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Grilled chicken is a staple in backyard barbecues, but it lacks some oomph. They tend to dry out quickly over flames and can err into jerky territory if you're working with thin slices. Hot take: Leave the grilled chicken breast to the bodybuilders and spring for chicken thighs the next time you fire up your charcoal or gas grill (check out our guide on the best grills to find the right one for your needs).
Chicken thighs are easier to grill without overcooking, more flavorful, and cheaper. Still need convincing? Read on to learn why chicken thighs should be your go-to grill cut, how and where to buy them, plus foolproof cooking tips for juicy meat and crispy skin.
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“I don’t like chicken breasts,” says BBQ enthusiast and content creator Jordan Morris. “It’s an uneven cook no matter what you do. Thighs are the choice cut if you want your chicken to taste good and stay juicy.”
Whether skin-on, bone-in or stripped down to just the core thigh meat, chicken thighs’ dark meat has more intramuscular fat and collagen, which packs more flavor and retains more moisture than the leaner, drier white meat.
Holly Nilsson
It’s also a much more forgiving cut to prepare, especially on a gas or charcoal grill, where temperature control can be less precise and lead to uneven results.
“Chicken thighs are one of those cuts you can count on to be juicy every time,” says Holly Nilsson, founder of recipe blog Spend with Pennies and author of one of the top-ranked grilled chicken thigh recipes. “They’re also a great cut for beginners because they’re easy, quick, and more forgiving compared to chicken breasts.”
The increased margin of error with chicken thighs is thanks in large part to their higher fat content, and getting skin-on thighs gives you even greater protection against overcooking. (More on selecting the right thighs for your recipe below.)
That increased fat content may scare off some since fattier meats are more calorie-dense, but keep in mind that chicken thighs are still a very lean protein source compared to fatty beef or pork cuts. A 4-ounce portion of chicken thighs has nearly the same total calories as a 4-ounce skinless chicken breast portion. The breast just has three more grams of protein. If you’re counting calories, simply avoiding the skin dramatically cuts the fat and calorie count and you can either purchase skinless thighs or cook them skin-on and remove some or all of the skin before eating.
Another major plus is the price. Whether you choose bone-in, skinless, skin-on, or boneless, chicken thighs are almost always more affordable than chicken breast. At the time of this writing, organic boneless chicken thighs were selling for $7.49 per pound while organic breasts were $8.99 per pound at my local Kroger. Online butcher shop Wild Fork’s cheapest thighs were $1.79 a pound while the most affordable breasts were $3.00 per pound while organic thighs rang up at $3.99 a pound and $5.99 for organic breasts.
Jordan Morris
Boneless? Skinless? Skin-on? Bone-in?
Morris and most of the chefs and pitmasters we spoke with prefer skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs. Bone-in thighs take longer to cook, but they're usually cheaper than boneless options and help the individual pieces retain their shape during cooking.
If you’re planning to cut your cooked chicken up for a recipe such as fajitas or a salad, boneless is the way to go. Boneless thighs are also quicker-cooking for meals in a hurry. However, because boneless thighs are most often skinless as well, they require more care and attention on the grill to avoid overcooking.
If you can find the less-common boneless, skin-on thighs, the skin provides a crispy exterior, great flavor from fat, and prevents overcooking.
Jordan Morris
Budget will often dictate the brand and version of chicken thighs folks buy since the per-pound prices can range widely from less than $2 for budget cuts to more than $10 for free-range, organic options.
Daniel Yohai-Cruz, head of product at online butcher shop Wild Fork, says that product handling is just as important as sourcing and brand since freshness has a dramatic impact on taste.
“Buy your chicken from a reliable source that keeps it cold,” says Yohai-Cruz. “If chicken is not kept refrigerated, it’s dangerous to consume. No price will ever compensate for spoilage due to mishandling.”
Using your senses is an easy way to assess the freshness of an individual package of chicken thighs. Yohai-Cruz warns that chicken should never look slimy or have a greenish tint; should not smell strongly in any way (unless pre-seasoned); and should not feel slimy, sticky, or tacky.
If you’re evaluating frozen chicken, look for thighs free of ice crystallization that forms when meats have been frozen for extended periods of time.
Jordan Morris
There are many ways to pre-season your chicken thighs and proponents of each will claim that their method is the easiest, fastest, and tastiest. Whether you dry brine, wet brine, or use a marinade, the key component of all these methods is introducing some salt to the chicken thighs, which helps them retain moisture while cooking to ensure a juicy finished product.
The dry brine is a bit of an oxymoron, but it’s Jordan Morris’ preferred preparation for grilled chicken thighs. At its most basic, a dry brine means simply rubbing salt on the chicken. Morris likes equal parts coarse Kosher salt and coarse turbinado sugar (brown sugar) to achieve the “sweet, salty, smoky” trinity of barbecue flavors. Additional seasonings and fresh herbs are optional.
Morris says this preparation, along with time and technique, create the crispiest skin and moistest meat when grilling. To follow his method:
Morris says you can put the same rubbed chicken thighs in an airtight bag for simplicity, but the meat will need to be patted dry before grilling and won’t guarantee crispy skin.
