Grilled chicken thighs are an easy, flavorful dinner option that cooks quickly on a gas or charcoal grill. With tips on grilling time, temperature, technique, and seasoning, this recipe offers juicy, tender chicken with minimal preparation in under 30 minutes, whether using boneless or bone-in thighs. Let’s fire up the grill for a delicious weeknight dinner.
🐓Ingredients
Chicken thighs—skin-on, bone-in thighs, or boneless thighs
Seasoning—Kosher salt and black pepper are enough. Or use the seasoning of your choice.
Optional—Olive oil, BBQ sauce, and marinades
Jump To (scroll for more)
- 🐓Ingredients
- 👨🍳How to Grill Chicken Thighs—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
- ⏲️How Long to Grill Chicken Thighs
- 👍Tips for the Juiciest Chicken Thighs
- 🧂Seasoning options
- 🌡️The best final internal temperature for chicken thighs is 185°
- Grilling boneless chicken thighs
- Other delicious chicken recipes
- ♨️Grill temperature
- 🍴Serving suggestions
- ❄️Storing leftovers and reheating
- ❓FAQs
- 🤔What is uneven grilling?—The secret to perfect grilled thighs
- 📖The Recipe Card with Step-by-Step Instructions
Featured Comment by Davey:
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"This site is the Holy Grail for how to cook chicken thighs. I trim off excess fat, season liberally with 7:2:1 rub (with an extra ½ part smoked paprika), and grill to 185-190. Comes out so delicious. Made them again yesterday, and people were telling me how fantastic the chicken was. Thanks!"
We grill chicken thighs for a juicy and flavorful weeknight dinner that's budget-friendly and requires minimal effort. No complicated marinade is needed for great thighs; just simple seasoning.
Due to their fat content, thighs are more forgiving when grilled and less likely to dry out likely to dry out like breasts. Just follow the easy step-by-step instructions.
👨🍳How to Grill Chicken Thighs—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. Preheat the grill to 450° surface temperature. Let the meat rest at room temperature for 20- 30 minutes if you have time.
2. Trim the thighs of any trimmable fat and extra skin.
3. A light brush of olive oil is optional, then season to your taste.
4. Grill for 5-6 minutes with the skin up, then flip to skin down and grill for about 4 minutes. Flip and continue the uneven grilling times.
5. Grill to 185° internal temperature—about 25-30 minutes for bone-in thighs.
6. Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
⏲️How Long to Grill Chicken Thighs
It takes about 25 to 30 minutes to grill bone-in chicken thighs to an internal temperature of 185°F. The exact time will vary depending on the grill temperature, the thickness of the thighs, and their temperature at the start of grilling.
Boneless thighs will take about 10 to 15 minutes because they are thinner and have no bone to absorb heat.
Always cook to a final internal temperature—never by time alone. Use an instant-read or meat thermometer and check it a few times early.
👍Tips for the Juiciest Chicken Thighs
Dark meat, like chicken thighs, is very forgiving due to the fat content, keeping the meat moist. However, the fat will also cause flare-ups that burn the thighs when grilling. Handling it is critical for good results, so:
- Trim as much of the fat as reasonably possible.
- Use my "uneven grilling," where the skin faces up more than down during cooking, to prevent burning. Plus, move around the grill with each flip to avoid fat flare-ups.
To reach the best internal temperature (185°F), rest the thighs at room temperature while preheating the grill, which helps achieve the temperature goal without burning the skin.
Let grilled thighs rest 5–10 minutes before serving, which gives time for the juices forced out of the meat cells during cooking to reabsorb for maximum moisture and tenderness.
🧂Seasoning options
Kosher salt and black pepper would do, but use the seasoning of your choice. We use All Purpose Seasoning (7:2:2) with kosher salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Other herbs and spices may also be used.
I consider olive oil optional. If oil is applied before seasoning, the skin will be a little thicker but not as crispy. But it should be used for skinless thighs.
