This recipe using a bourbon marinade to flavor boneless, skinless chicken thighs prior to grilling. While perfect for wood heated grilling, the flavor comes through well enough to make gas grilled chicken tasty. I use boneless and skinless chicken because, a) they are filleted so more meat is exposed to the marinade and b) you can grill them faster and c) since there’s no fatty skin, you won’t end up with a grease fire.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- Marinade
- 2 oz. Bourbon – the better the bourbon the better the marinade
- 2 oz. Soy sauce
- Dijon mustard – 0.25 cup
- Green onion – finely chopped – 0.25 cup
- Brown sugar – 0.25 cup packed
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
- Black pepper to taste
Process
- Thaw out chicken
- Prepare the marinade
- Spread chicken out on a tray and generously salt and pepper both sides.
- Using a basting brush, work the marinade onto all exposed meat.
- In a bowl or bag, place the chicken and pour in the marinade.
- Place in fridge overnight, and every few hours stir/shake the marinade around the chicken
- Grilling
- Start your grill and make sure it’s hot before grilling.
- Separate chicken from marinade making sure to retain marinade for basting.
- Grill chicken five minutes per side (depending on temperature). You want the grill to be hot enough to sear the meat and you only really want grill each side once.
- Prior to each time you flip the meat, bast the top with the leftover marinade.
- Grill until internal temperature is 145 F.
Note1 : Since the marinade was in contact with the raw chicken you have two options: 1) discard after basting or 2) put in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer to kill any raw meat bacteria and then use as a serving sauce. I think option 2 is best as you can drizzle your chicken with the sauce to further enhance the taste. Also, he improves plate appearance.
Note 2: Personal preference, but I always cook with chicken thighs. I feel they have far more taste and better texture that breasts. Also, thighs are juicier and come in single serving size.
Note 3: This same process is used to grill pork or shrimp the only caveat is that if you are marinading shrimp, just soak for an hour rather then overnight. If grilling pork, you can use chops or a pork loin that you slice into steaks.
