Master the Grill: Essential Techniques for Perfect Grilled Chicken

Everyone loves that nostalgic grilled chicken smell and taste, and some of the best way to get that delicious flavor are simple. Many terrific methods exist to prepare chicken on the grill whether you're cooking in your backyard or camping in the wilderness.

Marinating a chicken is a well known grilling secret. However, top female chef, Cheetie Kumar favors a high fat yogurt marinade mixed with pureed garlic and spices over other marinades. Yogurt helps to bring a delicious, tender, fatty chicken to life on the grill.

Bon Appetit Magazine lists Beer Can Chicken among it's "Top 25 Ways the Make the Grilled Chicken Better." This method sits the whole bird atop an open can of beer. The beer offers the chicken flavor and keeps the bird moist for a delicious meal.

Grilled chicken wings are ranked on Bon Appetit's top methods to grill chicken better. Wings are a delicious treat due to the high ratio of crispy, salty skin to meat. Simply marinate them in your favorite sauce - such as buffalo sauce or lemon pepper marinade - or coat them in a tasty dry rub and cook them on your grill.

Food and Wine Magazine features top chefs' secrets to grilled chicken, and one of the top secrets is adding signature flavors of a culture's cuisine. Whether cooking an Indonesian-style chicken with garlic, chiles, shallots, and ginger, an Indian, tandoori flavored chicken, or Baja-style chicken coated in a lemon-herb marinade, bland grilled chicken cannot compete with cultural flavors.

Most chefs, including top chef Stew Leonard, agree sugar-based sauces, especially barbeque sauce, should be applied after the chicken cooks for a little. Delayed application prevents the sugars in the sauces from burning and ruining the flavor. Apply the sauce in that last few minutes of grilling.

Grilling chicken on a rotisserie attachment has become a popular and top method to cook a full bird on the grill. Willams Sonoma's crucial tip to cooking the best bird is to place the chicken on the spit evenly. This allows for even heat distribution and retention of the juices. Cooking rotisserie-style on the grill results in tender, juicy chicken with terrific flavor that is impossible to beat.

The Daily Dish from Fox News claims one of the best ways to grill a chicken is by using a brine. Brines are simply salt or salty water and sometimes other seasonings that help bring out the flavor of the chicken. The Daily Dish states either brine can be used, but dry brines can only take a few hours where as a wet brine should sit overnight.

Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay chooses to use indirect heat to grill his Bobby's Best Grilled Chicken. This means he cooks the chicken on areas of the grill away from the coals and closes the lid. This turns the grill into an oven while still getting that beloved grilled flavoring.

Chopped chef Alex Guarnaschelli recommends removing the skin from the chicken, but saving it, Marinate and grill the chicken meat while frying the skin in a skillet. Once both the skin and chicken are cooked, combine and enjoy the flavorful chicken and salty, crispy skin.

Whether you prefer chicken breasts, wings, or the whole bird, there are delicious methods to grill chicken. Some of the best use seasonings, marinades, and brines to make that chicken taste great. Experiment with all different styles of grilling find what is best for you!