There is no better way to spend a holiday than feasting chicken that has been served hot off the grill. However, there are a number of factors that need to be considered when grilling a chicken, like the grill temperature, the preparation and the time that you need to cook the chicken. Here are some great tips that can help you serving excellent grilled chicken.

• For the first step keep the chicken soaked in the marinade overnight before you wish to grill it. This will prevent the chicken from drying. In case you haven’t been able to soak the chicken overnight, try to do this for at least half to one hour before grilling. However, if this is not possible then make sure that you brush it with oil to keep the pieces moist before grilling it.

• Before you start grilling the chicken trim off the extra skin so that you can avoid any blazing on the grill.

• Follow the basic rule of grilling the chicken on medium heat. The best way of testing whether the grill is ready for your chicken is to hold your hand over the grill, and if you are able to hold it up for five seconds, you are ready to grill the chicken.

• Initially, you should start with grilling the chicken on direct heat so as to make the skin crisp, once this is done then you can move it over to the indirect heat to cook the remaining meat.

• Once you are done with cooking then you can brush the pieces with sauce towards the end. If you apply the sauce in the middle of the cooking or in the beginning then it would char.

• Make sure that you always use tongs while handling the chicken on the grill. The cooking time for grilling chicken can vary depending on size of the pieces. The time for cooking grilled chicken usually ranges anywhere from 6-15 minutes depending on the type of grilled chicken that you want.

• For boneless breast pieces, the time should 5-7 minutes for each side, and for the legs (bone-in) the time taken for grilling should be 18-20 minutes on each side.

• You can assume the chicken to be cooked completely when the temperature on the internal side reaches 175-180F. The color of the chicken skin should become golden and once when you pierce the piece the juices should run clearly. The juice should not be of any color and should be clear.

These tips for grilling chicken should be helpful enough to make some finger licking grilled chicken. However, when handling raw meat, you should be careful and wash your hand with soap and warm water. Make sure that you don’t use the marinating sauce again and discard it after having marinated your chicken. After you have brushed the pieces with sauce leave it for a minimum of five minutes on the grill so that they get absorbed clearly. Grilled chicken is the best when served hot, so make sure that you have everything ready when you are about to serve the grilled chicken.

Jason Ladock

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