23 Grilled Chicken Recipes to Devour on July Fourth

From whole chickens to kebabs, wings, and juicy thighs, these grilled chicken recipes won't disappoint.

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The Serious Eats Team
The Serious Eats Team
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Updated October 02, 2024
Chicken Inasal on a white plate next to dipping sauce and a bowl of white rice.

Serious Eats / Julia Hartbeck

Grilled chicken doesn't have to be stringy and flavorless. Use the right technique, and it'll be perfectly juicy and still have shatteringly crispy skin. And, of course, it'll taste great, too. To show you how it's done, we've rounded up 23 of our favorite grilled chicken recipes, from a simple spatchcocked bird and Thai-style satay to homemade chicken souvlaki.

  • Grilled Butterflied Chicken

    A round white platter holding a whole grilled chicken which has been cut into individual pieces. Also in the image on the right periphery are a glass holding a carbonated beverage and a green plate with a metal utensil on it.

    Serious Eats / Eric Kleinberg

    Spatchcocking works just as well for grilling as it does for roasting—we never cook a whole bird any other way. To cook the chicken, we use a two-step process, starting with the chicken skin-side up on the cooler side of the grill before finishing it over the coals to crisp up the skin.

  • The Best Barbecue Chicken

    Barbecue chicken on a serving plate.

    Serious Eats / Julia Hartbeck

    Bigger birds aren't well-suited to conventional grilling because it's hard to cook them through evenly. Barbecue is the way to go for roasting large chickens—the low-and-slow technique cooks them gently and imbues them with tons of smoke. For extra flavor, we like to brush the chicken with barbecue sauce near the end of cooking.

  • The Best Juicy Grilled Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

    A grilled boneless chicken breast on a white ceramic plate along with two grilled pieces of corn-on-the-cob.

    Serious Eats / Julia Hartbeck

    Boneless, skinless chicken breasts tend to be bland and dry, but that doesn't keep them from being one of the most popular cuts of meat in America. If you're going to give chicken breasts space on the grill, treat them right by pounding to a uniform thickness, brining, and using an instant-read thermometer to avoid overcooking.

  • The Best Grilled Chicken Sandwich Ever

    Chicken sandwich served on a plate with all of the toppings and a sesame seed bun.

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

    This juicy, drippy, and indulgent chicken sandwich is surprisingly quick to make. With alternating layers of mayonnaise, crushed potato chips, a flavorful jalapeño-avocado sauce, lettuce, and tomato, it delivers a range of textures, from crisp and crunchy to soft, tender, and juicy.

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  • Peruvian-Style Grilled Chicken With Green Sauce

    A whole Peruvian-style grilled chicken, cut up on a white plate with green sauce.

    Serious Eats / Melissa Hom

    The chicken itself in this recipe is nothing too special—just a spatchcocked bird rubbed with salt, cumin, paprika, pepper, garlic, vinegar, and oil before grilling. The real magic of Peruvian grilled chicken is in the spicy-yet-cooling green sauce, which is made with a mayo and sour cream base and flavored with jalapeños, cilantro, and aji amarillo pepper paste. Make extra, because you're going to want to put it on everything.

  • Thai-Style Grilled Chicken (Gai Yang)

    Thai-style grilled chicken on a platter with sauce.
    Serious Eats / Melissa Hom

    Without question, the best grilled chicken we've ever had was in Thailand. In a country full of wonderful grilled meat, the chicken stands out. The secret is marinating the meat with fish sauce and sugar, which helps create an intense, caramelized crust on the grill.

  • Chicken Inasal (Filipino Grilled Chicken)

    Chicken inasal on a white plate next to dipping sauce and a bowl of white rice.

    Serious Eats / Julia Hartbeck

    In this Filipino dish, we marinate the chicken in vinegar, citrus juice, and lemon-lime soda to tenderize the meat. Brushing the chicken with annatto oil gives it an added layer of flavor and aroma and keeps the chicken from drying out. The street food is typically served with white or garlic rice and sawsawan, a vinegary dipping sauce.

