You can forget all aboutflabby-skinned grilled chicken.
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:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/julia-heffelfinger-XL-6e1778da886747e591a52e02c1d60c55.jpg "This Super-Simple Trick for Crispy Chicken Skin Is a No Brainer You'll Use for the Rest of Time (1)")
Julia Heffelfinger is a cook, recipe developer, writer, editor, and food stylist. A native of Minnesota, Julia will talk your ear off about her love of her home state and buttered corn on the cob.
Expertise: cooking, travel.
Experience: After graduating from Wesleyan University, Julia Heffelfinger worked in production for several food-focused television shows, including Cake Boss and Next Great Baker. She attended the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City while working on the line at Daniel Boulud's fine dining Mediterranean restaurant, Boulud Sud. Julia assisted food columnist Melissa Clark at The New York Times before spending four years in the food department at Food & Wine. You can find her work in Food & Wine, Better Homes & Gardens, Condé Nast Traveler, Artful Living, Eater, My Fitness Pal, and Furthermore from Equinox.
Updated on November 17, 2022
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We’ve all been there. You put hours into marinating your chicken only to end up with sad, flabby, who-wants-to-eat-this skin. Well, fret no more because we have an incredibly easy, no-brainer tip for getting flavorful grilled chicken with extra-crispy skin.
It’s this simple: Keep the skin out of the marinade. To do this, pour the marinade into a shallow baking dish. Arrange your chicken skin side up in the dish, making sure the skin is not submerged. The meat is the part that absorbs the flavor of the marinade anyway, so you aren’t losing anything by keeping the skin away from the marinade.
Then, let your chicken marinate — uncovered — in the refrigerator, so the skin is exposed to the air and can dry out a little. This extra step will help it crisp up during cooking.
Before grilling, remove your chicken from the marinade, letting any excess drip back into the baking dish, and gently pat dry. Season the chicken skin with salt and grill skin side down over moderately low heat until the fat has rendered and the skin is nice and crisp. Keep the heat low — if it gets too high, the fat will sear and not cook slowly and melt away. Flip the chicken and grill for a few minutes skin side up until cooked through.
If you’re trying to do this with barbeque sauce and still want to have a slathered, saucy piece of chicken, follow these same steps, and right before you flip your bird for its final sear, give the meat side a generous coating of sauce. The skin should stay pretty crispy after all of that careful rendering, and the sugary sauce won’t have time to cook down or scorch.
And there's one last thing: When it’s time to take the chicken off the grill, let it rest for at least 10 minutes, but do not cover it with foil. The foil will trap in any steam rising from the meat, softening that crispy crust you just worked so hard for.
To try this trick at home, check out our collection of grilled chicken recipes.
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