The most important thing to remember when cooking chicken on the grill is that you need to get the internal temperature of the chicken up to 170°. You can typically tell when chicken has been cooked thoroughly because it looks white and cooked, rather than the shiny pink look of uncooked chicken. Once you’ve worked with it enough you will likely be able to tell this, though if you’re unsure, it’s better to be safe than sorry and use a meat thermometer.
Luckily, grills get very hot, and so you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting it cooked all the way through, even if it’s a thicker chicken breast you’re grilling. If the grill is hot enough, either if you have a LOT of charcoal on it or if it’s a gas grill that you have turned up to high, you could probably get the chicken cooked in as little as 20 minutes or so, though you would risk charring or burning the outside of it.
If you have the grill at a lower temperature, around 200°-250°, if you have a thermometer to measure it, then it will take around 45 minutes to an hour to cook. This is more ideal, since the chances of burning anything are reduced.
If you’re using a dry rub to season the chicken, put the rub on right at the beginning to let it cook into the chicken. Dry rubs can handle the heat of a grill nicely. But if you’re using a sauce, BBQ sauce or something else, you may want to cook the chicken until it’s almost done before putting the sauce on. That’s because the sugar in the sauce can burn, which will add a slight bitter taste to the chicken, and there’s really no benefit to cooking the sauce anyway. Get the chicken to the point that it’s pretty well done, and then start covering the chicken. Or you could even just baste it after you’ve taken it off the heat. Try each way to see which one you like best.
Finally, if you’re cooking on an iron grate, use a brush to put a little oil on it first. That will prevent the chicken from sticking, which causes it to burn in small places, which can also add to the slightly bitter burned taste of the food.
Cooking chicken on the grill isn’t really all that difficult – slow heat will help cook the chicken more evenly and will prevent it from burning. If you’re not familiar with how chicken cooks, use a meat thermometer to make sure it gets to 170°. Don’t put wet sauces on it until after it’s mostly done.
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