These Grilled Split Chicken Breasts are extra crispy, moist, and tender on your gas grill. It is a quick, easy, and economical dinner everybody will love.
🐓Ingredients
Split chicken breasts—AKA bone-in skin-on chicken breasts
Pantry ingredients—garlic powder, cayenne pepper (optional), kosher salt, and black pepper
Baking powder (optional)
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Grilled bone-in chicken breasts are economical and delicious when correctly prepared. Learn the secret of moist and tender split chicken breast on a gas grill that will have you doing this economical recipe for friends and family.
The secret to grilling skin-on chicken breasts is to trim them into smaller pieces that are much easier to cook while not burning the skin—and the correct grill setup. The trimmed chicken is the proper serving size and provides more surface area for spicing and browning on the grill.
👨🍳How to Cook Split Chicken Breasts on the Grill
- Trim split chicken breasts by removing trimmable fat, excess skin, and the rib section. Cut in half or thirds, depending on size.
- Mix the ingredients of rub and apply to the chicken.
- Preheat the grill to a surface temperature of about 450°.
- Grill the chicken to an internal temperature of 165°—about 30 minutes.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
How long to grill split bone-in chicken breasts
It takes about 30 minutes on a 450° grill when properly trimmed to reach a safe internal temperature of 165° measured with an instant-read thermometer.
Serving
Serve with Grilled Corn on the Cob, Grilled Mixed Vegetables, Grilled Baby Potatoes, and Homemade Lemonade. Add some Cornmeal Drop Biscuits and Grilled Pineapple Slices to complete the meal.
Split Chicken Breast Recipes
Check out other split chicken breast recipes, like Crispy Baked Split Chicken Breasts, Grilled BBQ Split Bone-in Chicken Breasts, Herbs de Provence Chicken Breasts, and Garlic Butter Stuffed Chicken Breast.
Chicken tips
- The most important thing about getting this right is to trim the split chicken breasts correctly so they can cook thoroughly without burning the skin.
- Let the chicken rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes while getting the grill clean and to a stable temperature. You can cook the chicken more easily without burning the skin.
- Be sure to use kosher or a rough salt in the rub. This is "salty," so be aware if you are on a low-salt diet.
- Pat dry the skin before seasoning. We do not rinse chicken anymore. See Chicken... To Rinse or Not To Rinse?
- Spice it up some with ¼-1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
Grill tips
- The problem most people will have with grilling chicken breasts on a gas grill is the grill temperature. The surface temperature where the chicken is cooking needs to be in the 450° range.
- You can not cook chicken on high heat like beef, so you need a surface thermometer to know what you're doing. This is not the same as that nice-looking but useless thermometer in the grill hood.
- For this skin-on recipe, we like an indirect heat cooler zone on the grill to use if the skin is getting burnt. Remember, a little char tastes good, but burnt is bad. I suggest leaving one of the outside burners off while adjusting the grill temperature.
- For details about grill temperature, please see my disussion about BBQ Temperature.
The secrets of trimming split chicken breasts
Chicken breasts have become progressively bigger over the last few decades. They are now too big for a reasonable serving size and are nearly impossible to cook.
The “secret” to the success of cooking split chicken breast in the oven or on the grill is how to prepare them for cooking. You get a better serving size, more even cooking, and more surface area for the great spices.
Step one is cutting off the attached rib section—there is no meat, and it tends to overcook.
Step two is to cut the breasts into two or three pieces. Trying to cook the whole thing at once will almost always burn it on the outside before reaching a safe 165 internal temperature. There is also more surface area for seasoning, and the serving size is correct for most people.
🐓What are split chicken breast
Split chicken breasts are also known as skin-on-bone-in chicken breasts. They are the whole breast just split down the middle. It will have part of the breast bone, the skin, and a section of the ribs.
Most feel they have more taste and moisture than the more popular skinless version. But they are usually too big for a serving for most people and are hard to get entirely done cooking without burning the skin.
❓FAQs
165°F according to the USDA. It is measured in the thickest part of the breast pieces with an instant-read or meat thermometer.
Baking powder pulls moisture out of the chicken skin for extra crispy skin. Be sure to use aluminum-free baking powder to avoid that aftertaste. While some recipes recommend hours for it to work, I see good results in a short time. Skip it if you want.
