Grilled Chicken Thighs With BBQ Sauce Glaze

Cooking chicken thighs is one of our easiest weekday meals. Many people think chicken is bland or often overcooked. Chicken, especially good quality chicken, can be amazing on the grill. With a few key steps, you can master perfect chicken thighs on the grill and change the minds of your naysayer friends who think it’s boring.

So what’s the secret to perfectly grilled BBQ chicken?

• Use a two zone method of cooking
• Don’t over cook it.

That’s it!

Grilled Chicken Thigh Ingredients

• Chicken Thighs -You can use bone-in skin-on or boneless-skinless chicken thighs. The primary difference is that boneless-skinless will take less time to grill. You can also substitute this recipe with chicken breasts as well.
• Olive Oil – Used as a binder to allow seasoning to set. You can use any liquid like Dijon mustard for additional flavor.
• Chicken Seasoning – We like a simple seasoning without any sugar because we are cooking hot and fast. Our chicken rub is a mix of kosher salt and herbs like thyme for a balance of flavor. You can also spice it up with our Blackened Seasoning or our Cajun Seasoning.
• BBQ Glaze – A glaze is simply a BBQ sauce that is brushed onto the chicken thighs right before they are done cooking. We use our Kansas City BBQ Sauce. Alternatively you can use our Red Wine BBQ Sauce which is a great way to finish on chicken.

Tips For Buying Thighs

We’re using bone-in skin-on chicken thighs for this dish. Grilling chicken thighs is much easier with the bone intact. When looking at the packaging, we try to select even sized thighs on the larger end so they can handle the heat.

Chicken Thighs are also what is commonly referred to as the “dark meat” of chicken. Dark meat is the muscle of the chicken that require a lot of movement and work, thus the reason for its density and texture. Unlike the breast, the dark meat has a little more texture to it.

After being grilled, thighs are very tender and flavorful. It also tends to be a cheaper cut than breast, which is leaner. And you get slightly more meat with a chicken thigh compared to a leg or wing.

Preparation

Remove excess fat from the thighs. This is most commonly extra skin that is on the underside and on the extreme sides of the chicken. I like to refer to this as making a blanket for the thighs. By trimming off the excess fat, you avoid an unpleasant bite, and it minimizes the amount of fat dripping into the grill over direct heat (i.e. avoiding flare ups).

Coat the thighs with a small amount of olive oil and then liberally season them with the poultry rub. It’s that easy. You can do this right before you cook, or let the poultry dry brine overnight with the seasoning on it. If you do season for a few hours, be sure it stays covered in the refrigerator.

If frozen – Remove the thighs from the freezer and thaw in the fridge for 2 days. If you need to quick thaw then run the chicken under cold water for up to 2 hours.

How To Grill Chicken Thighs

The following steps are intended for a charcoal grill. We have some modifications below for other grill types. You can also modify this and use a grill pan on your stovetop just flip the chicken more often to avoid burning.

1. Set up the grill for two zone cooking. This means charcoal on one side of the grill, and then no charcoal on the other. The target temperature under the charcoal will be 450 – 500 degrees F, while over indirect side it will be closer to 350 – 375.
2. Start the chicken over the direct side on the grill grates after the charcoal is at the target temp and grill for 3 – 5 minutes or until you see a nice crust form. Flip the thighs and continue grilling for an additional 3 – 5 minutes until you see a nice crust on the chicken.
3. Move the chicken to the indirect side, skin side up, close the grill and when the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 155 degrees F, glaze the tops of the chicken thighs with the BBQ sauce. We wait until 155 so we avoid the sauce from burning and to keep the texture and slight crispiness of the skin.
4. Finish cooking until the chicken thighs reach an internal temperature of 165 – 170 degrees Fahrenheit using a good meat thermometer. This should take an additional 8 – 12 minutes (depending on the size of your thighs). Then remove, glaze the thighs one more time and then let rest a few minutes before diving in to allow for carry over cooking.

Gas Grill Modification – We still recommend using medium-high heat on a gas grill and two-zone grilling. Turn on two adjacent burners while leaving one off for the indirect heat. Then follow the recipe instructions. You can also explore our article on how to grill chicken on gas grill.

Pellet Grill Modification – Pellet grills do not commonly have a direct grilling feature. But we also have a recipe for pellet grilled chicken thighs.

Variations

You can use this chicken marinade prior to the seasoning. Add cayenne or other heat for adding some spice.

You can also use the same glaze technique for chicken breast. Apply the BBQ glaze at the end.

Chop up the chicken thighs and add to salads. If you have leftovers add to a stir fry or your favorite soup.

Our Favorite Side Options

Explore all of our side recipes or from some of our favorites.

• Grilled Sweet Potato
• Coleslaw
• Potato Salad – Exclusively available in our cookbook.

Other Great Grilled or Smoked Chicken Recipes

• Grilled Chicken Kabobs with Citrus Marinade
• Smoked Chicken Wings
• Apricot Glazed Grilled Chicken
• Grilled Wine Can Chicken
• Perfect Grilled Chicken