Both of these methods involve submerging the chicken in a salty liquid to help the meat stay moister and tastier, much like a dry brine. Wet brines can be as simple as salted water. In his cooking basics book Ratio, Michael Ruhlman sets out a ratio of 20:1 water to salt (by weight, i.e., 20 ounces water to 1 ounce Kosher salt) as the starting point for any meat brine. Sugar and spices can be added as desired, then the meat must marinate in the fridge for at least 12 hours.
Myles Moody, chef and owner of Kinship Butcher and Sundry in Atlanta, prefers to wet brine chicken thighs. “I typically use a 5 percent brine, salt to water, sitting overnight or at minimum for six to eight hours. I highly recommend adding aromatics such as garlic, thyme, and rosemary, and don’t be afraid of adding spices like black peppercorn, coriander, fennel seed, or cumin, along with any 'warm spices', such as allspice, clove or ginger.”
A marinade is a faster process—on the order of a few hours at most—and the liquid usually includes an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar that aims to make the meat more tender. The acidity in a marinade can make the meat’s texture mealy if left to work too long, so Dustin Green, grill master for Weber, leaves any acidic marinade off the thighs until an hour before he’s ready to cook.
Moody says “boneless thighs take a marinade much better than bone-in, as there's more surface area to receive the ‘good good.’ When marinating, I'm always thinking of what the thighs will be served with or on. Cooking on a theme offers a sense of direction and eventually, as sides are introduced, continuity.”
Related: We've Tasted Hundreds of Whiskeys. These Are the Best in the World
Jordan Morris
Most pros prefer a charcoal grill; some recommend using lump hardwood charcoal; and nearly all say to avoid briquettes. Still, a gas grill is much easier to manage for novices and properly cooked chicken thighs on a gas grill will taste better than ones torched on a charcoal grill.
Melissa Cookston, 7-time World BBQ Champion and BBQ Hall of Famer, says the differences are minimal and that it’s safe to think of a gas grill as a “convenient charcoal grill.” Assuming your grill has multiple burners, you can set a gas grill up similar to a two-zone fire in a charcoal grill. Turn one side on medium-high and one on medium-low. “Start the thighs on the hot side to get a bit of char, then move to the cooler side to finish cooking without burning,” she advises.
Cookston also recommends oiling your grill grates with a high-heat cooking oil or grill spray unless you’ve used an oily marinade that helps prevent sticking.
Regardless of your grill setup, cooking chicken thighs is not a “low and slow” procedure like smoking a brisket, so you’ll be cooking on a fairly hot grill.
Cookston’s two-zone method starts thighs over medium-high heat or between 400 and 450 degrees for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, then moves them to between 300 and 350 degrees on the cooler zone until the internal meat temperature reaches 170 degrees. Rather than trusting the dials on your grill, pick up a laser thermometer to get precise temperatures for your grilling surface.
Morris cooks over medium-high heat with the skin side up until the thighs are about 80 percent cooked (150 degrees or so internal temperature), then flips the skin side down to render the substantial fat in the skin and crisp it to perfection. (Note: an instant read digital meat thermometer is essential grilling equipment and we recommend several models below.)
Official food safety recommendations from the USDA say to cook chicken to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees to kill potentially harmful bacteria that may be found in the meat. Luckily, the chefs we spoke with treat 165 as a minimum and most prefer to go at least a bit higher to 170. Morris says taking the internal temperature up to 185 can ensure the fat in the skin renders and the skin crisps up nicely without drying out the meat.
Giving the chicken thighs around 5 minutes to rest will help the meat retain more of the juices. If you’re worried about them getting too cold to serve, keep in mind that the temperature usually continues to rise a few degrees while resting. If ambient temps are cold, place the meat on a warmed serving dish or cover with a tent of foil to retain more heat and serve on warmed plates.
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An instant-read meat thermometer gives highly accurate probe temperature readings in a few seconds and is essential equipment for proper grilling. Lavatools Javelin is the affordable model Morris uses. “The evolution from my parents’ generation to my generation is cooking to temperature instead of cooking to time,” says Morris.
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Typhur Sync Dual Wireless Probe Meat Thermometer isn't cheap, but the app-connected, dual-probe model adds several very-nice-to-have features for the distractible cook. The probes can be left in the meat and transmit temperature readings wirelessly to the base unit, as well as your phone via the app, to deliver customizable alerts when it’s time to pull the meat off the grill.
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Morris uses Checkered Chef Baking Pans for overnight dry brining in the fridge. They do double duty in your arsenal. When paired together, use them to let excess marinade drip off meats pre-grilling and serve as a resting place post-grilling. Or, use separately for, say, cookies to bake on the sheet and cool on the rack.
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Etekcity Infrared Thermometer Gun is a no-touch temperature reader that's ideal for quickly reading the temperature of different areas of your grill. Dial-style gauges built into grills can be a decent approximation of temperature when heating up, but for precise readings, especially for zoned grilling, use an infrared gun.
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You can make your own spice blends to taste, but having a few shaker jars on-hand like those in the Spiceology Spice Run Collection always comes in handy when you're short on time. Just be careful when choosing a blend with a high-salt content if you’ve already brined or marinated your chicken with salt. There's such a thing as over-seasoning.
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