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Grilled chicken breast and chicken thighs: The essential summer recipes

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Grilled chicken breast and chicken thigh: The essential summer recipes

Grilled chicken is the ultimate summer dish. Why heat up the oven or slave over a pot indoors when you can soak up some sunshine while grilling up your dinner?

The key to juicy, tender grilled chicken is the technique. Harnessing the power of indirect heat on the grill is the way to go. Whether it’s a gas or charcoal grill, spend some time building heat in your grill, then grill your chicken over indirect heat. You can use the direct flames and high heat for crisping, browning, and those characteristic grill marks.

The flavor profile possibilities are endless, too. Try Greek-marinated grilled chicken or spicy Italian grilled chicken. Citrus is grilled chicken’s best friend, from smoky citrus grilled chicken to grilled chicken with lemon and thyme.

Whatever marinade or spice-blend you opt for, these chicken recipes will keep you grilling all summer long.

1.      Juicy Grilled Chicken Breast

This juicy grilled chicken breast is all about the technique. Keep it pure and simple (to start, at least) with just a few bone-in, skin-on chicken breast halves, some salt, some oil, and a grill. The trick is to harness the power of indirect heat, whether you’re using a gas or charcoal grill. If using a gas grill, turn on all the burners and close the lid. Once the temperature inside the grill reaches 400°F, turn off one of the burners. You’ll be grilling your chicken in the indirect heat left by the now-off burner. For a charcoal grill, light 50 or 60 briquettes for 20 to 30 minutes, until they’re covered with ash. Clear them to one side, and place chicken breast halves over the indirect heat. Your chicken will take a quick trip to the direct heat for crisping and browning. Once you’ve mastered this technique, you can get more creative with a marinade or rub. 

2.      Grilled Greek Marinated Chicken Breast with Peach and Endive Salad 

If you’re trying to capture the essence of summer in a meal, this grilled Greek marinated boneless chicken breast with peach and endive salad will do it. Freshness abounds with summer fruits and veggies like peaches, avocado, endive lettuce, and corn. Meanwhile, boneless skinless chicken breasts get marinated in a deliciously zesty Greek vinaigrette and grilled quickly for color, then finished off in the oven. While you’re grilling chicken, you can also grill corn to add a delicious smoky char flavor to the accompanying salad. Toss the salad in Primal Kitchen’s Green Goddess dressing and add some tangy feta, and you’re in heaven. 

3.      Spicy Grilled Italian Chicken 

Heat things up with this Italian flavored, red pepper flake, and chili powder-spiced grilled chicken breast. Barbeque sauce, white wine vinegar, and lemon juice add tang while Italian seasonings like dried basil, dried oregano, and dried parsley add an herbaceous touch. Marinating the chicken in the sauce ensures tender, juicy breasts while basting it while grilling maximizes the spicy Italian flavor. Bonus: It only takes an hour to marinate and 20 minutes to grill up, making for one effortless summer meal.

4.      Aromatic Grilled Chicken Thighs

The ultimate spice blend prevails in this aromatic grilled chicken thighs recipe. With seasonings like garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano, turmeric, chili powder, paprika, and of course salt and black pepper, these skin-on, bone-in, grilled chicken thighs are packed with flavor. The unique custom spice blend is better than anything you can find in a bottle, plus your kitchen will smell as heavenly as a spice shop as you prepare it. The trick to perfectly grilled and crispy, aromatic chicken is to cook it over indirect heat, bone side down for the majority of the time. Only flip it to the spiced-skin side at the end to avoid burning the spices.

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5.      Smoky Citrus Grilled Chicken Thighs

These smoky citrus grilled chicken thighs are extra special because they require a charcoal grill and hickory wood chips to perfect that smoke flavor. This recipe works with any cut of chicken, but boneless skinless chicken thighs ensure ultra-juicy and flavorful dark meat. Herbs like rosemary and thyme and plenty of citrus—including lemon, orange, and lime—really pack in the flavor to complement the smokiness from the hickory wood chips. Once again, indirect heat helps create masterfully charred yet juicy grilled chicken.

6.      Grilled Citrus Chicken Breast with Summer Watermelon Salad

Summer strikes again with these grilled citrus chicken breasts with summer watermelon salad. Boneless skinless chicken breasts get marinated in a mélange of aromatics, including fresh crushed garlic cloves, shallots, fresh thyme, and rosemary, whole lemon and orange and a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. All of the aromatics get pulsed in the food processor to form the perfect marinade. Meanwhile, a refreshing summer salad of grilled corn, red and yellow watermelon, cilantro, feta, and onion accompany the chicken, making for an ideal summer meal.

7.      Grilled Chicken Breasts with Lemon and Thyme

Simple yet bold, these grilled chicken breasts with lemon and thyme are a delicious quick meal, clocking in at 20 minutes total on the grill. Lemon juice and thyme meld with red pepper flakes, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper for an uncomplicated marinade. Bone-in chicken breasts stand up to the heat to ensure succulent flavor and tenderness. If you don’t have dried thyme on hand, don’t worry, any similar dried spice will work. Think marjoram, oregano, rosemary, or sage.

