Grilled Chicken Thighs Recipe

In a large bowl, whisk together the garlic, shallot, lemon zest, lemon juice, soy sauce, vinegar, honey, mustard, paprika, thyme, oil, and salt and pepper until combined and emulsified. Taste it. It should be overly flavorful and delicious.

Reserve about 4 to 5 tablespoons of the marinade and set it aside.

Add the chicken to the large marinade bowl and thoroughly mix to massage the marinade into the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 4 to 24 hours.

When you’re ready to grill, remove the chicken from the fridge and also turn the grill on. On a 4-burner grill, I keep 2 burners on high heat and the other two on low heat. If you have a two-burner grill, set 1 burner to high and the other to low.

Start by placing the chicken down on the hot side of the grill and cook with the grill door closed for 2 minutes. Turn the chicken 90 degrees and cook for a further 2 minutes with the grill door closed. The goal is to get grill marks on the chicken, and if you have to do this in batches, no problem. Also, be sure to control the heat; the goal is to get a little char, not to scorch them.

Flip the chicken over and cook for 1 minute. The top side should have nice 90-degree grill marks.

Then transfer the chicken from the same side to the lower heat on the grill. Turn the hot side down to medium.

Close the grill door and cook for 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature reads 168 °- 170 °.

Remove the chicken and rest for 5 to 10 minutes. While resting, drizzle on the 4 to 5 tablespoons of the marinade that was set aside.

Garnish with optional grilled lemon halves and more fresh thyme leaves.