A delicious, simple chicken recipe for a quick dinner or nutritious lunch, grilled lemon chicken is juicy, tender, and marinated in a delicious lemon sauce.
This grilled lemon chicken is a family favorite that is tasty, tender, and incredibly juicy while also being packed with fresh lemon flavor!
Simple and cheerful, this is the kind of main that gets us all in the mood for summer grilling. We have this Lemon Chicken every other night during the summer and no one complains because it is beyond delicious.
This recipe for Grilled Chicken takes me back to my childhood when I was still living in Macedonia. My mom would prepare meats and skewers and other fun things for our May-Day picnic, which is observed on May 1st. May Day is regarded as Europe’s Labor Day.
A day off from work therefore meant a 24-hour party with portable grills, lots of food that could be cooked on them, shopska salad, and all the soccer equipment your dad could fit in the trunk.
4 Tips for Best Grilled Lemon Chicken
The Best Grilled Lemon Chicken 🔗
Tender and juicy grilled chicken marinated in a delicious lemon sauce. A perfect, easy chicken recipe for a quick dinner or healthy lunch!
Prep: 20min
Total: 30min
Serving Size: 1 Chicken Breast
Nutrition Facts: servingSize 1 Chicken Breast, calories 214 kcal, Carbohydrate 1 g, Protein 24 g, Fat 11 g, Saturated Fat 1 g, Cholesterol 72 mg, Sodium 133 mg
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- zest of 2 lemons
- 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice ((zest the lemons before juicing))
- 4 cloves garlic, (minced)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- salt and fresh ground pepper, (to taste)
- 1 whole lemon (cut into slices)
Instruction:
- In a large ziploc bag, combine chicken, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper.
- Seal the bag and shake it all up until well combined.
- Place bag in the refrigerator and marinate for about 4 hours or overnight.
- Preheat the grill to about 375F to 400F.
- Brush grill grates with olive oil.
- Remove chicken breasts from marinade and place them on the hot grill; cook without touching it until the chicken breasts start getting some grill marks, about 5 minutes.
- Turn the chicken breasts over, cover the grill, and let finish cooking, about 7 more minutes, depending on the thickness of the chicken. Chicken is done when a meat thermometer registers 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove chicken from grill; cover and let rest for 5 minutes before cutting.
- TO PREPARE ON A CAST IRON GRILL PAN
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Grease a grill pan with cooking spray and set it over medium-high heat.
- Add chicken pieces and cook for 4 minutes; flip, and continue to cook for 2 more minutes, or until lightly browned.
- Place grill pan in the oven and cook for 18 to 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.
- Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes.
- Serve.
FAQ
Is it OK to marinate chicken in lemon juice?
Lemon juice helps to tenderize meat, but when left for too long, it will break down the proteins too much, making the meat tough and rubbery—sometimes even mushy—so it should only be used in marinades for 2-3 hours, and no longer than 3 hours.
What does lemon juice do to raw chicken?
The chicken that has been sitting raw in its own juices for several days still has a fleshy, “fresh chicken” taste that the lemon juice only serves to neutralize.
How do you cook chicken on the grill without it drying out?
Brining is simply immersing the chicken in a salt-water solution prior to grilling, which helps the chicken get great grill marks and prevents it from overcooking on the grill due to the increased surface moisture and sugars that brown quickly.