You do not need a reason to celebrate the wonders of life. Perhaps the best way to rejoice in being yourself is to host a get-together for friends or family members in the backyard of your home.
In such a festive gathering of dear ones, one of the best choices for food could be a tender, juicy chicken breast barbecue. If you are looking for a recipe for barbecuing chicken breasts on a grill in the easiest way, this article is just for you.
Here you will learn the easiest 10 steps to get done the classically tasty chicken breast barbecue. I have been doing my chicken breast barbecues following these steps for the last 15 years. So, chances of spoiling the party are almost none, if these steps are followed meticulously.
In this article, I have also provided 7 useful tips to keep you and your family safe from probable health hazards while barbecuing chicken breasts. There is also a useful question-answer section at the bottom of the article.
So, let’s get started:
10 Easiest Steps To Barbecue Chicken Breast On The Grill:
The easiest 10 steps for barbecued chicken breasts on grills are presented below:
Step 1- Make A Seasoning Rub For The Chicken Breasts:
In my recipe, there are three phases of seasoning for the perfect barbecue. First of all, you have to prepare a dry seasoning for the raw chicken breasts. For that, you will need these ingredients:
| Ingredient | Quantity |
| All-purpose Seasoning | 100 Grams |
| Sugar | 2 Tablespoons |
| Granulated Onion | 1 Tablespoon |
| Cumin | 1 Tablespoon |
| Paprika | 1 Tablespoon |
| Chili Powder | 1 Tablespoon |
| Cayenne Pepper | 1 Teaspoon |
The process is simple. You will mix all these dry ingredients vigorously in a bowl.
Step 2- Rub The Seasoning Mix On Chicken Breasts:
Your next step would be to spread the dry seasoning all over the chicken breasts. For that, you have to keep the chicken pieces in an open, dry, and clean space. You should sprinkle the dry mix on both sides of the chicken breasts. After that, get all the chicken pieces on a single platter to carry them to the grill.
Step 3- Prepare Your Grills:
The overall success of a grilled barbecue depends on the control of the hitting system. For a classically tasty barbecued chicken breast, you will need a constant heat of 275°F to 300°F all through the cooking.
So, after setting the fire on, make sure the grill is getting a constant hit of 275°F to 300°F. Have extra pieces of wood or charcoal around. A single standard-sized piece of wood should keep cooking for at least 30 minutes.
For a smoky flavor in your barbecue, you may use a grill that uses wood. But my recipe also works on electric grills, if they confirm the required amount of heat consistently.
Step 4- Put The Breasts On The Grills:
After you have heated the grill to the heat level of 275°F, use a brush to lubricate the grills with any vegetable oil, before putting chicken breasts on the grills. While putting the breasts on the grills, try to spread them as much as possible.
Make sure that no chicken piece is touching any other piece. It will help the air and heat to move around the chicken breasts. Keep cooking like this for 30 minutes.
Step 5- Make A Barbecue Juice For The Chicken Breasts:
Meanwhile, get prepared for the second phase of seasoning for the barbecued chicken breasts. The second seasoning will be liquid. To prepare it you will need:
| Ingredient | Quantity |
| Water | 32 Oz |
| Zesty Italian Dressing | 16 Oz |
| Barbecue Sauce | 8 Oz |
| Barbecue Rub | ½ Cup |
| Worcestershire Sauce | 2 Tablespoons |
| Soya Sauce | 2 Tablespoons |
Mix all these ingredients in a bucket. Get an unused mini-size mop to be used for liquid seasoning.
Step 6- Make The Chicken Breasts Juicy:
Now that the chicken breasts, seasoned with dry seasoning, are cooked for 30 minutes, it is time to make them juicy. Make them hydrated with the juice that we prepared in step 5. Use the clean small mop for this purpose.
Do not brush the chicken breasts directly. Rather hydrate the chicken pieces, by holding the mop over them. The droplets of juice will be enough to hydrate the chicken pieces. Now let it be cooked for another 30 minutes uninterrupted.
Step 7- Flip Over And Keep Juicing:
It has been one hour since the chicken breasts are on the grill with constant heat of 275°F to 300°F. They are already looking gorgeous and tempting but yet undone. You will now hydrate the chicken pieces again with the liquid barbecue juice.
Then carefully flip over the chicken breasts and get the other side of the breasts juiced up the same way. Then, let it be cooked for another 30 minutes. In this phase of cooking, we will keep the mixed sauces on the grill that we will prepare in step 8.
Step 8- Mix And Heat Sauces:
The final seasoning for the chicken breasts will be the sauce mix. Use a whole 200ml barbecue sauce bottle, along with another 200 ml of vinegar sauce or any other sauce of your choice.
Mix the two types of sauces well in a foil paper box. Keep the sauce box open at a corner of the grill to be heated with the chicken breasts.
Step 9- Juice Up The Breasts With Sauces:
Now you have come to the last stage of your barbecue. The appearance of the barbecued chicken breasts is more than enough to shoot up anyone’s appetite. But it is not done yet.
Rub the chicken breasts with the hot sauce mix, prepared at step 8 on both sides of the breasts. Keep them being grilled for another 30 minutes.
Step 10- Final Check:
Finally, the final moment has come to make the final check on the barbecued chicken breasts. You must use a food thermometer to check whether the chicken breasts are as hot as 165°F at their deepest parts.