  • Grilled Tamarind Chicken Thighs

    A platter of grilled tamarind chicken thighs next to a bowl of white rice.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    This grilled chicken recipe is inspired by Filipino sinigang. Incorporating dried spices as well as their fresh counterparts intensifies the flavor of the marinade, while tamarind paste, a highly acidic ingredient, acts as both a flavoring agent and a tenderizer when applied to the chicken. When grilling, starting the chicken skin side up and finishing skin side down yields crispier skin.

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  • Jamaican Pan Chicken

    Pan chicken served with white bread and condiments.

    Serious Eats / Karina Matalon

    Marinated with fragrant island spices like Scotch bonnet pepper, scallion, and thyme, pan chicken is hot, smoky, and tender—the ultimate Jamaican fast food. We rub the marinade under the chicken skin to ensure the seasoning and flavor penetrate more deeply. Cooking the chicken first away from the direct heat of the coals allows the meat to cook through before finishing it over the embers for satisfying browning and char.

  • Chicken Souvlaki With Tzatziki Sauce and Greek Salad

    Skewers served with salad, pita, and tzatziki sauce.

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

    With a double-duty marinade, it's easy to pull together this Mediterranean feast at home—and if you don't have an outdoor barbecue, a grill pan on the stovetop does the trick. Grilled chicken is nestled in a soft pita with vegetables and cool tzatziki sauce.

  • Grilled Cajun Chicken Wings

    A large plate of grilled cajun chicken wings on the right hand side of the image. On the left side is a smaller blue plate with three chicken wings on it and a glass holding golden-colored beverage.

    Serious Eats / Eric Kleinberg

    If you're going to do the air-drying step of preparing chicken wings, you can also add seasonings to the mix—for these Cajun-inspired wings, we mix paprika, garlic powder, thyme, oregano, cayenne, and more with the salt and baking powder. After grilling, we toss the wings in a Buffalo-style sauce that replaces the usual Frank's with Louisiana-style hot sauce.

  • Hawaiian Huli Huli Grilled Chicken Wings

    A wooden plank platter piled with huli huli-style chicken wings, grilled pineapple, and a small bowl of sliced fresh jalapeno peppers. Everything is next to a tall, cold drink.

    Serious Eats / Morgan Eisenberg

    These sticky, sweet, and smoky wings are inspired by the flavors that are often used in Hawaii. They marinate in a mixture of pineapple juice, soy sauce, light brown sugar, and sriracha, along with a few other flavor-packed ingredients. Once the wings are grilled to golden-brown, with nice charred bits from the flames, they're showered with thinly sliced scallions and served with grilled pineapple.

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  • Grilled Turkish-Style Chicken Wings

    A platter of grilled Turkish-style wings with a small bowl of sauce.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    These wings rely on a unique, super efficient kebab set-up for your grill. By balancing the skewers on bricks set on either side of the charcoal, we're able to cook the wings more evenly and get a nice fire-kissed crust on the skin. This recipe involves a Turkish kebab shop–inspired blend of hot Turkish pepper paste, olive oil, spices, parsley, garlic, and pomegranate molasses, which doubles as a marinade and dipping sauce.

  • Grilled Chicken and Peach Saltimbocca Skewers

    Skewered chicken and peaches on a wooden platter next to whole peaches.

    Serious Eats / Morgan Eisenberg

    If you've got your skewers and chicken out already, you could also give this combination of chicken, sage, prosciutto, and peach a try. The meat and fruit take a brief bath in a white wine marinade, which adds flavor even as it helps the chicken retain its moisture on the grill, and that same marinade gets reduced and served alongside as a dipping sauce.

  • Grilled Tarragon-Mustard Chicken Skewers

    Charred mustard-grilled chicken kebabs on a baking sheet with fresh tarragon, grilled lemon wedges, and a small bowl of mustard sauce.

