Grilled Lemon Pepper Chicken

Our entire family including the kids absolutely loves this tender chicken with the best lemon flavor. It is not heavy at all and perfectly light for a great meal any day of the week and perfect for summer grilling.

We love grilled chicken recipes and this lemon pepper marinade is a family favorite. If you like this recipe, try Grilled Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings Recipe, Mojo Chicken Recipe or this Chicken Hobo Dinner.

What does Lemon Juice do to Chicken?

Lemon juice is a must ingredient to marinate chicken in. It adds so much flavor and acidity to the chicken as well as tenderizing it.

When using lemon as part of your marinate, I recommend using fresh lemon juice. The vibrate flavor it gives the chicken as well as adding to the juiciness makes it the best marinade.

Ingredients

Scroll to the bottom for the full recipe in the recipe card.

Variation Ideas

• Use different types of Chicken – This recipes works great if you want to use chicken thighs, drumsticks, or wings. You may need to cook for a little longer, but you will still get that juicy and full of flavor chicken.
• Change the Seasoning – You can change the seasoning to what you have on hand. Sometimes I just use some season salt and pepper and the chicken comes out flavorful and juicy.
• Uses for chicken – There are many ways to your this lemon pepper chicken. Slice and make a wrap, quesadilla, and on top of a salad. This is the perfect chicken to meal prep with.

How to Grill Lemon Pepper Chicken

• Step 1 – Whisk together Marinade Ingredients – In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and black pepper.
• Step 2 – Lemon Pepper Chicken Marinade – Place the boneless skinless chicken breasts in a large bowl or large ziplock bag. Pour the sauce on top of the chicken. Allow it to marinade for at least 20 to 30 minutes but overnight is preferred.

• Step 3 – Prepare Grill – Then preheat your grill over medium-high heat (approximately 400 degrees F). You can cook the chicken on gas grill or charcoal grill.
• Step 4 – Grill Chicken – Place the chicken directly on the grill grate. Cook for 6-7 minutes per side until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.

• Step 5 – Serve Chicken and Enjoy – Remove the chicken from the grill, let the chicken rest for 5 minutes. Then the chicken is ready to slice, serve and enjoy. We like to squeeze fresh lemon slices on the chicken when done.

Grilled Lemon Pepper Chicken Tips

• Hot Grill – Make sure your grill is hot. Cooking chicken on a hot grill helps to keep them juicy.
• Same Size Chicken – When preparing your chicken, make sure that they are all even thickness. This makes sure they are evenly cooked.
• Allow Chicken to rest – After chicken is done cooking, make sure you allow chicken to rest. This locks in the juices and the flavoring.
• Indirect Heat – If chicken is getting burnt but not done, place chicken on indirect heat until finish cooking.

How do you know when Chicken is done?

When grilling chicken, we make sure that each chicken is about the same size and thickness. To make sure that our chicken is done, we use an instant read meat thermometer. This ensures that the chicken is cooked to a safe temperature.

For chicken it needs to read an internal temperature of 165 degrees. When making chicken it is very important that it is done before serving.