Grilled Balsamic Chicken
Chicken thighs are marinated in a simple balsamic vinegar, honey and olive oil marinade. This chicken is deliciously tangy, slightly sweet, tender and juicy!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 8 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Grill
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 8 pieces)
- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons fine-grain salt
- 3 tablespoons honey
- neutral oil (vegetable, canola, etc.) to coat the grill
Instructions
1. Trim any excess fat off the chicken thighs.
2. Place chicken thighs, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey and salt inside a gallon zip top bag (see note 1). Remove air from the bag and seal. Massage the bag well to incorporate the marinade ingredients and ensure all surfaces of the chicken are coated. Place in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes or up to 8 hours (see notes 2 - 3).
3. When you are about ready to cook, preheat the grill to medium-high heat (400 - 450 degrees F) for at least ten minutes. While the grill is heating, remove the chicken thighs from the marinade and pat both sides dry with paper towels. Right before grilling, wipe the grill grates with a paper towel soaked in neutral oil (hold the paper towel using long tongs).
4. Place the chicken on the grill and cook for 5 minutes, leaving the grill lid open. Flip the chicken and grill with the lid open for another 5 - 6 minutes, or until the temperature of each thigh (taken at the thickest part) reaches 165 degrees F.
6. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes and serve.
Notes
- If you don't want to use a zip top bag, place the vinegar, olive oil, honey and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Add the chicken and stir to evenly coat the chicken in the marinade. Cover the bowl with tin foil or plastic wrap and place in the fridge to marinate.
- The chicken will be delicious marinated at 30 minutes, but the get the boldest flavor, marinate for the full 8 hours.
- Although the marinade has salt in it, when marinating for shorter periods of time (between 30 minutes to 2 hours), to my tastes, the chicken benefitted from a light sprinkling of salt before grilling.
- For better temperature accuracy, measure the temperature of the grill using a grill surface thermometer (a thermometer that is designed to clip onto the grill grates) rather than using the thermometer on the lid.
Keywords: grilled chicken thighs, balsamic marinated chicken thighs, balsamic chicken, grilled balsamic chicken