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Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Trim chicken breasts by removing trimmable fat, excess skin, and the rib section. Cut in half or thirds, depending on size—dry chicken with paper towels.
Mix the ingredients of the rub very well.
Apply rub to the skin heavily and lightly to cut edges. Shake off excess. Don't try to use all the rub—there is more than you need.
Preheat the grill to a surface temperature of about 450°, which is medium-high on most grills. Clean and oil the grill grates. Keep one of the outside burners off to create an indirect heat area. You want the chicken to rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before grilling.
Place the chicken pieces over direct heat with the chicken skin-side up and grill for 5-6 minutes. Flip with the skin down for 3-4 minutes. Keep doing flips; only 3-4 minutes when the skin is down. If the skin is getting too dark, do the skin-side-down time over the turned-off burner.
Grill to an internal temperature of 165°—about 30 minutes total grill time, depending on your grill and the sizes of chicken pieces.
📖 Recipe
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Grilled Split Chicken Breasts—Crispy and Delicious
Ingredients
- 2 bone-in skin-on chicken breasts - AKA split chicken breast
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon aluminum free baking powder - optional
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼-½ teaspoon cayenne pepper - optional
Instructions
- Trim chicken breasts by removing trimmable fat, excess skin, and the rib section. Cut in half or thirds depending on size—dry chicken with paper towels.
- Mix the ingredients of the rub very well.
- Apply rub to the skin heavily and lightly to cut edges. Shake off excess. Don't try to use all the rub—there is more than you need.
- Preheat the grill to a surface temperature of about 450°, which is medium-high on most grills. Clean and oil the grill grates. Keep one of the outside burners off to create an indirect heat area. You want the chicken to rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before grilling.
- Place the chicken pieces over direct heat with the chicken skin-side up and grill for 5-6 minutes. Flip with the skin down for 3-4 minutes. Keep doing flips; only 3-4 minutes when the skin is down. If the skin is getting too dark, do the skin-side-down time over the turned-off burner.
- Grill to an internal temperature of 165°—about 30 minutes total grill time, depending on your grill and the sizes of chicken pieces.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- The two keys to this are the trimming of the chicken breasts, and the grill setup.
- The grill surface temperature of 450°, and leave a cold zone by keeping an outside burner off.
- Let the chicken rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before going on the grill.
- Remember to do the uneven grilling with a shorter time when the skin side is down.
- The baking powder helps dry out the skin. Be sure to use aluminum-free baking powder to avoid that aftertaste. Skip if you want.
- Pat dry the skin before seasoning.
- Spice it up some with ¼-1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
- The chicken must reach 165° to consume safely.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Originally Published March 20, 2011. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation. Also, the method is modified slightly to my current technique.
Ailsa Millar says
Why do the pictures of the recipe not how up on the recipe instructions? I would appreciate being able to see how it is done. Love that your recipes are for two as no need to work out how to reduce the recipe and stop wastage.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Ailsa.
Welcome to the blog. Glad you are enjoying the recipes.
I see the images on two Macs and an iPhone. Sometimes the browsers will decide not to load the images. They are in two places, within the blog post, and in the recipe card when you click the "Photos ON' button.
Most of the time, doing a "cold restart" by shutting down completely and then restarting. Not a "warm restart," which is just clicking restart. If that doesn't work, clearing the cache of the browser would be the next step, but that varies by computer/phone type and browser you are using, so you would need to Google how for your setup.
It those things don't help, please let me know.
Dan
PS on this recipe, there are six photos, trimming the chicken, seasoning ingredients, seasoning the chicken, cleaning the grill, chicken on the grill and finally, the cooked chicken.
Jay says
Hello making this recipe as we speak can u tell why u put skin down on grill won't rub fall off or burn first thank u
DrDan says
The rub stays on fine and I wanted to get the skin to start crisping early. I felt it worked well. Start with skin up if you want.
Dan
Dr Dan says
Baking powder... Thanks and the correction is made.
umbrellalady says
I'm a little confused but your recipe calls for baking soda and your picture is of baking powder - could you tell me which one it is?