Grilled BBQ chicken breasts that are moist and juicy are easy with a few simple steps. Fire up the backyard grill and enjoy one of our favorite and simplest grilled chicken recipes.
🐓Ingredients
Chicken—skinless boneless breast
BBQ sauce—your choice or use my Memphis Style BBQ Sauce
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Featured Comment from Basil :
"Best bbq'd SBCBs we've ever eaten. Perfect!"
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Everybody wants to grill juicy skinless boneless chicken breasts, but they all get dried-out hockey pucks. Let's get it right; it is not that hard to keep it moist and tender on your gas or charcoal grill with my simple step-by-step photo instructions.
👨🍳How to Grill BBQ Chicken Breasts—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. Trim chicken breasts.
2. Thin to ¾ inches if thicker.
3. Optional brine if you wish.
4. Clean and preheat grill to 450° to 500°.
5. Pat dry the chicken and brush lightly with the BBQ sauce of your choice.
6. Place over direct heat. Flip every 5 minutes.
7. About 3-4 minutes before done, brush both sides with sauce. Remove from the grill at an internal temperature of 165°—about 30 minutes of total grill time.
8. Allow to rest for about 5 minutes before serving.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
⏲️How long to cook BBQ chicken breasts on the grill?
About 30 minutes of total grill time at the recommended grill surface temperature of 450°.
But total time will vary by the exact grill temperature and thickness of the breasts. The thinner breasts may be in the 25-minute range, and those huge thick ones may take 35 minutes.
🌡️When is chicken done and safe to eat?
According to the USDA, any chicken or poultry like turkey must reach 165° internal temperature to be safe. Chicken breasts are done at that temperature. Chicken thighs and drumsticks are more tender at 185°+ when the fibrous tissue has melted.
Should you brine
The brine will moisturize and tenderize the chicken and is recommended if you have time, especially if the chicken has been previously frozen, which may dry the chicken.
The recommended brine is relatively heavy in salt. According to Cooks Illustrated, this brine concentration is recommended for chicken for 30 minutes to 2 hours. The chicken gets saltier if over 1 hour, so I'm suggesting 1-hour maximum. Even 20 minutes of brining will do a reasonably good job of brining.
While we no longer recommend rinsing chicken, you should always rinse carefully after brining. Also, don't add any more salt after the brine is used. You can grill a chicken breast and keep it moist without the brine, but it requires attention and skill.
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Chicken Breast Recipes
For more grilled chicken breast options, see the complete guide to Grilled Chicken Breasts. For extra moist and juicy try Reverese Seared Chicken Breasts,
Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with chicken filets, and Grilled Honey Chicken Breasts for a fast and easy change of pace. For more oven chicken breast recipes, check out fast and juicy Convection Baked Chicken and super easy and fast Pan Seared Oven Baked Chicken Breasts.
How to serve BBQ chicken breasts
They can easily be served on a bun with condiments and more Memphis Style BBQ sauce. Served with chips or Grilled French fries. Other side dishes like a green salad, corn on the cob, or Grilled Mixed Vegetables.
How to store and reheat leftovers
Store any leftover BBQ chicken breasts in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 days or frozen for 3 months.
Reheat them in the microwave, oven, or grill. If frozen, thaw first.
❓FAQs
Yes, but the final internal temperature for thighs should be 185°+ and will take a few minutes more grilling time.
A very light coat of BBQ sauce at the beginning creates a base for the last coat. You do not have to do that, but I recommend it. The sauce will adhere much better. It does not burn if you have the grill temp correct and don't overcook the chicken.
♨️Grill setup
A grill surface temperature of about 450° is best for any grilled chicken. A little less is fine, and a smidge more is OK, but never over 500°. You can NOT cook chicken properly on high heat. You will dry the outside long before the inside is even close to done or safe.
To get the grill temperature correct, you should use a grill surface thermometer. The hood thermometer is ALWAYS wrong. Please see my guide to controlling your Grill Temperature for more discussion.
If you don't have a surface thermometer (you should), medium to medium-high heat will be about 400°-500° on most gas grills. The cooking time will be different, but you will do OK if you get the end-point of an internal temperature of 165° correct with an instant-read thermometer.
Charcoal Grill
With charcoal grills, you need to be very careful about surface temperature. And, of course, times will vary. On most charcoal grills, you will need to adjust the venting and the amount of charcoal. And it is a good idea to have a cooler area on the grill surface to use if needed.
