Do you parboil chicken before you grill it?

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fairygirl69

Senior Cook
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Sep 11, 2006
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I do bc it insures against raw burnt chicken plus I get chicken stock. But I know some grill enthusiasts do not. What do you do?
 
Nope .. never have. Cook the chicken on a bit lower heat and it won't burn. You can have hot and cool spots when you grill .. use them to your advantage.
 
Nope, I've not heard of doing that. I just recently discovered brining!
 
No. No need to. Chicken is very easy to grill correctly once you get the hang of it.

It's pretty impossible to make "chicken stock" from a brief parcook.

Plus you should never boil chicken....

We grill whole chickens at least twice a month except in the winter (did an awesome one yesterday) and breasts frequently too. No need whatsoever to precook. That would make them harder to cook on the grill, seems to me.
 
Any flavor that made it into your water is flavor that's no longer in your chicken.

Cook the chicken with the lid closed over lower heat/not over an operating burner. It will cook fine. Cook to an internal temperature of 161ºF. That's all that's necessary for safety. Cooking to a higher temperature will only serve to dry out the meat.

For grill cooking it's better to cook chicken with the skin on and bone in. The result is better.
 
Any flavor that made it into your water is flavor that's no longer in your chicken.

Cook the chicken with the lid closed over lower heat/not over an operating burner. It will cook fine. Cook to an internal temperature of 161ºF. That's all that's necessary for safety. Cooking to a higher temperature will only serve to dry out the meat.

For grill cooking it's better to cook chicken with the skin on and bone in. The result is better.

+1 In a sense you are roasting the chicken. Would you parboil it if you were to put it in your oven? :angel:
 
Nope, indirect cooking on the grill works best. Sometimes I put wood chip packets over the operating burner for a nice smoked chicken.

I often brine especially when I slow cook with smoke.
 
the only time that i would consider parboilng chicken (whole or parts) is when i have an awful lot to produce quickly for a large crowd, and/or if my marinade or grilling sauce has a lot if sugar in it and i don't have a lot of control over the heat. or when you'd rather be having fun rather than standing over a grill for a half hour or more.

to explain the latter, we often go to a lake with a public beach in the northwestern mountains of joisey during the summer that allows grilling in a restricted areas just of the lake. sometimes, we bring the smokey joe and a small bag of briquettes to make dinner, along with some salads. i've found i'd rather start the chimney, then jump in the lake, come back and pour the hot coals into the smokey joe, get it set up, put the parboiled chicken on, jump in the lake, come back and turn it, jump in the lake, come back and brush with sweet/spicy bbq sauce, then make a big sad face because i have to stand by the grill for a few minutes while i turn and brush the chicken a few morw times while setting up the salads and drinks on the picanic table.

after eating, guess where i jump when someone else cleans up?

the ice cream truck, silly.


ok, but outside of time constraints, heat control, and sugary sauces, parboiling is kinda ok but you're losing some flavour in exchange for convenience, limited grilling apparatus, or burning sugar.
 
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Nope, never had and probably never will. I've also heard that some people parboil *gasp* their ribs before they grill them. What??? :ohmy: No way. (Oh, hope you don't do them that way...)
 
I don't parboil chicken before grilling, but for the reasons BT stated, it is a pretty common method for lots of folks grilling for gatherings. There you are generally grilling diverse foods, like hamburgs, hot dogs and chicken all at the same time. It makes it easier to try to even out the cooking times. Or of course if you want to make sure the chicken is cooked through by whoever takes over the grill.
 
In agreement with all on not doing this. But - If I have a breast that is very thick I may pound down the thick part just a little to help make sure that I don't have doneness issues. One other thing- buy yourself a good thermometer (Thermapen is top notch). That way you can tell when you reach the correct temp in no matter what meat you cook. Most people over cook most meats out of fear of having "raw" chicken.
 
I never have parboiled chicken before grilling. I cook at a temp of 325-350* and make sure that the internal temp gets to 165* .
 
I have never parboiled it ahead of time, but I have put in in the oven ahead of time to get a jump start on it and the quantity I was cooking I wanted to make sure all was done at same time. Came out great and didn't loose any of the flavor.
 
That'll work, too, Letscook. Nice alternative to parboiling.

Not pertaining to grilling but...
Back when I used to host Super Bowl parties I cooked my chicken wings using what I called the Three B's method; boiled, baked, broiled. Working with a small oven it seemed to keep a good amount of wings going all the time and testing doneness wasn't so critical. Because I was saucing them before baking and again before broiling they obviously picked up a lot of the the sauce flavor, which is what you want (IMO) when eating chicken wings. I don't recall anyone saying the wings had lost their chicken flavor :blink: But the actual chicken meat obviously must have tasted different than not boiling them. I imagine texture suffered a bit, too.
Anyway, all that flavor that was "lost" in the pot went into making chicken noodle soup a couple days later.

If I was doing this again today I would probably still boil them first, but it would be done the day before.
 
Grilling from frozen state

I recently discovered that when unexpected guests arrive I grab the frozen chicken breasts that I buy and keep in the freezer and wrap in HD aluminum foil after spraying with PAM or other canola, olive oil spray. Then I season them with Chicken Montreal on both sides and wrap tightly. I toss them on the grill and they are usually done in about 20 minutes. They steam and are thoroughly cooked in that time.
Hint: If you want char marks on them, carefully unwrap and burn them on the HOT side of the grill. YUMMY....:chef:
 
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