Ultimate Guide to Grilled Chicken

In the Ultimate Guide to Grilled Chicken, we go through all the tips and tricks to take that boring bird and make it extraordinary. From brining to mayo (it’s magic) to fire management and chicken piece placement. Don’t just throw a mess of chicken pieces on the grill and expect great results. Read on and it will change your grilled chicken game forever. 

First, brine that bird. 

Brining infuses the meat with more moisture as liquid from the brine is pushed from the salt solution to the less salty solution, namely the liquid inside the meat of the chicken. It also starts to break down connective tissue which makes the meat tenderer. And finally, if using something other than water like say apple juice, root beer, coffee, beer or wine, when the liquid goes from the salt solution into the meat, it also takes some flavors with it. In short, brining makes meat juicier, more tender and tastier.  Win, win, win!

Brining is simple. The ratio is one cup of salt per gallon of liquid. My basic brine is apple cider or juice (if the cider is not available), salt, garlic, and black pepper.

Brine Ingredients:

• 1 qt apple cider
• ¼ cup salt
• 1/8 cup garlic, minced
• 1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

Place the brine ingredients in a bag and slosh around to get the salt to dissolve. Then place the chicken in the fridge for as little as four hours to overnight:

Next up, we’re going to slather this chicken in mayonnaise and your favorite rub.

I know some of you are wrinkling your nose right now.

Trust me here.

Mix a cup of mayo with a ¼ cup of the rub:

Remove the chicken from the brine, pat it dry with paper towels and then dredge it through the mayo/rub mixture.

You might need a spoon to help spread it evenly:

I know this process doesn’t sound appealing to some. Raw poultry with the added bonus of some mayonnaise? And what if you don’t like mayo? Don’t worry. You won’t taste the mayonnaise. On the grill, the mayo is going to completely melt away, but before it does, it will continually baste the chicken, leaving the rub on the bird. It will also help to crisp up the skin.

Now let’s go prepare the Cooker to make some Grilled Chicken 

We’re going with two zone grilling with coals on one side and the chicken on the other. On a kamado style grill like this one, I put a half moon plate or plate setter in the bottom and put a chunk of smoke wood on the coals (in this case apple wood):

Don’t mind the fact that I broke off the corner of my plate setter. It happens. The reason for the half-moon plate setter is so I can sear later.

Target temperature inside the grill is 300F.

Seeing how it was hovering around 35 degrees, the day I grilled this chicken, I did a few things to help ensure I maintained the proper temperature. First, I added a little more charcoal than usual and second, I moved my grill over by my fence so the fence would act as a wind break:

Time to grill some chicken!

Chicken Piece Placement is Key.

Don’t just drop all the chicken down all at once. There’s some science to account for.

Place the thighs on the grill first:

Despite the breasts being bigger the thighs take the longest to cook because they have much more fat. Any time the breast is put on before or at the same time as the thighs, the breasts will be overcooked before the thighs are done. Place the thighs on first and close the lid for about ten minutes.

Then place the breasts on and close the lid for another ten minutes:

Next, throw on the legs for about five minutes and you can see that this thigh is already browning up nicely as the mayonnaise melts away:

Followed by the wings:

Smoke the chicken until the mayo has melted off and the chicken has reached an internal temperature of around 120F-130F degrees. This took about an hour and 20 minutes from the time I put on the thighs but this may vary depending on heat of the grill and the size of the chicken pieces.

At this point, we want to sear the chicken and get some nice char action. Brown up the outside of the chicken by placing the pieces over the hot side of the grill:

I couldn’t resist another shot of some seared chicken:

Now back over to the cool side and slather with some barbecue sauce:

Spread that sauce around:

Also, load up with more smoke wood as we come down the stretch. The chicken won’t take on much more smoke flavor, but that Kraft Thick & Spicy Barbecue Sauce will. So infuse that sauce with some smoke.

Here’s the second coating of sauce and it’s getting really thick and gooey:

Once the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165, remove it from the heat and let it rest for a couple minutes.

For me that’s easy as I always have to take the final shots.

For those that have been lusting after this succulent chicken all afternoon, it might be a bit harder:

In the end, if done properly, the chicken should be super juicy with an added sweetness from the brine, the skin should have the caramelized proteins from the searing infused that wonderful rub, all coated with some amazing, smoky barbecue sauce. Basically, layer upon layer upon layer upon layer of flavor. I could’ve called this recipe Cider brined, Mayo Magic, Reverse Seared and Sauced Grilled Chicken, but that seemed a little over the top so I went with the Ultimate Guide to Grilled Chicken.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

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Recipe Card for the Ultimate Guide to Grilled Chicken:

Print Recipe

Ultimate Guide to Grilled Chicken

Cider brined, mayo magic, revers seared, sauced grilled chicken, otherwise known as the Ultimate Guide to Grilled Chicken

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 50 minutes mins

Course: Entree

Cuisine: BBQ

Keyword: Barbecue Sauce, BBQ, BBQ Sauce, Grilled Chicken, Tips, Ultimate Guide, Ultimate Guide to Grilled Chicken

Servings: 4 -6 services

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken cut into pieces
• 1 qt apple cider
• ¼ cup salt
• ⅛ cup garlic minced
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• ¼ your favorite rub
• 6 oz Kraft Barbecue Sauce

Instructions

• Combine the cider, salt, garlic and pepper in a resealable plastic bag and swirl around until the salt is dissolved and then add the chicken
• Soak in the brine for 2-12 hours
• Combine the mayonnaise and the rub in a bowl
• Remove the chicken from the brine, blot dry with a paper towel
• Dredge the chicken through the mayo/rub mixture
• Prepare the grill for two zone/indirect grilling with a target temperature of 300 degrees
• Place the thighs on the grill and close the lid for 10 minutes
• Place the breasts on the grill and close the lid for 5 minutes
• Place the legs on the grill and close the lid for 5 minutes
• Place the wings on the grill and close the lid for 5 minutes
• Once the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 120-130 degrees and the mayonnaise has melted off, place over the hot side of the grill and sear the skin to crisp it up
• Place back over the cool side of the grill and slather with Kraft Barbecue Sauce and close the lid
• minutes later, hit it with another layer of sauce
• When the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees, remove from the grill
• Allow the chicken to rest for a few minutes before diving in

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

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BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: January 26, 2015