Extra Tips

ButcherBox Head Chef Yankel Polak suggests the best way to grill a juicy chicken breast comes down to two key steps. The first is to pound your boneless chicken breast thin before you grill chicken. You can use a meat mallet or just your rolling pin, but either way, a thinner chicken breast allows for more evenly cooked meat. Second, once you’ve achieved the ideal internal temperature, set aside at room temperature and let the juices distribute throughout the now flavorful grilled chicken breast. 

Do both and you will get the ultimate summer dish, perfectly grilled chicken, every time you use the outdoor grill.

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Cooking music: The key ingredient in our kitchens

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Anyone who considers themselves a cook — whether that be a master chef, a harried mom making dinner for a family of six, or a fan of every cooking show on the planet — has more than a few kitchen idiosyncrasies. It may be a favorite knife, a certain cutting board that has been passed down through generations of family cooks, or a habit of finding a specific place to keep herbs and spices.

One of the more common kitchen traditions — discovered through a highly-scientific process of asking chefs we know and discussing our own experiences — is the practice of needing to cook to a specific and favorite type of music.

Some of the world’s top chefs have been known to be very territorial about not only the genre of music to get the kitchen rocking out to while cooking, but the acceptable artists, volume, and such. 

One famous bit of lore has it that the late Anthony Bourdain viewed playing the wrong type of music sacrilege when he ran his own kitchen. According to an old Entertainment Weekly story, Bourdain number one rule was, ”If you play Elton John, Billy Joel, or the Grateful Dead, you will be fired!”

Bourdain, who grew up in New York during the early days of punk rock spoke about cooking and music a lot on his shows Parts Unknown and No Reservations. If you want a great dive into Bourdain’s punk roots, check out this great podcast he did with Damian Abraham for “Turned Out A Punk.”

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But experiences vary. For some, the type of food one is cooking can dictate the kind of music to play. Jazz music? Louis Armstrong is a favorite for prep work or dinner. Italian music? Motown? Old-school hip-hop? Maybe they’re all a bit cliche, but that doesn’t mean that cooks across the country — professional or not — don’t still crank up their Spotify “Italian Cooking Music” playlist when preparing a bolognese.

We recently asked some of our customers about their kitchen habits, including their favorite cooking music. The responses were wide-ranging: ButcherBox subscribers like to listen to every type of music imaginable — from country to EDM, folk to pop, Christian to death metal, and artists ranging from Springsteen, the Beatles, and Van Morrison to Jack Johnson, Neil Young, The Rolling Stone, Adele and Frank Sinatra.

Our Head ButcherBox Chef, Yankel Polak, has his own rituals for cooking at home and for running a kitchen.

When doing food preparation and cooking at home, the mood or the food might dictate what he plays. For example, Chef Yakel has some strong opinions of what should be played at a Sunday brunch. According to Chef Yankel, Sunday is always a Blues day; so, while making brunch, he might play some Buddy Guy or Stevie or Tab Benoit —  powerful, great music with a positive vibe. “For me, that’s the music that says, ‘Hey, I’ve got all the time in the world, and I’m gonna cook the hell out of this Hollandaise while still in my pajamas,’” says Chef Yankel.

“Event preparation is a totally different animal,” he said. “If it’s an all-day cooking marathon, uplifting electronic is probably the ticket. Something with a driving beat but in the background, so it’s not distracting.”

“You don’t want to miss a detail!” he added.

Weeknight dinners are a bit different according to Chef Yankel. “Those will probably involve something instrumental — classical or jazz music — something to help wind things down from the day. “

But when he ran a kitchen, it was quite a different approach. For Chef Yankel, music served as a way to pump up and speed up the staff as they prepped and anticipated the start of each night’s dinner service.

For example, Chef Yankel said that he used to blast heavy metal or dubstep to get the crew riled up. There was nothing gentle or mellow. “We basically turned the kitchen into a two-minute mosh-pit before a crazy night of service,” he said.

“If you weren’t hyperventilating from sheer panic at the amount of business we were about to do, you weren’t going to move fast enough to get through it. The music reflected that.”

Once service began, the volume got turned down. “The chef’s voice was all the music you needed,” Chef Yankel said.

“But when that last order left the kitchen, the volume got cranked back up to maximum for that second wind needed to clean properly.” In Chef Yankel’s kitchen, that usually entailed the blasting of some Old-School hip-hop or bachata, music to get the crew dancing as they cleaned. Otherwise, as he said, “The end of the night could be a real drag.”

So whether it serves to inspire a passion for cooking, matches the vibe of a meal, or is necessary to pump up a restaurant staff, music is an integral part of most kitchens.

There really is nothing like moving around the kitchen to some great music or standing by a grill rocking out to your favorite Spotify playlist. 

We’d love to hear about your own music-inspired traditions too, so please share in the comments section below.

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