You will find a pin attached with the food thermometer to penetrate the surface of a chicken breast to get the instant temperature of its innermost part. If the temperature of the barbecued chicken pieces is at least 165°F inside, get them off the grill and prepare them for the table.
7 Important Tips On Chicken Breast Barbecue:
Before getting your hands dirty, there are some tips for you that you might find helpful. Here are my personal 7 important tips on chicken breast Barbecue:
Tips 1- Do Not Wash The Chicken Breasts In Tap Water:
Clean raw food before cooking is in our nature. But experts are now saying that you could be exposed to Campylobacter bacteria while washing uncooked chicken meats in tap water. The point is while washing chicken meat in the kitchen sink, the tap water tends to spread all around, reflected from the chicken meat.
Thus the harmful bacterias get spread around. If they find a way to get into our body, those bacterias can be a reason for many diseases like food poisoning. So do not wash your raw chicken breast.
The best way to make our chicken germ and bacteria-free is to cook them until the inner side of the meat reaches the temperature of 165°F. Thorough cooking kills all the bacterias and other harmful elements from chicken meat.
Tips 2- Undercooked Chicken Breasts are hazardous:
People may suffer from many diseases if they intake undercooked chicken meat. According to the regulations of the USDA (Food safety and inspection service), the temperature inside a cooked chicken must be at least 165°F to make it safe for health.
So, for the safety of your dear ones, we recommend you use a digital food thermometer, which can instantly tell you the inside temperature of a cooked chicken piece. There are many types of food thermometers available at Amazon stores.
Tips 3- Overcooked Chicken Breasts Are Trash:
You must not forget to follow the steps of the above-mentioned recipe meticulously. Otherwise, if overcooked, the chicken breasts will definitely get dry and all the fun will fade away. So be alert to take a look at the watch at all times, no matter how boring you find it to be. Smart idea is to set a timer for each phase of cooking.
Tips 4- Use Grill Brush:
A common problem with barbecuing is the residue of earlier cooking stuck with the grills. It is definitely unhealthy to mix them with your new food. At the same time, it makes flipping and taking out cooked items difficult. The solution is stiff-bristled brushes. They are easily available in local shops and online stores. Brush the grills before, during, and after your cooking.
Tips 5- Separate Raw Chicken And Its Juices:
Raw chickens are home to many harmful bacterias like campylobacter. So it is imperative to keep them and all of their raw juices away from other cooked and uncooked food ingredients.
Tips 6- Store Your Raw Chicken In Plastic Bags:
Before cooking chicken meats, you should keep them in plastic bags. It will ensure that all the secretions from the chicken meat are not getting in touch with other food items. This is a way to keep all the harmful bacterias of chicken away from us.
Tips 7- Wash Hands After Touching Raw Chicken:
For the same safety reason, you must wash your hands with soap before touching anyone or anything when you have handled any part of the raw chicken. As you know, uncooked chicken carries harmful bacterias with it.
Some Commonly Asked Questions About BBQ Chicken Breast:
How To Stop Chicken Barbecue Being Burnt?
If you can maintain the recommended temperature all through the cooking process and follow the time limits, your chicken is not supposed to be burnt. If you still face this problem, a good solution can be apple juice. You can baste your chicken barbecue with apple juice after every 45 minutes. In that case, you may apply the sauce at the last part of your cooking.
How To Get Barbecue Sauce Sticking To Chicken Till The End?
Use salt and pepper in your seasoning. The role of salt and peppers is not limited to giving your chicken breasts a better taste. They also change the texture of the chicken pieces, adding some roughness to them. Which makes it easy for the sauces to get stuck with the chicken till the table.
Is It Necessary To Marinate Chicken With Barbecue Sauce?
Some argue that chicken breasts are better barbecued if they are marinated for a while with barbecue sauce before being grilled. But my experience says otherwise. I have seen the breasts getting burnt on the surface while the inner part remains uncooked if marinated with sauce before baking.
What To Serve With Chicken Barbecue?
No matter how delicious your barbecued chicken breasts are, they can not be served alone. Here I have suggested some side dishes, which are known to be compatible with chicken barbecue:
- Coleslaw:
A perfect compliment for a well-cooked chicken breast barbecue can be coleslaw. The vegan-creamy side dish makes the table look complete when served with any barbecue.
- Cornbread:
Another good companion of chicken barbecue is cornbread. You can make some sweet homemade cornbread easily and quickly to put beside your barbecue.
- Mashed Potato:
Another wonderful partner for barbecued chicken could be mashed potatoes. It will definitely make the barbecue more delicious.
- Baked Beans:
Baked beans are quite traditional to be with barbecued chicken. The graveness of baked beans is craved by many on any occasion.
Can You Lose Weight Eating Barbecued Chicken?
There are reasons behind the fact that most of the popular healthy diets include chicken items. Chicken meats are mainly lean meat. That means it does not contain much fat compared to other types of meats. Which ensures that our body is getting the required protein with little animal fat.
Chicken meat is a good source of calcium and phosphorus too. However, The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends, a person may have chicken items ranging from 2 oz to 6.5 oz per day.
Final Words:
Life tastes better with good foods. But in this modern age, good-tasting foods are not always healthy ones. In fact, they are blamed for some serious diseases. That’s why, I urge you to prepare all the lavish dishes by yourself, maintaining all the health standards.
If you can get used to barbecuing chicken breast on the grill and all other great dishes like this, it will be easier for you to say ‘no’ to all those notorious fast and junk foods.
You may also want to read:
