This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
This is my sister’s famous juicy BBQ chicken breast recipe. The marinade is simple with just 3 ingredients. She made this chicken recipe for a great big family gathering (I’m talkin’ ’bout 35+ people) and everyone was smitten. It was the most tender and juicy barbecued chicken breast I’ve tried.
I’m sharing all of my sister, Sveta’s, tips and tricks for her scrumptious grilled chicken. You know what’s awesome? Since it marinates overnight, all of your prep is done in advance! I love that I can just toss it on the grill (more like have my husband throw it on the grill) before my party starts; giving me time to focus on other details.
Ingredients for the Best BBQ Chicken:
3-4 lbs whole, boneless, skinless chicken breast
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup ranch
6-8 medium cloves of garlic, pressed
*1 1/2 Tbsp Johnny’s seasoning, added to taste (store-bought or make your own with recipe below)
1/2 cup your favorite BBQ sauce + more to serve
*You can make your own Johnny’s seasoning easily:
1 ½ Tbsp sea salt
1 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
How to Make the best BBQ Chicken breast:
1. Rinse chicken in cold water and pat dry with paper towels.
2. In a casserole dish (no need to get extra dishes dirty), combine 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup ranch and press in 6-8 garlic cloves.
3. Add chicken and turn several times to coat generously in the marinade.
4. Season each individual side of the marinated chicken breasts with Johnny’s seasoning to taste (I used about 1 1/2 Tbsp or half of the seasoning mix recipe above). Cover the casserole dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to marinate. Marinate 10 hours or up to 24 hours.
5. Preheat your grill to 400˚F. Brush the grates with oil. Place chicken on the grill then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook approximately 10 minutes per side (rotating the chicken 90˚ after 5 minutes to create criss-cross grill marks). When you turn your chicken over, generously brush the grilled side of the chicken with BBQ sauce. Repeat; grilling your second side, rotating 90˚ after 5 minutes. Brush the second grilled side generously with BBQ sauce.
Notes:
When done, chicken breast should have an internal temp of 165˚ and should be firm but still soft. Juices will run clear when you cut into it. Our chicken breasts were pretty large and took about 25 minutes total on the grill. Don’t overcook them or they will turn rubbery and keep in mind they will continue cooking even off the grill.
6. Remove from grill, place on a platter and immediately cover tightly with foil. Let chicken rest under foil for 15 minutes before cutting into it.
Serve with more BBQ sauce, these mashed potatoes and this cucumber tomato salad (or this creamy cucumber & tomato salad), and you’ll want this to drink. Over and out. Enjoy! It really was amazing.
Juiciest Barbecued Chicken Breast
Ingredients
Ingredients for Juicy BBQ Chicken Breast:
- 3-4 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1/2 cup ranch
- 6-8 medium cloves of garlic, pressed
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Johnny's seasoning, store-bought or make your own with recipe below, added to taste*
- 1/2 cup your favorite BBQ sauce + more to serve
Homemade Johnny’s Seasoning:
- 1 ½ Tbsp sea salt
- 1 Tbsp paprika
- 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Rinse chicken in cold water and pat dry with paper towels.
- In a casserole dish (no need to get extra dishes dirty), combine 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup ranch and press in 6-8 garlic cloves.
- Add chicken and turn it several times to coat generously in the marinade.
- Season each individual side of the marinated chicken breasts with Johnny's seasoning, adding it to taste - I used about 1 1/2 Tbsp or half of the seasoning mix. Cover the casserole dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to marinate. Marinate 10 hours or up to 24 hours.
- Preheat your grill to 400˚F. Brush the grates with oil. Place chicken on the grill then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook approximately 10 minutes per side (rotating the chicken 90˚ after 5 minutes to create criss-cross grill marks). When you turn your chicken over, generously brush the grilled side of the chicken with BBQ sauce. Repeat grilling your second side, rotating 90˚ after 5 minutes. Brush the second grilled side generously with BBQ sauce.
- Remove from grill, place on a platter and immediately cover with foil. Let chicken rest under foil for 15 minutes before cutting into it. Serve with more BBQ sauce, these mashed potatoes and this salad (or this salad), and you'll want this to drink.
Notes
.
I tried this on our last camping trip and everyone loved it. It was so easy to prepare and I did it ahead of time so all we had to do was throw it on the grill. All of your recipes have been great and I always come to your site first if looking for something new to try.
Thank you for always sharing your amazing recipes and cooking tips.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Sharon!
Hello there .. Thank you none of your recipes disappoint me thank you again .. question what’s your fav BBQ for this dish?
Hi Naomi, we have tried with a variety. When we want a sweeter chicken, we go for Sweet Baby Rays. We also love the Stubbs brand line of bbq sauces.
Also my picky husband (who usually likes chicken thighs) said, ‘I don’t know why we even go to fancy restaurants, at the very least your food is just as good.’ (Coming from a husband who does not throw complements out lightly)
Aaaw that is so sweet of him! I love it, it’s so heart warming, thank you for sharing that with us, Mary!
Okay yes!!! I’ve only grilled about 2 other times in my life and this turned out sooooo delicious!! More importantly my picky food critic husband loved it!! Thank you!! You’re the best! Love your recipes!
I’m so glad to hear that, yay! I hope you will both love every recipe that you will try from my website and video tutorials.
Very good
Thank you for that wonderful review, Anthony!
Best grilled chicken recipe ever. I was a little hesitant about the mayo/ranch dressing combo but it made the chicken is so moist and juicy. Delish! I’ve made it a couple times and now I double the recipe so I have some grilled chicken to add to salads during the week. Just as good cold. So quick and easy too.
Thank you for sharing that wonderful review Kym! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Hello Natasha,
Again, as always with other recipes of yours I loved this one too. It was so flavorful and is one of my new favorites. Thanks again!
Karen
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your juiciest BBQ chicken recipe. I used chicken thighs. I cooked them over my open fire pit (taking full advantage of the extra time outdoors)! I paired the thighs with parsley potatoes & cheesy broccoli/cauliflower. My family of 4 enjoyed every yummy bite Thank you Natasha for sharing your awesome recipes!
I’m so glad you enjoyed that Tina! Thank you for that wonderful review!
Hi Natasha,
Thank you for the receipe. What can I use instead of ranch dressing or do you have homemade receipe for ranch dressing?
Plain green yogurt can be a good substitute too. Ranch is also sold in the grocery aisles or in the refrigerator section. You can use either kind as I don’t have a recipe that can be used for this dish yet.
Hi Natacha thank you for sharing your great receipes Can I use same marination on 4 lb of bone in skin on chicken thighs?
Thank you again
Also for the salt is it 1 1/2 TSP or 1 1/2 TBS??
Thank you
Hi Dina, to make the seasoning, you would need 1 1/2 Tbsp salt as stated in the recipe. You may not need all of it depending on how much chicken you use.
Thank you so much for your quick reply you are awesome
You’re welcome Dina.
I made it today with same amount of marination for 4 to 5 Ib of chicken thighs and on the barbecue It was AMAZING best chicken thighs receipe I ever made and my kids LOVED IT (they are so picky eaters)
I also made the tres leche cake it was soooo yummy.
Thank You so much Please keep posting your great receipes 💖💖
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful review!
Hi Dina, the marinade should work but you may need to alter the cook and cook time. I hope that helps.
Does the chicken taste like ranch? I want to make this but not sure everyone would like it if it tastes like ranch.
Hi Trisha, since it is used as a marinade it is very mild, we think its the perfect balance.
I wanted sooooo bad to believe, so I prepped and marinated overnight … BBQ’d this evening … and it’s a WINNER WINNER!!! I’m learning to BBQ so I picked this recipe. So glad I did. Crazy juicy, not flat and dry, lovely and plump 🙂 Thanx 🙂
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
By “ranch” do you mean ranch dressing?
Thank you
Hi Dorothy, yes that is correct 😉
Good afternoon!
