Grilling is an art and chicken is known as one of the most difficult meats to grill.
So in case, you have doubts about your culinary skills, let us tell you that there are certain dos and don’ts that you need to keep in mind while grilling chicken.
Here, we have listed 8 common mistakes that people often commit while grilling chicken. Read to learn a few handy tips and the ideal art of grilling.
1. Using high heat
It’s actually a myth that you need very high heat to grill meat. For thorough cooking, medium-high heat is the ideal temperature that is approx 350 degrees. Going beyond this might destroy your dish.
2. Neglecting the thermometer
If you think it’s too fancy or tiring to use the meat thermometer, let us tell you that it’s actually a smart way of grilling the chicken correctly. To grill the perfect chicken, the ideal internal temperature should be 165ºF and that can be checked only with the help of a thermometer.
3. Grill is untidy
Before cooking on a grill, it is crucial to clean it, in order to remove all rust and avoid any flare-up. It is advised to use bristle-free brushes or nylon cloth. In case, you don’t have either of the two, you can also crush a small piece of aluminum foil and use it with the help of kitchen tongs.
4. Using the same cooking time
The cooking time and temperature of chicken totally depend on the cut of meat. For instance, grilling of a chicken breast will require more time as compared to other parts such as wings, thighs, bone-in or skinless.
5. Crowding the grill
It is good to save time and fill the grill with fruits and veggies while cooking the chicken, but you also need to understand that the excess drippings can result in larger flames that may give the meat a burnt taste.
6. Adding sauce too early
The BBQ sauce has high sugar content. Adding it to the chicken at an early stage of grilling may caramelize the crust and then it will be difficult to judge whether the meat is cooked evenly or not.
7. Let the heat escape
When you cover the grill with a lid, the temperature is intact and that helps the chicken cook faster. But, removing the lid every now and then drops the temperature and that results in the semi-cooked dish.
8. Digging immediately after grilling
When a recipe instruction says ‘allow it to cool down’, it has some purpose. The same rule applies to chicken. The cooling period helps avoid loss of juices that make the grilled chicken chewy.
