Easy Grilled Chicken
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The best marinade ever! No-fuss and packed with so much flavor. You won’t need another grilled chicken recipe again!
We are two days into summer so if you haven’t dusted off those grills, that really needs to change immediately so you can whip up the easiest grilled chicken recipe of all time.
Really, it doesn’t get any easier than this recipe, and it’s practically fool-proof.
All you need to do is marinate boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or thighs) in a Ziploc bag, let it sit in all that balsamic-lemony-herb goodness and well, that’s pretty much it.
You just throw the chicken right onto the grill, basting as needed. And if you don’t have an outdoor grill, you can easily use a cast iron grill pan.
When ready to serve, you can serve this with your choice of salad or any of these lovely side dishes along with some crusty bread.
Either way, these would be perfect for all your summer gatherings or backyard BBQs since you can easily double or even triple the recipe as needed.
Tools For This Recipe
Cast iron grill pan or large cast iron skillet
Easy Grilled Chicken: Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! But because dried herbs are often more potent/concentrated than fresh herbs, you need less when using dry. The correct ratio is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
No grill, no problem. A cast iron grill pan or a large cast iron skillet will work beautifully here, especially during those winter months when it’s too cold to grill out!
Easy Grilled Chicken
Ingredients
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, Dijon, brown sugar, Worcestershire, garlic, thyme, oregano and rosemary; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Reserve 1/4 cup and set aside.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine chicken and balsamic vinegar mixture; marinate for at least 1 hour to overnight, turning the bag occasionally. Drain the chicken from the marinade.
- Preheat grill to medium high heat. Add chicken to grill and cook, flipping once and basting with reserved 1/4 cup marinade until cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 5-6 minutes per side.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
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As a grandma I’ve been cooking for decades. Admittedly, my old fail-safes are still good but a little tired and dated. I subscribed to your site some time ago and find myself back again and again. Your recipes and suggestions are REALLY great and keep my family enjoying fresh ideas for dinner. Thank you so much!
This marinade is perfect! My go-to for chicken from now on. Thank you!
In addition to chicken, I could imagine using this on beef and pork. I will definitely be giving this a try!
Hi Chungah. This looks great! I am hoping to use this recipe tonight. I had one quick question regarding the typical weight of the chicken breasts you use. I am actually going to be using chicken tenders which is what I have in the fridge instead, so I want to make sure I don’t need to modify how much I use.
Would you say the weight of the chicken breasts equals around 2 pounds typically?
I would estimate about 8 ounces for each half boneless, skinless chicken breast. Hope that helps!
Is there a substitute for the balsamic vinegar??
Thanks~!
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment.
I have substituted red wine vinegar multiple times with great success. It is delicious.
You can mix all the marinade ingredients right in the ziptop bag, most of the ingredients are pantry staples, it took me about 3 minutes to make the marinade, another minute to salt & pepper the chicken, then in the fridge, all while having my first cuppa for the day.
Literally I think making a pb&j takes exactly the same amount of time.
Can anyone tell me if I could use this marinade to pour over chicken before freezing? I love those dump style recipes and think this would be a great one to add. Thanks!
Yes. I’ve done that with other recipes that have lemon and/or vinegar in them. I’ve actually had better results than marinating without freezing!
I was looking for a different marinade and found yours…I tried it; everyone loved it; it was a hit! Thank you!
Great recipe for grilled chicken! I don’t have a barbecue (condo rules) and since you cannot use balsamic dressing on a cast iron grill pan that isn’t enameled, I just cooked it a DeVault non-stick pan. I didn’t have dried rosemary and it was still great without. I chopped it up and mixed with Trader Joe’s herb salad mix, 1/2 avocado, and bragg’s salad dressing. Delicious!
This is a pretty aggressive marinade. I did read the ingredients first and tasted. Tasty but might be better suited for s robust red meat.
Loved this recipe!! I didn’t change a thing and my pickiest eater said it was delicious.
Made this last night, and followed recipe exactly, except I used 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary (didn’t have any dried). SOOOOO good! Grilled for 6 min each side. My husband is not a fan of chicken, but he LOVED this!! LOT of flavor. Served with some homegrown corn on cob and a spring greens salad mixed with sliced peaches, mango, blackberries, toasted almonds and gorgonzola cheese, all mixed with a champagne viniagrette!! A restaurant-quality meal 🙂
Made this tonight, my husband grilled it up and it was fantastic!! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Nice Recipe…..
Hi !! This looks great. . …my ONLY problem is that I constantly overcook chicken when I BBQ it. when you write “medium heat” in the recipe, what temp are you thinking? 350 on the BBQ?
Yes, 350 degrees F should work just fine.
Cook the chicken with indirect heat, not directly over the heat source.
We had this over the weekend and its now our go-to marinade recipe and we are looking forward to trying it on game meat. In response to Eddie, my husband put this on the upper rack on our grill and it worked perfect. Super juice and not overdone on the outside.
This easy simple marinade for chicken breast is self explain if you read it right !!!
The picture looks very appealing & beautiful done .
This Recipe “sounds” Wonderful, and I will be trying it out very soon!! Please note that the first paragraph of the Recipe actually says to “Reserve 1/4 cup of the marinade, and Set Aside”. And, if you’re worried about using lemon juice in the actual marinade, I would suggest waiting to squeeze the fresh lemon juice over the chicken just before Serving.
I was literally searching through “marinated grilled chicken” recipes on Pinterest right before stumbling upon this gem of a post! Whipping up this marinade to use on the lonely chicken breasts currently in my fridge 🙂
This looks fantastic! Will be trying it this weekend! 🙂
I am pinning my way through all your recipes… 🙂