    Serious Eats / Morgan Eisenberg

    It doesn't take a lot of time or ingredients to turn chicken from boring to bright, flavorful, and exciting. The marinade for these skewers combines Dijon mustard, lemon juice, honey, and tarragon. The honey caramelizes over the grill, while the lemon and tarragon keep the skewers tasting fresh and balanced.

  • Grilled Tandoori Chicken Patties With Jalapeño-Mint Yogurt Sauce

    Grilled tandoori chicken patties on a pita with sliced tomato, fresh mint, and sliced red onion with bountiful fresh produce in the background: lemon wedges, garlic, and more fresh herbs.

    Serious Eats / Morgan Eisenberg

    These grilled tandoori chicken patties are a great alternative to the beef or chicken burgers people normally choose to do at Independence Day cookouts. Inspired by tandoori chicken, we toss ground chicken with yogurt and Indian spices, then grill the patties until they're lightly charred. Before serving, we top the patties with a tangy yogurt sauce and wrap them in toasted flatbread.

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  • Korean-Style Fire Chicken (Buldak) With Cheese

    Buldak Korean fire chicken in a cast iron skillet topped with sliced scallions.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    This Korean bar food is perfect for a beer-filled cookout. Chicken thighs marinated in a spicy gochujang-based sauce are grilled until nicely charred. The crisp thighs are then covered in melty mozzarella, which cuts through the spicy-sweet marinade.

  • Japanese Chicken Skewers With Scallion (Negima Yakitori)

    Two skewers of grilled chicken and scallions.

    Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

    The average yakitori joint will serve dozens of cuts of chicken, but at home, it's easiest to stick with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which are good for grilling because they're harder to overcook than breasts. These skewers are super easy—just alternate the chicken with big pieces of scallion, grill, and glaze with teriyaki sauce. If you want a riff on the same theme, you could also try grilling up some skewers with nanbansu, a sweet-sour sauce that can pull double duty as a dip and a marinade.

  • Jerk Chicken

    A white square platter of grilled jerk chicken with brightly-colored Scotch bonnet peppers.

    Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

    The marinade for Jamaican jerk chicken is pretty straightforward—allspice, thyme, and Scotch bonnet peppers will get you that classic jerk flavor, and habaneros make fine replacements for the Scotch bonnets. Unfortunately, true jerk chicken is smoked over hard-to-find pimento wood. The good news? Using bay leaves instead works remarkably well.

  • Grilled Chicken With Za'atar

    Grilled chicken with za'atar on a rectangular white platter with a bowl of sauce next to a bowl of lemon wedges.

    Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

    Moving from the Caribbean to the Middle East, this recipe seasons grilled chicken with the earthy spice blend za'atar. You can easily find a store-bought version of this mix of sesame seeds, sumac, and other herbs, but our homemade version is worth the small amount of extra effort.

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  • Greek-Style Grilled Chicken With Oregano, Garlic, Lemon, and Olive Oil

    Greek-style grilled chicken with oregano, garlic, lemon, and olive oil on a white platter strewn with fresh oregano.

    Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

    Sprinkling chicken with lemon juice as it grills is a typical Greek technique that sounds great until you realize that the juice keeps the skin from crisping up until long after the meat overcooks. To get the same flavors without sacrificing the quality of the chicken, we make a lemon-heavy vinaigrette and use it as both a marinade and sauce.

  • Thai-Style Chicken Satay With Peanut-Tamarind Dipping Sauce

    Thai-style chicken satay with a dish of peanut tamarind sauce with cucumbers and sliced onions.

    Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

    In American Thai restaurants, satay is the grilled chicken dish you're most likely to find on the menu. Our version is marinated with coriander, white pepper, palm sugar, garlic, ginger, shallot, turmeric, lemongrass, and a handful of other ingredients, and served with a tamarind-peanut dipping sauce.

  • Planked Chicken Quarters With Lemon and Herb

    Grilled chicken on a grill.

    Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

    If you're not going to cook with wood, then next best option is to cook on wood. Here, we cook chicken over wood planks set on the grates of the grill to give it a little bit of wood flavor. We use a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, and fresh herbs to both marinate and baste the chicken to keep it moist.

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