To make BBQ grilled chicken thighs, try my classic BBQ dry rub or Memphis Dry Rub to replace the seasonings. Then, with about 5 minutes left, brush lightly with your favorite BBQ sauce or our Memphis Barbecue Sauce. Give them a second brush of sauce when you remove the thighs from the grill.
Another good option is a marinade, like my lemon chicken marinade.
🌡️The best final internal temperature for chicken thighs is 185°
The best final internal temperature for grilled chicken thighs is 185° to 195° when the connective tissue melts, and the meat becomes moist and tender. According to the USDA recommendations, the minimum safe internal temperature for any chicken is 165°F, but thighs will be tough and stringy from connective tissue if not cooked longer.
At 175 °, the connective tissue will start to melt. By 185°, you will get moist and tender results. Americas Test Kitchen takes it further for both thighs and drumsticks, suggesting 190° to 195° as the target internal temperature range.
Grilling boneless chicken thighs
While this recipe assumes skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs, you can use skinless, boneless chicken thighs. The bone absorbs heat, and they are generally thinner; hence, they will cook faster, in about 10 to 15 minutes. Pay attention to the internal temperature and check early.
I suggest brushing the skinless chicken with vegetable or olive oil before seasoning and grilling. Since you don't have chicken skin to protect from overcooking, you can skip the uneven timing of the flipping, but you should still move the chicken around the grill surface to avoid flare-ups.
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Other delicious chicken recipes
For drumsticks, see Grilled Chicken Drumsticks or Oven Baked Chicken Legs. For chicken breasts, see Grilled Chicken Breasts or Convection Baked Chicken. If you are cooking for a large group, see Chicken for a Crowd.
Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Thighs
Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs are roasted perfectly in 30 minutes and seasoned to your taste. Using a convection oven for crispy skin, these moist and tender chicken thighs will become a family favorite.
♨️Grill temperature
The grill should be 450°-500° surface temperature. That is usually about medium-high heat on most gas grills. Preheat the entire grill, not just a section, so you can move the thighs around to prevent flare-ups.
Other grills, like pellet or charcoal grills, may be used as long as you can control the grill temperature and they have a large surface area.
If you have questions about grill setup, see A Beginners Guide to Grill Temperature on a Gas Grill.
🍴Serving suggestions
Serve with a fresh green garden salad and potatoes of some type, like Grilled Red Potatoes or potato salad. Grilled mixed vegetables, Grilled corn or Brown Sugar Cinnamon Glazed Grilled Pineapple are also great side dishes.
❄️Storing leftovers and reheating
Store in an airtight container, refrigerated for 4 days. They will freeze well for 4 months.
To reheat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator if frozen, then reheat in an oven or air fryer. A microwave will adversely affect the texture.
❓FAQs
There is a lot of fat on chicken thighs. The competition grillers will remove the skin and trim all the fat under the skin, but that is not needed for great thighs at home.
Trim off most of the visible fat on the underside and along the edge of the skin. Trim off any excess skin, but I like to leave the skin firmly attached to the thigh.
You can not get consistently good results without knowing the grill surface temperature and the internal temperature of the thighs to reach the correct final temperature.
You can grill chicken thighs with the grill hood open or closed. But closed will give you more control over the surface temperature.
Generally, meat under ½ inch thick can be grilled with an open hood, between ½ and 1 inch thick; either can be used, but closed is better. Meat over 1 inch should be grilled with the hood closed.
🤔What is uneven grilling?—The secret to perfect grilled thighs
Uneven grilling is my method to avoid flare-ups from draining fat and burnt skin. So, it's only needed in skin-on thighs.
- The skin side of the thighs can burn quickly, so you should have less time facing the flames. Start with skin side up for the first period and grill for 5-6 minutes. Flip to skin side down for 4 minutes. Continue to go back and forth using the same timing until done.
- Alternate sides of the grill surface with each flip. You will get fat drainage flare-ups. Moving the chicken to the other side of the grill at the flips will allow hot spots from fat drainage to burn out.
