Great tender and moist grill chicken breasts start with a garlic buttermilk brine that adds great taste and acts as a brine tenderizing the chicken. Then grill for some great char, and you have a wonderful change of pace.
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Introduction and My Rating
This is one of those "nice" recipes for a change of pace. It is a bit bland, but that is good sometimes. Please enjoy a change of pace.
I have done buttermilk brine (or marinade?) chicken before, and it seems to always be something special but always for oven or fried. When Chris over at Nibble Me This did a buttermilk grilled chicken, it looked great, but today I just didn't want spicy. Use call me demographically impaired today.
So today I'm using Martha Stewart's Buttermilk Grilled Chicken Breasts as the inspiration recipe. I always like simple, and you can't get much simpler than this. Soak in buttermilk for hours, add salt and pepper. Grill. Now that is simple.
My Rating
A mid-4. Great tenderness and has the expected blander taste.
🐓Chicken Breasts
This is a skinless boneless chicken breast recipe. I don't mean it for other types of chicken.
When you pick out your chicken, try to get about the same size and thickness. If you have those very thick breasts, flatten out the breast a bit with a meat mallet or bottom of a heavy pan. Try for about 3/4 inch thick.
If the chicken was frozen, it must be thawed before proceeding.
Trim off any trimmable fat and check for bone chips. We no longer recommend rinsing chicken, just a good pat dry. See Chicken... To Rinse or Not To Rinse?
🥣Buttermilk Marinade
I'm not sure whether to call this a marinade or a brine. It serves both functions. Buttermilk has a nice distinctive flavor, but due to the acidic pH, it will also break down proteins in the chicken.
I'm only adding some garlic powder for taste in the marinade. You could add some rosemary or thyme if you want.
♨️The Grill
You can NOT cook chicken properly on high heat. You will dry the outside long before the inside is even close to done or safe. I suggest a grill surface temperature of about 450°. A little less is fine, and a smidge more is ok but never over 500°.
To get this right, you should use a grill surface thermometer. The hood thermometer is ALWAYS wrong.
If you don't have a surface thermometer (you should), then medium will be about 400°-450° on most gas grills. The cooking time will be different, but as long as you get the end-point of 165° correct with an instant-read thermometer, you will do ok.
Please see A Beginners Guide to Grill Temperature on a Gas Grill for more discussion.
Can I do this on a charcoal grill? Yes, but you need to be very careful about surface temperature. And, of course, times will vary.
🌡️⏲️Temperature and Timing
Most chicken breasts will take 20-25 minutes on a grill with a surface temperature of 450°. Smaller breasts may be a bit less, and larger may be a bit longer. Remember to never cook by time alone.
A chicken breast is done at 165° internal temperature in the thickest part of the breast. More will dry, and less is unsafe. An instant-read thermometer is required to get this right.
The chicken should rest off of the heat for about 5 minutes before serving. If longer, tent lightly with foil to keep warm.
I did update the cooking method to my current (2018) technique. Get a nice steady surface temperature and flip every 5 minutes until an internal temperature of 165. Do not overcook and never cook chicken above 500 degrees unless you love eating hockey pucks.
📖Other Chicken Marinades
Quick Marinade For Grilled Chicken Breasts
Garlic Lemon Marinaded Grilled Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast
🔪Instructions
Trim chicken breasts. Sometimes I will score the surface to increase brine penetration.
Place chicken in 1-gallon zip lock in a large bowl. Cover with about 1 cup of buttermilk per breast. You want to cover the chicken completely. Then, add 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder per cup of buttermilk. Mix everything well then refrigerate for 1-12 hours.
When ready to grill, remove from the bag but do not rinse off the buttermilk—salt and pepper to taste.
Preheat grill on to a grill surface temperature of about 450° medium-high on most grills. Clean and oil grates.
Grill over direct heat with lid closed. Flip about every 5 minutes until internal temp of 165°. Usually, about 25-30 minutes, depending on the exact grill temperature and thickness of the chicken. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
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📖 Recipe
Buttermilk Marinated Chicken Breasts on a Gas Grill
Ingredients
- 2-4 skinless boneless chicken breasts - Trimmed
- lowfat buttermilk - to cover
- salt and pepper - to taste
- granular garlic powder - 1/2 teaspoon per cup of buttermilk
Instructions
- Trim chicken breasts. Sometimes I will score the surface to increase brine penetration.
- Place chicken in 1-gallon zip lock in a large bowl. Cover with about 1 cup of buttermilk per breast. You want to cover the chicken completely. Then, add 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder per cup of buttermilk. Mix everything well then refrigerate for 1-12 hours.
- When ready to grill, remove from the bag but do not rinse off the buttermilk. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Preheat grill on to a grill surface temperature of about 450° medium-high on most grills. Clean and oil grates.
- Grill over direct heat with lid closed. Flip about every 5 minutes until internal temp of 165°. Usually, about 25-30 minutes, depending on the exact grill temperature and thickness of the chicken.
- Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Try to pick chicken breasts that are about the same size and thickness.
- If the thickness varies a lot, then using a meat mallet or heavy pan to get to about 3/4 inch thick.
- I recommend real buttermilk here. You can use a substitute but there is some extra taste with the real stuff.
- Add some rosemary or thyme to the marinade if you want.
- Do not brine with salt before doing the buttermilk marinade/brine.
- Only salt lightly.
- Grill surface temperature is critical to getting this right. So use a grill surface thermometer. Also, use a meat thermometer to be sure the internal temperature is 165°.
Nutrition
Editor's Note: Originally Published May 31, 2010. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos and a table of contents to help navigation.
Molly and Lilly's litter
Molly and Lilly say thanks to Martha, they treat us nice here.
Special dog note: This is added with the last update. Blog money has always been "play money" for us. In late 2013 we lost our much loved golden retriever Jake. Well, that same month, my new ad company, Martha Stewart Circle, provided a huge boost in play money income. So Martha provided the money to pay for two English golden retriever puppies. So now we always say Martha Stewart bought us dogs. Thanks, Martha.
Danielle
We have a ton of snow right now so can i bake this and still get juicy results? If yes what temperature and how long would you cook it for? I think this sounds delicious 😋
DrDan
Hi Danielle,
Welcome to the blog.
It is a bit dependent on size of the breast. I would do 375. About 30 minutes for smaller, 35 for normal size, and maybe 40 minutes for large. But as always, you are cooking to a final internal temperature of 165 and never by just time.
Hope that helps.
Dan
Dr Dan
I so agree. I'm using a lot of buttermilk for various things. Note to readers. Steph is at Plain Chicken and Chris is at Nibble Me This. Both are must follows for interesting and great cooking.
Chris
Ha ha, aren't we a trio? Like I said at Steph's blog, I think the whole secret is the buttermilk and everything else is just the cooker's preferences. Great post.
steph
we did buttermilk grilled chicken last week too! We added lemon and fresh basil.