I made this chicken recipe over the weekend and EVERYONE LOVED IT! Including the smaller kids!! This is now one of my favorite chicken dishes! Thank you for all you do!!
That’s so great, Traci! I’m happy to hear you have a new favorite!
Your site is awesome. I save recipes in pdf format for my own useand you are one of the few sites that makes this easy to print to pdf. I am also quite impressed at the videos included. Now, for the Chicken, and being smoker (meats, foods only), I have to wonder what this would do smoked. I suggest on your campouts you might try adding a smoking recipe or two, maybe even caveman style where you could smoke on a grate over a low fire atarting after breakfast and ready at dinner. I am betting this chicken recipe would come out quite awesome. (add a pan of water to steam from the fire, to keep moisture in).
I’m glad you are enjoying my site Elmo! That’s a great idea, really! I will keep your suggestion in mind!
Dear Natalya,
I am a big fan of your blog. Already used several recipes of yours. And it’s always delicious. If i may suggest in this specific recipe: chicken breast is usually dry compare to thighs. So i usually dip chicken breast in lightly salty water over night. And then marinade. This way even extremely boring and dry chicken breast becomes extremely juicy. Just a suggestion. Thank you
Hello Jack! What a great tip! Thanks so much for sharing with other readers! 🙂
I recently made this chicken recipe and it was delicious! It is definitely a keeper. I took leftovers to work and had to give co-workers the recipe. This is the first recipe I have tried from your blog and am very happy. I look forward to trying many more recipes from here.
That’s so great Marianne! I’m happy everyone loves the recipe! Thanks for following and sharing your fantastic review!
Amazing recipe! The chicken stayed juicy and had great flavor!!
That’s great Tori! I’m really happy to hear you enjoy it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi there! Going to try this tomorrow however do you use all the seasoning on the recipe? Half? Just seems like a lot. Thank you!
Hi Deana, I do use all of the seasoning if I’m making the full batch of chicken (3-4 lbs). Keep in mind if using 3 lbs of chicken, it would only be 1/2 tsp of salt per pound of chicken with the proportions in the seasoning mix that I listed. You can absolutely add less to taste and it will still work well 🙂
Hi Natasha,
I’m a bit confused on how much salt. I’m scaling this recipe to feed 20 people so I’m trying to do the conversion. In this comment you state 1/2 tsp per lb but per recipe, for 3-4lbs it states to use 1.5 TBSP. That doesn’t seem to add up. If it’s 1/2 tsp per lb then shouldn’t it be 1.5 TSP for 3-4lbs?
Hi Anna, you are correct – I did not make that very clear in the recipe. I included a recipe for homemade Johnnys seasoning but I use about half of the seasoning for this recipe. I’ll make sure to clarify that in the notes.
Hi Natasha-
I was wondering if this can be cooked in the oven if I don’t have a grill available?
Hi Diana, I haven’t tried this particular recipe in the oven so I can’t give you exact baking times. I would probably be more inclined to cook it on a skillet to make sure I didn’t overcook it because chicken breast can overcook and dry out quickly.
If trying the oven method, I would probably start my test with the baking instructions I included on my bbq chicken thighs, but I would definitely recommend an instant read thermometer to check when you’ve reached a doneness temperature of 165˚F (what the USDA recommends).
Great! I will give that a try. I have a thermometer and will keep track of the temperature to make sure I don’t go over 165.
Thanks so much!
you can bake them in the oven in a covered casserole dish for about an hour and half…my baked chicken breast are never dry doing it this way…just make sure you keep them covered and don’t test for at least 1 1/2 hours…this is for 4-6 chicken breasts…
Wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!! Do you have a special recipe that you use for this method? Also, what temperature are you baking at?
Hi, how would we bake this in the oven? I saw some advice earlier, but it seems unresolved as to temperatures and baking times. Thanks!
Iga, I haven’t tried this particular recipe in the oven so I can’t give you exact baking times. I would probably be more inclined to cook it on a skillet to make sure I didn’t overcook it because chicken breast can overcook and dry out quickly.