Marinated Grilled Chicken with Cucumber-Watermelon Salsa is a fresh and healthy, restaurant quality grilling recipe!
My husband’s and my weekly dinner menus are ridiculously predictable, featuring Chipotle burrito bowls a minimum of one night a week (what DO they put in that guac to make it taste so good?!) and what we fondly refer to as “boring chicken” another one, or let’s be real, two nights a week.
Why is it called “boring chicken”? Because dinner consists of simply seasoned chicken breasts sauteed in olive oil then served with some sort of roasted vegetable and wild rice cooked in chicken broth.
SNORE!
That being said, spring and summer are great times to toss boring chicken to the wayside by marinating then throwing it on the grill. Luckily I’ve got the perfect grilled chicken marinade you’ll want to use all season long.
The marinade is made completely from fridge and pantry staples including gluten free soy sauce, oil, honey, red chili pepper flakes, garlic, salt, and pepper. These everyday ingredients combine to make a super juicy grilled chicken that has all the right flavors.
A little salty, a little heat, and just a teeeeny bit of sweet. It’s just fantastic.
Seeing as it’s watermelon season, we top our marinated grilled chicken with a cooling, ultra-refreshing Cucumber-Watermelon Salsa.
Sizzling chicken, cold, fresh salsa — you are going to flip for this gorgeous summer chicken dish!
Start by making the marinade which is made up of fridge and pantry staples. This marinade works well with steak, pork, and salmon too!
To large bowl add gluten-free tamari (or soy sauce if not GF), vegetable oil, honey, crushed garlic cloves, red chili pepper flakes, and ground ginger then whisk to combine.
Pour the marinade into a Ziplock bag placed inside another large bowl before adding 1lb meat – in this case chicken breasts – then marinate for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.
I don’t like keeping chicken in marinades that contain soy sauce for longer than 2 hours because the salt starts to make the chicken rubbery. If you’re using this marinade for steak though, you can let it sit for 2-6 hours before grilling.
- Tip: before adding the chicken breasts to the marinade, make sure you’ve pounded them to the same thickness to ensure they’ll cook evenly on the grill. There’s nothing worse than having one end of a chicken breast grilled to perfection while the other end resembles charcoal!
Place the chicken on a cutting board then cover with Glad Press’n’ Seal or saran wrap then whack it with a rolling pin or meat mallet until the chicken is the same thickness.
I like to go a step further and score my chicken breasts with a sharp knife on one side to make sure the marinade really permeates the meat.
While the chicken is marinating, whip up an easy and oh-so refreshing Cucumber-Watermelon Salsa. This stuff is the epitome of summer!
Simply combine chopped watermelon and cucumber with fresh cilantro, jalapeno, green onion, salt, pepper, and lime juice in a bowl then stir.
When it’s time to eat, pop the chicken on pre-heated grates over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes a side, or until no longer pink in the center. Be sure to let the chicken rest for 5 minutes off the grill before serving. Just like steak, you’ll lose a ton of yummy juices if you carve into it right away.
After the resting period is up, plate the chicken then top with a big scoop of Cucumber-Watermelon salsa and dig in.
Look no further for a chicken and steak marinade to use all summer long. This mix is so easy to toss together and gives the chicken incredible flavor. That crunch and freshness from the Cucumber-Watermelon Salsa is also a must-try!
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, ~1lb
For the marinade (makes enough for 1lb of meat):
- 1/4 cup gluten free reduced-sodium Tamari, or soy sauce if not GF
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled then crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more or less
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
For the Watermelon-Cucumber Salsa:
- 1-1/2 cups chopped watermelon
- 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
- 1/2 jalapeno, minced
- 2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 1 lime, juiced
- drizzle of honey
Directions
- Whisk marinade ingredients together in a bowl then transfer to a plastic Ziplock bag set inside another large bowl.
- Pound chicken to an even thickness then score diagonally across the top and place inside bag with marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.
- Grill chicken breasts over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes a side, or until no longer pink in the center. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
For the Watermelon-Cucumber Salsa:
- Combine ingredients in a bowl then spoon over grilled chicken.
Notes
- This marinade is also great for steak, pork, or salmon.Â
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
Holy yum! Gotta try the salsa!
Your recipe came at the perfect time. I am making chicken tonight and making chicken is getting pretty BORING!!
My sister just told me to marinate salmon in soy sauce, homey and red pepper flakes for about 5 minutes. She claims that it is delicious! It must be because your recipe uses three of the ingredients.
Thanks!
PS
I don’t buy Hershey Kisses because I can eat the whole bag!
And I wanted to tell you how adorable Lincoln is. I bet your heart just melts when he smiles.
I use a very similar marinade on pork loin. Then you just throw it on the grill and people can’t get enough! They always want my recipe, but I’m a little embarrassed because it is just too easy!
Chelsea,
Would you mind sharing your recipe with us? I hate making pork because it is always so dry.
Hey Susan! I’m looking forward to hearing Chelsea’s recipe too, but wanted to pass on a tip I recently learned. Pork only needs to be cooked to an internal temp of 145 vs the 165-170 degrees it was previously recommended to be cooked too (which results in shoe leather!!) Anyway, I learned it when I recently visited a nearby pork chop grill!
Thanks Kristin!
Yum – the combo of watermelon and cucumber sounds perfect!
Yum! Everything about this recipe sings of summer. Looks amazing!
I love fresh salads like this one! I can’t wait to put this on our summer eating listing!
I am totally going to tag this in for dinner tonight. My husband was less than impressed with what I was going to make, so I think this will be a good substitue. =)
OH YUM! This sounds DELICIOUS! just yesterday I said, “Wow! It’s summer! Which means it’s WATERMELON SEASON!!” Can’t wait to make this!
There is a fruit in season? Let’s put it on top of grilled chicken! Very typical move by IGE. But this one looks better than your typical fruit chicken combo.
Heck yeah! It’s my favorite!
I adore grilling season! This looks like a perfect go-to recipe.
I just found a recipe for strawberry salsa yesterday and I was like WHAT?! Why have I never thought of fruit salsa’s besides mango. So finding Watermelon salsa today is once again exciting! Looks so yummy!
This looks really good! I don’t have tamari though – could I substitute an equal amount of low sodium soy sauce ?
Oops, I should have read further. I see it as an alternative. I can’t wait to try this!
This looks really good! Such a fun recipe! And it’s nice to change a regular for something else every now and then :).