar and shake it with your hand(s) until the ingredients are combined. Set the jar aside for a moment.
- Place the raw boneless skinless chicken breasts in a sealable plastic bag. If your breasts are roughly the same thinness throughout, skip to the step 4. If not, you’ll need to pound each breast until it’s relatively the same thinness to ensure even cooking.
- Press the air out and seal the bag, making sure the chicken breasts are lying flat. Place the bag on top of a cutting board and use a meat mallet or rolling pin to pound on the thicker portion of each chicken breast. You want forceful blows that can help thin the chicken out. Once each breast is about the same thickness (roughly one-third to one-half an inch), you can stop.
- Open the ziploc bag and pour the marinade in it. Press any air as best you can out of the plastic bag, then seal it. Squish everything together in the bag to help cover the chicken with the marinade, then place in the fridge for at least 20 minutes and up to 1.5 hours.
- After the 20 minutes are up, remove the bag with the chicken breasts from the fridge and place on the counter to warm slightly for 20 minutes. When the chicken has been warming on the counter for 10 or so minutes, turn your grill on to a medium heat and let it get to a temperature of around 375 to 400 degrees F.
- Once the second full 20 minutes of marinating are up and the grill is up to temperature, use a pair of tongs to remove each chicken breast from the bag and place them on the grill grates. Seal the bag, keeping the marinade inside – don’t throw it away. Close the lid and let the breasts cook for 5 minutes.
- While the breasts are cooking, turn the used marinade into a glaze. Take out a small saucepan and pour the used marinade from the plastic bag into it. Set it on the stove and turn the burner to high heat. Let the marinade come to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and let it cook at a low boil for at least 5 minutes while stirring it often with a small whisk to prevent burning.
- When the chicken breasts have cooked for 5 minutes on the grill, open the lid and flip them over with a pair of tongs. Let them cook another 3 to 5 minutes.
- The marinade mixture likely won’t be done cooking before you need to flip the chicken breasts. Just remove the sauce pan from the burner, turn the burner off, go flip the chicken breasts on the grill, then come back and turn the burner back on and continue cooking the marinade. It should start to boil again very quickly as it will only be off the heat for a minute.
- Once your marinade has cooked for 5 minutes, take it off the heat and out to the grill. Open the lid and use a basting brush to spread the glaze on the surface of each chicken breast. You may not use all the glaze and that’s fine.
- Close the lid and continue cooking the chicken breasts until they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. Once they are done cooking, open the grill lid and use tongs to remove the meat from the grill. Set the chicken breasts on a platter or cutting board and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes then slice and serve! You can also brush on a little additional of the reserved marinade if desired.
Leave a comment