Grilled Bone In Chicken Breasts on a Weber Gas Grill

Bone in, skin on chicken breasts are one of the better values at my grocery store as they typically cost abut half as much as boneless, skinless breasts.

Not only are these breasts a value, but because they have the bone and skin they are incredibly easy to grill!

Let me show you how to prepare this amazing Grilled Chicken Breasts with Lemon on a Weber gas grill!  I used a Weber Q1200 for this recipe but you can get the same results on your Q2200, Traveler, Spirit or Genesis.

Prepare the Chicken Breasts for Grilling

The first step towards making sure your chicken turns out amazing is to brine the breasts for at least one hour and preferably 3-4 hours.  The bland meat in the breast can dry out during grilling and using a brine helps with flavor, moisture and tenderness.

Basic Chicken Brine

• 2 cups apple juice
• 2 cup water
• 1/2 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

Stir the ingredients to combine, place the breasts into the brine and refrigerate for at least an hour. After the breasts have brined, rinse them off with cold water and pat dry with paper towels.

The next step is to take advantage of the skin.  More specifically we are going to lift up the skin and use a finger to make a pocket between the skin and the meat.

We are going to use this pocket to add a layer of flavor to our breasts.  For this cook I placed a thin slice of lemon and a sprig of rosemary into the pocket.

You could also put in some compound butter, strips of pancetta or whatever other flavors you enjoy.

The last step is to season the chicken skin with a rub.  I use the same rub for grilling breasts as I do when I am grilling chicken thighs.

Basic Chicken Rub

• 2 tbls smoked paprika
• 2 tbls kosher salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp granulated garlic

Grill the Chicken Breasts on Low Heat

Turn the burners on your Weber gas grill to Low and let the grill preheat for 15-20 minutes.  Your grill should be running around 325-350F.  Don’t worry if it is a little hotter or cooler as this technique is pretty forgiving.

We are going to grill the chicken on Low for the whole cook so we do not overcook the outside of the breasts before the inside has reached an internal temperature of 165F.

I place the breasts on the grill with the bone side down and skin side up.

The bones act like a heat shield and helps prevent the meat from drying out.

I grill the breasts for 15 minutes and then flip to skin side down.  Because the skin side does not have the protective bone I only grill skin side down for 10 minutes before flipping again.

Continue the process of grilling bone side down for 15 minutes and skin side down for 10 minutes for about 45 minutes until the breasts reach an internal temperature of 165F.

Take these beauties off the grill and dig into some amazing grilled chicken!  Enjoy!