You can skip the uneven grilling times for skinless thighs—you have no chicken skin you are trying to protect. But you will still need a large surface area to move around and avoid flare-ups from the fat drainage.
📖The Recipe Card with Step-by-Step Instructions
Grilled Chicken Thighs
Video Slideshow
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Start with skin-on bone-in chicken thighs and the seasoning of your choice. Boneless and skinless-boneless may be used and are discussed in the post.
- Preheat the grill to 450° surface temperature. That is medium to medium-high heat on most grills. Use the entire grill surface. Clean and oil the grill grate well.
- While the grill is preheating, trim the thighs of trimmable fat and extra skin. Allow them to rest at room temperature until the grill is ready—20 to 30 minutes is good.
- Brushing with olive oil is optional for skin-on thighs. Use the seasoning you prefer, or sprinkle all sides with Kosher salt and black pepper. If using skinless thighs, give them a light brushing of vegetable oil before seasoning.
- Using only half the grill surface, place on the grill grates over direct heat with skin side UP. Grill for 5-6 minutes, then flip onto the other side of the grill and skin down—grill for about 4 minutes with the skin down. Continue to go back and forth between the sides of the grill and flipping. But if the skin is getting too dark, turn down the heat in the area used for the skin side down. If using skinless thighs, you can grill both sides for 5 minutes until done, but do alternate sides.
- Grill to 185° internal temperature—about 25-30 minutes for bone-in thighs, but this will vary depending on your exact grill surface temperature and the thighs' temperature and thickness. For boneless, the cooking time is usually 10-15 minutes. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR TEMPERATURE EARLY, a few times.
- Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- Grill on a medium-to-medium-high grill, not super hot. The surface temperature should be about 450 °. Use a grill surface thermometer if you have one—never believe the thermometer in the grill's hood.
- Skinless boneless chicken thighs will cook faster since the bone absorbs heat and they are thinner. See the recipe post for more details about cooking boneless chicken breasts.
- You can cook thighs with the hood open, but it is better closed.
- Trim any extra skin and any visible fat to prevent flare-ups.
- Use the uneven grilling technique discussed, and use the whole grill surface and alternate sides with your flips to prevent flare-ups.
- Use the seasoning of your choice. I used our homemade seasoning mix.
- Do not try this with partly frozen chicken; you will burn it before getting to the correct internal temperature.
- I use 185° as my final internal temperature. This is where the thighs are moist and tender. They are safe at 165° but still tough.
- As always, cook to the final internal temperature. Do not cook on time alone.
- Good refrigerated for 4 days and frozen for 4 months.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You can adjust the number of servings above; however, only the amount in the ingredient list is adjusted, not the instructions.
Nutrition Estimate (may vary)
Editor's Note: Originally Published August 1, 2015. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Philip Brun says
Delicious, easy to follow recipe. The whole family loved it. Thanks for the pictures too.
jen watson says
Fantastic! Easy to follow (thanks for the photos!) and delicious results! Now I am successful at grilling chicken...Yay!!
Davey says
This site is the Holy Grail for how to cook chicken thighs. I trim off excess fat, season liberally with 7:2:1 rub (with an extra 1/2 part smoked paprika), and grill to 185-190. Comes out so delicious. Made them again yesterday and people were telling me how fantastic the chicken was. Thanks!
Lesa Browning says
Best grilled chicken recipe ever! I followed exactly and chicken thighs were perfect.
Andee says
Use your grilling technique for chicken thighs and drumsticks tonight, it was cooked PERFECT! Thank you for sharing.
Josh Miller says
I made this recipe tonight for dinner and it was amazing! I used Weber's chicken & rib rub, pepper, & garlic powder on both sides.
I have feeling my wife is going to have me make this at least once if not twice a week.
Thank you for the recipe!
Joshua Miller says
I forgot to add, it was so juicy that when I cut it open is squirted juice out (literally about 3" across my plate). I kept my gas grill between 450 & 475. 5:30 skin side up then 4 skin side down and kept rotating it till I got to 25 minutes (I don't have a thermometer). It turned out perfect!