📖 Recipe
Grilled BBQ Chicken Breasts
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Ingredients
- 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoon BBQ sauce of choice
Brine (optional)
- 3 cups water - cold
- 1 ½ tablespoons table salt
- 1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper - optional
Instructions
- Trim skinless boneless chicken breast of any trimmable fat. Try to use chicken breasts of about the same size. And if you get some that are very plump, flatten them down a little with a meat mallet or the bottom of a pan to about ¾ inch thick.
- Optional Brine: Mix brine of 3 cups water, 1 ½ tablespoons table salt, 1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar, and ½ to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional). Add chicken, submerge, and refrigerate for 30 minutes (no more than 1 hour). Remove chicken from the brine and rinse lightly under running water. Please be careful and wash up the surrounding area and your hands.
- Clean and oil grill grates and preheat to a surface temperature of 450°-500°, which is about medium-high on most grills. I recommend a surface thermometer to be able to control your grill well.
- Pat dry the chicken breasts with paper towels.
- Brush lightly with the BBQ sauce of your choice.
- Place over direct heat.
- Flip about every 5 minutes. About 3-4 minutes before done, brush both sides with sauce. Remove from the grill at an internal temperature of 165°—about 30 minutes of total grill time. But total time will vary by the exact grill temperature and thickness of the breasts. The thinner breast may be in the 25-minute range, and those huge thick ones may take 35 minutes.
- Allow to rest for about 5 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
- This brine is relatively heavy in salt, so a maximum time of 1 hour please. Rinse to remove extra salt. The brine is optional but recommended.
- Total grilling time will vary by the exact grill temperature and thickness of the breasts. The thinner breasts may be in the 25-minute range, and those huge thick ones may take 35 minutes. But 30 minutes is average.
- If you have a breast that has a large variation in thickness, using a meat mallet to even things out a bit is a good idea. Try for about ¾ inches thick.
- I like a very light coat of BBQ sauce at the start to create a base for later. It does not burn, but omit if you wish.
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
© 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.
Editors Note: Originally published August 1, 2011. It was in need of a rewrite, some better photo editing, and some clarification of technique.
Angela says
So good!! Thank you!
DrDan says
Thanks for the note and the rating
DrDan
sue says
I had never heard of brine with chicken before. This was so moist it was unbelievable. I used the quick method....and used a thermometer to check the chicken on the grill since I use charcoal. I agree this is the only way to cook boneless breasts.
Thanks so much for this recipe and blog.
DrDan says
Thanks for the note. Yep brining a chicken breast can get some great moisture. But using the thermometer is what most people don't don't do. They are doomed to overcooked dried out chicken...
Thanks so much for the note and enjoy the blog.
DrDan
Mary says
This might be a silly question, if you were making 6 chicken breasts do you triple the brine recipe?
DrDan says
You just need enough brine to cover the chicken. Double should do but triple is fine.
DrDan
Dan Mikesell says
Thanks, glad it worked well for you. DrDan
Mary Hopkins says
Delicious! Will never cook BSCB any other way ever again!! Thanks!
MKH
Aubrey Means says
I made this today and cooked my chicken on high heat, flipped every 5 min. and it burned to a crisp, inside was fine but the outside was completely black. I'm no expert obviously, I was just trying to follow the directions, but why did mine turn completely black and yours looks so tasty? I had to cut all the outside off in order to eat it, which meant all my BBQ flavor was gone. Thankfully I brined it so it wasn't tough inside. But what would you suggest I do differently in order to cook it long enough but not burn it to death?
Dan Mikesell says
A couple of possible answers. First the grill. High on my old grill (the one in the picture) was 500 surface temperature. My current grill high is about 650. That is burn city.
Second, the BBQ sauce. The more sugar, the faster the burn.
So suggested solutions: 1) if you have a "hot" grill. Turn it down a little. Second, leave the sauce off until the last 5 minutes.
Give those two things a try.
Dan
Dr Dan says
The brine is what the mixture of water, brown sugar, salt and cayenne is called. I only did it briefly here but longer like 1-2 hours in the fridge would be great if you have the time.
Wade Morton says
so is the brine the mixture of water and brown sugar and salt and cayenne? or is the brine something that you add to the water mixture?
Dr Dan says
Yep I was trying to facilitate the brine since I wanted to cook soon. I think it helped some since this was quite moist.
Chris says
What are the knife pokes for? Facilitating the marinade/brine? I was just curious.
Chris says
Woof! That looks tasty, Dan.
Too funny, I was just commenting on your blog and you did on mine!
Dr Dan says
A dog always makes your cooking look good.
Inspired by eRecipeCards says
Love seeing the dog in your posts. i always photograph my cat sniffing around my food.
Dr Dan says
It tastes exactly like it looks.
Aimee says
Yum! That chicken looks soo tasty!
Jeffrey and Juli says
Wow, does this look good!