Grill/Barbecue

Citrus-Marinated, Grilled Chicken Thighs

March 31, 2014
0
0 Ratings
  • Serves 2-4
Author Notes

Our first warm day this year came and my boyfriend was eager to fire up the grill. I wanted a refreshing, bright marinade that was easy and delicious - this turned out to be both. It can easily be doubled or tripled or quadrupled to serve more people and would be great this summer for an outdoor BBQ! Serve it as a main dish or as a side! —Ashley Marie

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1 to 1 1/2 pounds chicken thighs, boneless, skinless
  • 1/2 cup minced shallots
  • 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or other high-heat oil)
  • 2 1/2 lemons
  • 8 mandarin oranges
  • 1/2 lime
  • 2 tablespoons dried parsley
  • 1 tablespoon turmeric
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons cumin
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon pepper seasoning
Directions
  1. Prepare your chicken thighs by trimming any lumps of fat and cutting into large chunks (they will be threaded on skewers to grill).
  2. Place the chicken, minced shallots and grapeseed oil (or other high heat oil) in a large bowl.
  3. Zest two of the lemons and four of the mandarin oranges into the marinade bowl.
  4. Cut all the lemons, mandarin oranges and lime in half and squeeze out all of their juice into the bowl. Don't worry about any seeds.
  5. Mix everything together and get out your spices.
  6. Add your parsley, turmeric, cumin, paprika and lemon pepper seasoning to the bowl.
  7. Mix well and cover. Put in the refrigerator until you're ready to grill - four hours was perfect for us.
  8. When you're ready, working carefully - you're probably going to drip marinade as you do it - remove the chicken pieces from the marinade one by one and thread onto your skewers. Other than any seeds, don't shake any seasoning off.
  9. Using a strainer, pour the marinade into a glass cup you can easily pour with later (we used our 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup), straining out the zest and seeds. Discard the zest and seeds.
  10. When your grill is nice and hot, lay the chicken skewers on it and start grilling!
  11. Every minute or so, pour the strained marinade juice over the skewers.
  12. Since you've cut the chicken up into chunks, it shouldn't take long for them to be done - Ours took about 10 minutes.
  13. Remove from the grill, transfer to a platter and enjoy!

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Diane Marie
    Diane Marie
  • Ashley Marie
    Ashley Marie

2 Reviews

Diane M. March 31, 2014
Think other, regular oranges can be used instead of mandarin oranges??
 
Ashley M. March 31, 2014
I'm sure they can! Mandarins are smaller so maybe reduce the number of oranges used!