Sometimes, simple is all you really need: Lemon Tarragon Grilled Chicken

A simple marinade of lemon, olive oil, garlic and tarragon creates simply delicious grilled chicken. Recipe below.

LEMONS HAVE BEEN SEEING A LOT OF ACTION IN OUR KITCHEN LATELY. And for good reason: they add a summery brightness to all sorts of dishes. Sometimes, it’s the star—as it was in my Lemon Parsley Pasta. Sometimes, it’s subtle, as with Marion’s Peach Cobbler last week. And sometimes, as it is in this grilled chicken, it is almost invisible, adding to the startling deliciousness without announcing itself at all.

Some dishes are meant to have big flavors that stand out. Chicken wings. Curries. Anything with kimchi. Not this grilled chicken. The lemon, garlic, tarragon and smoke all blended together with nothing jumping out. The best way to describe the flavor—the way we described it as we both went back for seconds—was “delicious.” We said that several times, actually, along with, “This is really good!”

It is also really simple. Marinate the chicken pieces in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and tarragon. For an hour, four hours, six hours, overnight. Then grill it. Done. The recipe gets a little more specific, but not much. And a caveat here: I am not a grill master. I don’t grill often enough and always feel that I’m giving up a certain amount of control when I cook this way. The grilling directions in the recipe are what worked for me. Do what works for you.

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Lemon Tarragon Grilled Chicken

A simple marinade of lemon, olive oil, garlic and tarragon creates simply delicious grilled chicken.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 4 or more

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup lemon juice (see Kitchen Notes)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 8 pieces of bone-in, skin-on chicken (we used thighs and drumsticks)

Instructions

• Make the marinade. Mix lemon juice and zest, olive oil, garlic, tarragon, salt and a generous grind of pepper into a measuring cup or small bowl.
• Trim excess fat from chicken, but don’t overdo it. Put chicken into a large zippered plastic bag. Add the marinade to the bag and seal it shut. Slosh it around so the marinade coats the chicken well and marinate in the fridge for at least an hour and up to overnight, turning the bag occasionally to redistribute the marinade.
• About 1/2 hour before you’re ready to put the chicken on the grill, take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. If you’re grilling with charcoal, do this when you light the coals.
• Arrange the grill for indirect cooking; again, if you’re using charcoal, arrange the coals on one side of the grill. Lightly brush the grilling rack with oil. Remove the chicken from the marinade, shaking off excess marinade, and place it on the grill skin side down away from the coals. Close the lid and cook for 5 minutes. Turn the chicken, close the lid and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Move the chicken over the coals or heat, skin side down. Close the lid and cook for 5 minutes. Turn the chicken skin side up; if some pieces are getting charred, swap them around to cooler spots (like where the less charred pieces were). Close the lid and cook for another 5 minutes.
• By now, if the chicken’s not done, it should be getting close. Check with an instant read thermometer. If it’s at least 165ºF in the thickest parts, it’s done. If not, move it to the indirect cooking part of the grill, close the lid and continue to cook, checking every 4 minutes or so.
• When it’s done, transfer chicken to a platter and let it rest for 5 minutes, then serve.

Kitchen Notes

Lemon juice. Fresh or bottled? We had one fresh lemon, which provided the zest and about half the 1/4 cup needed. We added bottled lemon juice, which we always have on hand, to get to the amount needed. If you have enough fresh lemons to get the juice you need, that is a bonus.

Tarragon. Dried or fresh? We have fresh tarragon growing in our yard, maybe 20 feet from the grill. But when we’re grilling, dried is good to work with. It crumbles and distributes nicely. If you want to use fresh, chop it finely and double the amount.

Liz’s Crockery Corner. Marion had this platter before she had me. You can read how she came to own it and its modest, but charming history here.