You can say goodbye to bland, flavorless grilled chicken recipes! Just follow this recipe, and your chicken will always be juicy and flavorful.
Can I just start off by saying, just look at the plate? My chicken was so juicy, I couldn't even plate it without it going anywhere, so you know this is going to be delicious.
There are times when the simplest dishes are the most difficult to prepare, and grilled chicken is a perfect example. It is hard for me to count the number of times I have gone to a backyard BBQ, a friend's house or a restaurant, only to be disappointed in their chicken. And when this happens, I tend to catch myself adding a bunch of BBQ sauce to make the chicken taste good.
What makes chicken so boring?
There are a lot of things that can make chicken boring, especially when you are looking at the bodybuilding community. But in my experience, it comes down to three major things; uneven chicken thickness, lack of seasoning, and over cooking. All of these are very easy to correct and need very little time or effort to do so. So let's take a look at each one to give you an idea of how to get the best results!
Simple and quick BBQ chicken dry rub.
By applying a simple dry rub, you can exponentially improve the flavor! And the best part about it, most people have these ingredients in their household or they can easily be obtained at your local grocery store. What is even better, there really are two options. You can make your own dry rubs and/or you can buy dry rubs from notable brands. I find doing a combination of both works very well and allows for variety. For my BBQ dry rub, you need a handful of ingredients: brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, ground mustard, chili powder, Lowery's seasoned salt or salt, and pepper.
How to make chicken juicy and cook it evenly?
One of the biggest mistakes amateur cooks or weekend warriors make is having uneven chicken. Just think about it? If you have a really thick side of the chicken thigh or breast and a narrow side, then one side will be overcooked. Why? Because you need to cook the thicker side to 165° or you could get sick. To solve this problem, you can place your chicken in a large Ziplock bag and roll it out or use a meat tenderizer. With either method, you want a fairly consistent thickness to allow for even cooking.
How to cook chicken to the right temperature.
This is the most simple thing. I would recommend finding and using a quality meat thermometer. This will allow to know the temperature of your chicken. The two keys to keeping the chicken juicy is to remove the chicken from the grill when it reaches 165° F and letting the chicken rest. The latter goes for all meat. You want to place the meat on a cutting board for at least 10 minutes to allow the meat to relax and allow the juices to redistribute. If you skip this step, there is a good chance your meat will be dry.
Do you have any other cooking tips?
Yes. There are two other methods that can help improve the flavor of chicken. You can marinade your chicken to allow your chicken to absorb the flavor. Generally, this will be done in a liquid marinade. This is good for tougher meats to help draw in juices. The other method of improving your chicken flavor is dry-brining. Seriouseats.com sums up dry-brining pretty well. "Dry-brining is a catchy term for a very simple process of salting and resting food before cooking it. Some people call this process "pre-salting," which is kind of like "preheating" an oven—doesn't make a ton of semantic sense, seeing as salting and heating are the steps, and nothing precedes them, but that's a debate for another day. Dry-brining achieves the goals of traditional brining—deeply seasoned, juicy food—without the flavor dilution problem that affects proteins brined in salt solutions."
For both large and small pieces of meat, poultry, and sometimes even seafood, dry brining is our preferred method. In addition to producing juicy, flavorful results, dry-brining also makes the skin crisper. I use the dry-brine method in my infamous Hickory Sticky Chicken recipe. In that recipe, I will dry-brine for no less than 4 hours.
What are the best sides to pair with BBQ chicken?
There are endless possibilities here. Some of my personal favorites are coleslaw, potato salad, corn-on-the-cob, zesty corn and cucumber salad, sweet potato fries, loaded mash potatoes or mac n' cheese! But don't limit yourself!
How much does this recipe make?
The dry rub below is for 1 lb of chicken. This will provide 2 to 3 servings depending on how big your appetite is. I eat a lot of volume and in general will eat 8 to 16 oz of meat in a single setting.
What cut of chicken should use?
I personally favor chicken thighs for this recipe. Chicken thighs have a higher fat content and slightly less protein, but it has so much more flavor. But you should experiment and adjust based on personal preference.
What kind of BBQ sauce should I use?
If you want to add a BBQ sauce to this recipe, I personally recommend G.Hughes Original or Hickory. But I don't think you need one for this recipe. I like G.Hughes because they do not have any sugar and are extremely low in calories. This makes it perfect to reducing calories on things that won't make me full. I make this recommendation without being affiliated with G.Hughes. One can hope though, lol.
So instead of belaboring this, let's get grillin'!
The best grilled BBQ chicken:
1 lb of skinless and boneless chicken thighs
1/2 tbsp olive or avocado oil
1 tbsp brown sugar or swerve brown sugar
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chile powder
½ tsp ground mustard
½ tsp seasoned salt
¼ tsp pepper
Directions: In a bowl, add all ingredients and mix. Place 1 lb of chicken thighs on a plate. Thoroughly pat them dry and add salt. Let sit for 30 minutes or up to 24 hrs if you place them back in the frig (dry-brine). Coat chicken with 1/2 tbsp of avocado or olive oil. Equally, coat both sides of the chicken with the dry rub and sit for 10 minutes. Throw it on the grill until it reaches temp.
Nutrition (2 servings)
Calories: 664
Protein: 91g
Fats: 26g
Carbs: 25g
Fiber: 0g
Net Carb: 25g
コメント