Recipe Notes: Grilled Chicken

26 August 2020

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, May 2020; also available online.

Cook's Illustrated has published recipes recently for grilled chicken thighs and grilled drumsticks. Now they have published a recipe for grilled chicken breasts. White meat is more challenging to cook as it is easy to overcook it leading to dry, stringy meat. The thigh and drumstick recipes worked well, how will this recipe for breasts work?

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I halved the amount of chicken from the recipe, two breasts totaling 1.1 pounds, rather than four breasts in the recipe. I didn't halve the quantities for the brinerade which was made by mixing water, fish sauce, honey salt, and pepper. The breasts were pounded to ½-inch thick and covered in the brinerade in a zipper bag. The chicken was placed in the refrigerator for half an hour. While the chicken rested the grill was heated and the burners cleaned. The chicken was removed from the brinerade, the excess was allowed to drip off, and the chicken was tossed with vegetable oil. The breasts were placed on an oiled cooking grate and cooked until dark grill marks develop. It was then turned and cooked to an internal temperature of 160°. After a 5-minute rest it was ready to eat. Total time was 55 minutes.

The chicken came out very well. It was juicy, tender, and flavorful and had no tendency to stick to the grill while it cooked. It was good left over, too, as we had it in a salad and a sandwich. I wished I had bought more chicken just to have the leftovers which have many tasty and quick uses. But given how quick it was to prepare there's no reason not to make it again.