These grilled boneless skinless chicken thighs are literally fire, y'all!! Trimmed of excess fat and flattened for more even cooking. Then, submerged into a pantry sauce-marinade featuring south Louisiana spices, Creole mustard, local molasses and cane vinegar, and gluten free soy and Worcestershire sauces. Finally, grilled for just a few minutes on each side until super flavorful, ultra-tender, and juicy deliciousness. Yep and yay...
Jump to:
It's A+Backyard Bird, Y'all...
These Cajun-style grilled boneless skinless chicken thighs have an amazing depth of flavor that electrifies your palate from the very first bite. Boasting several of the major south Louisiana pantry staples in the marinade, this recipe only gets better the longer that you let the chicken marinate covered in the fridge.
The flavors of this grilled chicken alternate between spicy, sweet, salty, and herby, with taste highs and lows that feel like literally dancing on your tongue. And the color, y'all. So vibrant and beautiful, and just perfect for delighting and impressing guests at your family dinners and backyard blowouts.
Ingredient Essentials
- Boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat are a must for this recipe. Too much fat can make one or more pieces burn on the grill. So, you want to get rid of as much fat as you can. You'll also want to elongate each piece so that they all cook evenly on the grill.
- Gluten free soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce work together to form the base of the marinade.
- Garlic injects this dish with signature flavor pops. Fresh is ideal, but if you don't want to deal with it use powdered garlic.
- I used local cane vinegar in this recipe. But, you can also use other kinds of vinegar, please see the substitutions list at the bottom of this page.
- The rest of the ingredients include Louisiana-style hot sauce, molasses, Creole mustard, and Cajun spices.
How to Make Grilled Boneless Chicken Thighs
Start by mixing all of the sauce ingredients together in a large bowl.
Now, mix the sauce into the chicken until all of the pieces are fully coated. Then, cover and refrigerate for a while.
A couple of hours later, get the grill going. When ready, remove the garlic slices from the marinade. Then, transfer the chicken pieces directly from the bowl onto the grates:
After just a few minutes, flip the grilled boneless, skinless chicken thighs over. Then, keep flipping until all of the pieces grill up to a safe temperature. Then, transfer to a serving plate.
And that's it, y'all!!
These grilled boneless chicken thighs are sooo incredibly tasty. All of the marinade ingredients come together to create a distinctly unforgettable flavor profile with pops of spiciness that gets cooled down a bit by the sugary molasses.
And the texture, too! Each piece literally melts in your mouth. So, you don't need a knife at all. Nope. Just a fork and a mouth, and you're all set to experience the joys of these south Louisiana-style grilled boneless skinless chicken thighs.
Share with those who love you like they love their own soul. And see y'all on the yum side...
Substitutions
It's okay if you don't have all of the Louisiana condiments on hand. Here are some substitutions that will give you recipe success.
- Use coarse ground mustard in place of Creole mustard.
- If you live outside of Louisiana you might not already have cane vinegar on hand. That's ok, just use white or apple cider vinegar. But, don't use balsamic vinegar as it just doesn't work in this recipe.
- This recipe really, really needs a Louisiana-style hot sauce in it, y'all. I really recommend Louisiana hot sauce or Crystal hot sauce. You can also use TABASCO, as well.
Grilled Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs Storage
Store the leftovers covered in the fridge. Only freeze in vacuum-seal bags or the thawed-out taste just won't be the same.
Top Tip
Try to buy same-size boneless skinless chicken thighs so that they will cook more evenly. If you can't, grill the largest thighs over the hottest part of the grill, which is usually in the center.
Safety
It's really important to use a digital thermometer to ensure that you grill each piece of chicken to the safe internal temperature of 165 degrees F. If some of your pieces cook up to temperature faster than others, place them in the oven on the warm setting. This should keep them just the right temperature for serving while the others cook up to safe temp.
Pairings
Here are a few recipes that pair very well with this dish.
NOTE: This post was originally published on March 16, 2022, and updated and republished on May 26, 2023.
Grilled Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 2 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat
- 2 tablespoons Crystal hot sauce
- 3 large garlic cloves, sliced horizontally
- 2 tablespoons gluten free Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons gluten free soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Steen's cane vinegar, see notes
- 2 tablespoons Zatarain's Creole mustard
- 1 ½ teaspoons paprika
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the trimmed boneless, skinless chicken breasts into a large bowl.
- Pour the remaining ingredients, except for the salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper, over the top of the chicken.
- Stir until all of the sauce ingredients are fully submerged into the chicken thigh pieces.
- Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Remove the bowl from the fridge and let come down to room temperature for 15 minutes.
- Add a small amount of salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste. Use the most restraint with the salt because both the gluten free soy and Worcestershire sauces have salt in them. But, since the salts in the packaged sauces hit your tongue on different places than table salt, you may want to add just a bit to balance out the salt flavors.
- Preheat grill to medium-high heat.
- When the grill is ready, remove the garlic slices from the bowl.
- Transfer the marinated boneless, skinless chicken thighs from the bowl to the grill, shaking off excess marinade before each transfer, if necessary.
- Grill for 4 minutes per side, then flip and repeat. Keep flipping in 2 to 3-minute intervals until a digital thermometer inserted into each chicken thigh reads at 165 degrees F before you take it off of the grill.
The information shown is an estimate provided by a third-party, online computer-generated nutrition calculator, not a registered dietitian or certified nutritionist. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods and individual portion sizes, along with other factors.
See our full nutrition disclaimer here.
Leave a Reply