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In case you missed it the last time, here it is again and this time, commit it to memory:  If it’s healthy but boring, you’re doing something wrong. The only reason you’ll get bored with what’s for dinner is if there is no variety. The reason it’s important to know how to grill chicken is that it increases your options of what to cook for dinner beyond healthy Indian meals. Learning how to grill chicken is the first step to a healthy meal because you will use less oil during the cooking process, you will not waste any nutrients because the cooking process is quick and because the grilling chicken retains the natural juices and flavour, you’re guaranteed an incredibly tasty dinner too.

How to Grill Chicken Step 1: Picking What to Grill

1. Unlike meat, there’s very little difference in grill times between chicken with bone and chicken without bone.
2. For stove-top grilling though, chicken without bones is more convenient. Chicken breasts are the best pick.

How to Grill Chicken Step 2:  The Marinate

1. Simply put, what you put into the marinate is what the chicken will taste like.
2. If this is your first time then the safest marinate is garlic+olive oil+lemon juice+salt+pepper.
3. You can add parsley, thyme or oregano or a combination of these to the basic marinate mentioned in point 2.
4. Tandoori chicken marinate is a global favourite and another incredibly easy marinate to use.
5. Do not use butter instead of oil.
6. Acidic ingredients like yoghurt help tenderising the chicken – and also balancing out sour and spicy tastes.

How to Grill Chicken Step 3: Applying the Marinate:

1. The idea is the flavour is got to go inside the chicken.
2. Make deep slits into the chicken pieces so that the marinate reaches inside.
3. Marinate time:  Obviously the longer the better. Look at a minimum of 1 hour for chicken.
4. Do not recycle the marinate. Throw away anything that’s left after grilling.

How to Grill Chicken Step 4: Cooking

1. Fire up the barbecue or switch on the oven
2. If you’re grilling on the stove top, you’ll need a grill pan or a regular pan and something to press the chicken down (a fork or a masher will work)
3. Cook on both side evenly till the juices run clear i.e. keep cooking till there clear juices run out when you poke it with a toothpick or a fork.
4. The best way to know if it’s done is to try cutting it with a fork. It’s done if the fork goes through easily.
5. Cook Times: It’s obviously difficult to set a standard time for grilling because the time differs based on the thickness of the chicken breast and also the age. It’s therefore a lot easier to pan grill or barbecue because you can monitor the food. For stovetop or oven grilling, you can use these times as a guideline:
   1. Chicken breast: 6 minutes on each side
   2. Chicken legs + thigh: 8 minutes on each side

   
   
   And there you go… Congratulations! You have just made your first grilled dish. As we mentioned in the beginning, it’s not just a single dish that you have now made. You have increased your menu options exponentially by learning how to grill chicken. Here are some grilled chicken meal ideas…

   1. Spicy Grilled Chicken
   2. Easy Tandoori Chicken
   3. Spicy Grilled Chicken with Zucchini, Snow Peas and Broccoli (Low Fat Meal)
   

   Spicy Grilled Chicken with Snow Peas, Broccoli and Zucchini (Low Fat Meal)